The Southern Accent-Updated again some more, with still more thrown in!

My wife and I were watching the show “Criminal Minds” last week, which was set in New Orleans. Of course the first thing we noticed was the accent, which was way off. Strangely, it shouldn’t be too hard to sound like you are from New Orleans, which has a number of different accents to choose from, so pick the one you are most comfortable with and go with it.

That includes hardly sounding as if you are from New Orleans (or how people perceive people in New Orleans sound) at all. I am quite used to the fact that when my friends and I go anywhere nobody can place where we are from. It was a subject of much mirth when we all got together in our early college days scattered across the continent and laughed at how everybody wondered from whence we came. When we would tell them we were from Baton Rouge, the answer was invariably, “you don’t sound like you are from Louisiana.” Well I guess I don’t, but then neither do most people who live here. Usually I get some guess from the Midwest, but once I tell them they begin to notice things. The slight drawl peeking out from behind transitions in speech such as “well,” the use of “y’all,” and a other such tell tale signs. It becomes more obvious depending on what we are speaking about. If I am talking about economics It is probably hardly noticeable at all. Food and drink? Well, the voice subconsciously changes a bit, but more importantly the vocabulary down here is a bit different, and many of the terms carry an unmistakable accent of their own. I may not speak like a Cajun, but andouille sounds Cajun no matter who you are.

So what was wrong with the accents in Criminal Minds? Well, first of all, they all sounded Cajun. There are Cajuns in New Orleans, as well as New Yorkers, Bostonians and refugees from Hollywood; thus sounding like any of those is okay, but if the whole cast sounded as if they were from Manhattan it would be less off putting than the whole cast sounding as if they grew up in Saint Martinville. In fact, one of the prominent accents of New Orleans sounds a lot like you grew up in the Bronx. So a New York accent would have worked better. I guess it is an improvement over many films which have everybody in Louisiana speaking with a stereotypical southern drawl, like one might hear in Alabama or even more annoying, the Mid Atlantic Foghorn Leghorn stereotype. Still it wasn’t a good Cajun accent anyway. For all I know the actor who played the local cop was Cajun, and trying not to lose his accent for a change made it feel unnatural. I have no clue, but it detracted, though not fatally.

Why does it matter? I don’t know that it does. Maybe one of the reasons it does is that a southern accent is adopted when people want to talk down about someone, as if good english with a southern accent still marks you as “dumb.” I have to admit, the fact that I don’t sound to many people as “southern” helps in many situations. Mind boggling prejudice against southerners still exist:

In her part of the country, both women and black people are seen as subhuman objects to be used and abused by white men.

Admittedly, most people who hold that prejudice are as extreme as Amanda Marcotte, but it isn’t something I want associated with me in any way, but it is still there. So yeah, it helps not to have the stereotypical accent at times.

Of course I am something of an accent chameleon. I can’t go to Britain, or New York without quickly beginning to adopt aspects of the accent, which means it is invariably a bad one, which means I am pretty easy on such habits in others. So in following Glenn Reynolds’ link to Hillary’s speech and the horrid southern accent, my first reaction was sympathy. I do that as well. Except, not really. I don’t adopt it to that extreme, unless I am telling a Boudreaux and Thibodeaux joke:

One day Boudreaux and Thibodeaux were watching TV. A good commercial about a movie came on and it said, “Coming To A Theater Near You.” Boudreaux looked at Thibodeaux and said, “Thib, how they know where we live?”

One could argue such things reinforce stereotypes, but maybe recognizing and being mockingly aware of that stereotype undermines them more. Feel free to argue.

Either way it is mocking, and listening to Hillary (someone who lived in the South for many many years) adopt a fake, and a badly faked, accent is off putting. As a Southerner it makes me wince, but I still wonder, caught up in the moment, would it just come out with me? I don’t know, though I hope it would be a better accent if it did. Hillary needs the South. Emphasizing the Southern aspects of her personality could be a plus, including allowing the southern cadences of her speech to emerge more naturally. Sounding as if she is adopting an accent more reminiscent of a cheap TV movie of the week set in Mississippi will upset more than it helps. She isn’t supposed to be a version of the Yankee telling a Boudreaux and Thibodeaux joke.

Update: Since some of my commenters seem convinced there is a big political point being made here, which was not my intention, though I understand it has some potential implications, or that I am slamming Hillary (which I will surely do at some point, but not here, quite the opposite) I suggest for a direct and interesting political analysis going to Classical Values and reading Eric Scheie’s post.

More: Joe Tobacco, Like me, has a certain amount of sympathy for Hillary, and I assume Obama, on this as well.

Some More: From GM Roper we get an update on a classic Boudreaux and Thibodeaux joke.

Still More: Eric gives us more stories from the prejudice against southerners front, with a search for the not so elusive Instacracker slur thrown in.

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Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, accent, south, Arkansas, Louisiana, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux, prejudice, Amanda marcotte

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