Thursday, October 07, 2021

The Battle of Hayes Pond and Dem Southern Accents

 This Tweet and video is making the rounds on Twitter today:

Graham is well spoken, and the video is powerful. And I am embarrassed to say that not only did I not know about the Battle of Hayes Pond, I don't even know there was a Lumbee tribe in North Carolina. So I searched a bit, and found this video of a woman describing her participation in that battle: 

 


While her story is interesting, what I find absolutely fascinating is her accent. Listen to the way she says "the" and "they" - it's 'de' and 'day'. I've never heard any southerner do that. I thought that was a big northern city thing, or maybe eastern Canadian. Her "paper" is 'papuh', and "pistol" is "pistuh'. Again, I've never heard that in the south. 

I've never studied linguistics, so I'm only going on my experience and ear. My ear says that Charles Graham speaks what I call 'Standard Southern'. He sounds like my grandfather, who grew up in central Florida. (Maybe that's part of why I found the video powerful). My grandmother spoke what I call 'Alabama Southern', with a much heavier drawl. 

What is Verdia Locklear's accent? My ear has no idea.    

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