Old Virginia accent

The Old Virginia accent is one that is primarily heard in the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Traces of this dialect and its characteristic drawl can also be heard in adjacent states, including words that are pronounced differently, such as "out" and "house."

Characteristics

Southern and south midland accent characteristics include:^[1]

• "drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]
• /ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind
• /oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil
• /u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday
• au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt
• /e/ > /ei/ in bed, head
• /e/ > /i/ in pen, ten
• greasy > greazy
• carry > tote
• dragged > drug
• you > you all, y’all

History

The earliest English settlers of the colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts were mainly people from Southern England. However, Virginia received more colonists from the English West Country, bringing with them a distinctive dialect and vocabulary.

The Boston, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina areas maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to England. Thus, the colonists and their descendants defined "social class" according to England's connotations. As the upper class English dialect changed, the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas changed. One example, is the "r-dropping" of the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting in the similar "r-dropping" found in Boston and parts of Virginia today.^[1]

Famous Old Virginia accents

Some famous people who speak with this accent are U.S. Congressman Virgil Goode and Mayor of Richmond and past-Governor of Virginia L. Douglas Wilder.

See also

• Tidewater accent
• Southern American English
• Charleston, South Carolina accent

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Dialects of English: American English," by Dr. C. George Boeree, accessed August 23, 2010

External links

• Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by a Richmond, Virginia native, featured in the George Mason University Linguistics program Speech Accent Archive.
• "Virginia’s Many Voices," Fairfax County, Virginia Library
• International Dialects of English Archive, "Dialects Of Virginia"
• "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics at University of Pennsylvania