I like how South Floridians talk.
Sometimes, I seat back and watch them discuss in groups because of the way they sound.
What accent do South Floridians have?
The South Floridians speak Miami accent that comes slightly different from the normal American English language.
There are 16 states in the southern region of America, Virginia, Florida, Alabama, and Texas inclusive.
You will always come across someone with southern American English accent in this region.
You will identify them by the phrase ‘y’all’.
Southern Americans are used to this accent, and Immigration, urbanization, slavery, and other factors contributed to its birth.
In terms of most accents in the states, accents vary from one location to the other.
For instance, the accent of
people living in Alabama
is different from the accent of people living in Georgia, although you may see them as speaking southern American English.
The accent common among South Floridians is the
Miami
accent.
The origin of the
Miami accent
is central Miami.
It is an evolution of the American English accent or South Florida spoken sociolect, mainly in Miami-Dade County.
The American-born Hispanic youths and residents in the Greater Miami area speak the Miami accent most.
The boundary of Southern accents ends between Richmond, VA, and Washington, DC, in the east.
It is spoken in a few places in southern Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula.
As the DC metro area continues to expand, the Mid-Atlantic accent is also expanding to the south.
The extension of southern accents is from the Chesapeake bay westward around DC, from where it shifted northwest to Harper’s Ferry, WV, along the DC suburbs/exurbs line, and further to Appalachian Piedmont.
There is a shift to the Appalachian accent from Appalachian Piedmont.
From Georgia, the Appalachian accent extended northward into western PA.
It is only those who are familiar with the Appalachian and Southern accents can differentiate between the two.
Towards the west of Appalachians, the accent went through the Ohio River to the Mississippi River; some parts of Arkansas and Louisiana which are west of the Mississippi River are included.
It is worthy of note that the Southern accent spoken in the East of the Appalachians is not the same as the Southern accent spoken in the west of the Appalachians.
The two accents are divided by the Appalachian accent in a way.
However, both accents are called Southern accents.
Is There Only One Southern American English?
Most Americans cannot be able to differentiate between people according to the areas they come from in the south.
Even Southerners themselves sometimes find it difficult to indicate who came from Atlanta, Memphis, or Montgomery.
Just the way it is with every accent, there are many varieties.
The language of the cities and the language of the rural areas in the South are very different.
Innovation of languages takes place in the cities, but sometimes it leads to a total loss of an accent.
As a result of the stigmatization of Southern American English by cosmopolitan people, that live in cities and travel to different sides of the country, the accent is in danger of being lost.
Although some people are not a victim of this, it resulted in cities sounding more northern than rural.
A report from a study shows that Raleigh,
North Carolina
was moving towards losing the Southern accent which is almost an American way of talking.
The South is indeed large.
Even if you cannot identify the differences, the region someone comes from makes him sound different.
A good example is the two most recent presidents from the south.
America is an expansive country with diverse cultures, ethnicities, and traditions.
According to reports, America is home to about 350 languages at present.
This does not include other distinctive accents.
If you want to understand a people and their history better, learn to speak their accent.
If you are an international student, you will see yourself in entirely new surroundings, ideas and people.
New York City accent
New York City is the most popular city in America, and it has its accent.
You must have heard someone speaking this accent, maybe is a popular television show like “Friends”.
Words like ‘talk’ and ‘caught’ are pronounced ‘tawk’ and ‘cawt’ in the New York accent.
New York accent omits the letter ‘r’ at the end of words.
For example, “girl” is pronounced “goil”.
You may also have heard your friends and family pronouncing ‘coffee’ as ‘cwoffee’, as a New York accent.
According to an article written by The New York Times, the New Yorkers’ accent is an extraction from different scents, Italian, Jewish, Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Irish, and many others.
Two things this accent reflects are the diversity in the languages that contributed to it and the diversity of
New York City
itself.
Eastern New England accent
Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire are all eastern New England states.
When one speaks with their accent, the letter ‘r’ is pronounced as ‘ah’, and ‘car’ and ‘park’ are pronounced as ‘cah’ and ‘pahk’.
In Boston to be precise, a phrase like ‘wicked pissah’ means “awesome” or “outstanding”.
You may hear someone say “bang a ‘uey” in a lot of places in New England.
This is used to describe a driver that missed his turning and have to do a U-turn.
Although the residents of these places
speak English
, it will take some time for someone to understand the language and accent.
FAQs
Do people in Miami have a Southern accent?
Although South Florida is in the extreme south, the accent spoken in Miami is not in any way close to the Southern accent.
The accent of Miami sounds Spanish or Cuban to most people, but it is not.
Do native Floridians have accents?
Yes, The culture in Northern
Florida and the Panhandle
is completely Southern.
The accent of the natives will prove this to you.
It is spoken in the rural inland peninsula as well.
Many Cuban
and Caribbean influences affected urban south Florida
.
Migrants have their effects on the accents too.
What accent do people from Miami have?
The Miami accent originated from the native dialect of English.
It is not another kind of English or an interlanguage.
It is a combination of rhythm and pronunciation which are highly influenced by the Spanish language.
The rhythm of the Spanish language is syllable-timed.
The Miami accent is rhotic but the accents of
New York
Latino English are not.