The Disappearing Southern Accent

Chelsea Kellner of the Raleigh News & Observer examines whether the Southern accent is in danger. N.C. State linguistics professor Robin Dodsworth has been documenting the change. She says her research shows that "over time in Raleigh, the Southern variant is disappearing." Dodsworth records native resident of Raleigh of different ages and runs the sound through software that breaks down how they pronounce each word. Dodsworth then runs a statistical analysis that shows how speech patterns have changed over time. Her research shows that the "Southern vowel shift" is less noticeable with each generation, Kellner reports. You can read the story here. In a somewhat related story, WFAE reported last summer on the number of accent reduction classes in the region. Click here to read and listen to that story.