The economic accent

After my last post about the difference in accents I got into a very interesting discussion with a friend from Pennsylvania about regional accents. She was asking me about different parts of North and South Carolina and whether I could tell a difference.

As a general rule the answer was yes. What can I say? I'm the Rain Man of southern dialects.

However, the whole discussion got me thinking about how different dialects can be even within a single town. And that's when it hit me.

Accents and affluence are incredibly interconnected.

I really began to notice this when I moved to Savannah. The only people I have heard speak with a genuine low country accent have been very affluent and highly educated or cultured.

In The Notebook, Lon was from old southern money and his accent reflected it.

Back home, the people who tend to speak with a redneck accent also tend to not have very much money, traditional education (grammar, math, geography, etc.) or culture.

I'm going to bet that this gentleman speaks a different dialect than ol' Lon Hammond.

This is, of course, a generalization, but it has been my experience that accents follow money. The more affluent the person, the more pristine and proper the accent.

Just a little food for thought.

But then again, bless my heart, I'm highly traditionally educated and my accent does not exactly reflect that circumstance.