The Voice of the South

By Savanna Martin

All my life I have wondered what it would be like if I did not have my Southern accent. Growing up in a center point of the South, Mississippi, I have always been seen as a complete southern girl. I have the southern twang, I have the country raising, I know how to plow a field, heard cattle, feed horses and almost anything else you could imagine. However, that's just it, "Anything else you could imagine".  Some people that were not raised in the South think they already know what it is like. We do not all have missing teeth, we don't all grow up farming, or wake up to the sound of roosters in the morning.

The older I get and the more independent I become, I see the way I am viewed when I step out of a southern state. They hear my voice and come up to me saying something like, "You must be from the South by the sound of your voice." Although, no that is not offensive I see the way they look me up and down to see if I fit their stereotypical imagine of what they have in their minds.

 

When pursuing why Southern accents get stereotyped I came cross the book, Why Does a Southern Drawl Sound Uneducated to Some? I come to find that we as humans, maybe not all, stereotype people in categories by hearing the way they speak. For example, southerners have the reputation to speak incorrectly, some say it's because we have no education, and some say it's because of the way our accents sounds because they are different from the others listening. However, this is not just something that we grow to learn, as babies in our mothers bellies, we establish the sound of local language that we hear while in the womb while our nervous system is being created and developed. Yet, the stereotypical way we establish accents is created by us as we age. 

At a young age movies, and tv shows stuck out to me because I could relate to them in some form. For example, the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest came for Mississippi and had the very strong accent. However, the way they portrayed his character was that he was slow and uneducated because of the way he thought, spoke, and where he can from. The television show, Friday Night Lights, was based in the South and had all the southern aspects that one would connect with the South. They were seen as small town and showed that most characters were drunks, football was the high point of their life dreams, and they were never going to be able to leave the South because that is just who they were. 

The way southerners sound should not portray who they are as a whole. They way a person lives their life and who they are as a person should portray who they are as a person completely. 

When comparing people having a southern accents and at a young age to adult age, the way criticism from the sound of your voice is taken a lot differently. As an adult we are more out to handle it better and stand up for things that are wrong. However, when a child is confronted or treated different from the sound of their voice, it is a lot harder to overcome the criticism. For example, on the Sounding Out Blog, Listen to the Sound of My Voice, It talks about a young girl in grade school being treated differently because she has a shy, yet country accent. She then started to higher Her voice from then on to show she had more to her. However, no one liked that sound either. Some people were even "disgusted" that she could not control her vocal patterns. When in Florida at a school after moving, her southern accent was viewed as dumb and some people would even ask her to say something and then laugh at her for being different. She eventually tried to drop her southern language and sounds, for example, "Y'all"and "reckon". Teachers would read what she wrote for assignments but not listen to what she had to say because of the sound of her voice. 

When a person with a southern accents speaks, nothing else usually matters but the sound of their voice and the way they speak. With that being said, some people do not even try to find out who they are on the inside because their outward appearance of how they sound is enough for them, and they think they already have them figured out. The person on the other end of the conversation are so focused or fascinated by their outward appearance and by the sound of their voice they do not try to look further. 

This story above really spoke to me and I could relate on a very high level. When traveling to Florida over Spring Break in 2020, I walked into a restaurant and sat down to drink and eat. While being there, people would stop because hearing my southern accents was something new to hear for them. They would ask me to say something or ask me where I am from which is completely fine with me. However, some would look me up and down, stare, and a group of boys even told me I sounded like a "Dumb southern Brunette." Which was hurtful, but not the first time experiencing something like that has happened. 

Another thing I have realized with having a southern accent is how people compare the Southern Accent to the Northern accent. Northern accents are portrayed as "Smart" and " In charge". Southern accents are just portrayed as "Nice". This data is not shown for with adults only but some children even make this association as well. Children from Illinois were surveyed for this and it make the assumption from above, however, the resulted concluded the same from children living in Tennessee. According to University of Chicago psychologists Katherine Kinzler and Jasmine DeJesus, their resulted stated that, "Nine- to 10-year-old children living in both Illinois and Tennessee reported that Northern-accented individuals sounded “smarter” and “in charge”, whereas Southern-accented individuals sounded “nicer"".

Data also shows that when a southern comes for an interview, and a northern comes for the same job title, jobs are more likely to hire the northerner because they deem to be smarter, and more educated. Oddly, I understand that point because I have been downsized to be less educated because I am from the South. However, I do not agree with how that is played out. Same thing go for races, some are more likely to hire a white educated man over a African American educated man, or for any other race than white in general. Racial discrimination and profiling happens for all races, discrimination on the way a person sounds goes hand in hand with this completely.

With all being said, the way a Southerner sounds can make it and "make or break it" situation in their lives. Even though Southerners cannot help where they came from and where they roots were dug, it can affects their lives in many ways. The southern accents is a beautiful sounds just different to some and that is okay. Southerns are very strong willed people, and I can speak for them because I am one. I am a southerner, I have the southern sound and drawl, and I am proud of it. I fight for the way I sound because my sound is a part of who I am as a person.