#southern accents just do it for me

[foreverdolly]

i still have half of that cowboy!austin fic written from like… over a year ago. maybe… maybe i should post it? as you said- save a horse, ride a cowboy @mydarlingelvis 😈

[sweetestflow3rs]

DOL LI ( including Wren & Harper ) Voice Actor HCs ♡

[odysseys-blood]

im never getting over how belphie just...yoinked beleth's halo. like the artifact says "given" but he very much did not give it 😭

i lowkey think it was to take some of the heat off of beleth for being a fallen angel and to keep others from being too loud about it but still he did it in the most goofy manner possible. (and smthn smthn a crown symbolizing protection for his people and its from the first person he wanted to keep safe personally)

[mintyeve322]

Non-Southern American writers writing American Southern accents in fanfics are always so funny because I swear they aren't reading what they're typing out loud. There is no way thats how you think a Southern accent sounds. (I don't have one, at least not a thick one, but I grew up knowing a lot of people who did so I know what it's suppose to sound like.)

The biggest thing I see is taking every consonant at the end of every word off, especially "-ing" words like "talkin'", "walkin'", "fixin'", etc. This works a lot! However, you only drop the consonant at certain times, you don't always drop it because it makes speaking the sentence feel clunky in your mouth. "-ing" words are the most common words for the drop to happen to, so most of the time its fine, but not always.

Another issue I see is with words for "you". A lot of people assume southern people never say the word you correctly, which isn't necessarily wrong (depending on the accent) but they also assume we only have one substitute word for saying it. Most frequently, I've seen people incorrectly using "y'all" (peep where that apostrophe is btws you heathens) for every use of the word you, which is just not correct. Y'all is a contraction of the words "you" and "all". Additional words can be added to y'all, like "y'all're" or, more grammatically correct but not necessary tonally correct, "y'all 're" which is to say, "you all are" but typically that phrase is combined into one long word, "y'all're" when spoken.

I also see "ya" used instead of you, which isn't wrong but is often overused. "Ya" is just one of several ways "you" can be pronounced in a sentence and often more than one pronunciation of "you" is used at a time. For example:

"You ain't never seen anything like it! When ya turn this handle, the machine works its magic and before ya know it, yer whole list 'a chores is done!"

"You ain't" could also be written as "Y'ain't". To translate the previous sentence into a sentence without an accent:

"You have never seen anything like it! When you turn this handle, the machine works its magic and before you know it, your whole list of chores is done!"

Double negatives are also very common in southern dialogue.

"I ain't never seen anything like it." is a phrase I have heard and used in real life. "anything" can also be replaced with "nothin'" for an additional level of negative and still be realistic.

I've seen several fics where the previous sentence, however, would be written like this:

"Ya've never seen anythin' like it! When ya turn this handle, the machine works its magic and before ya know it, ya whole list of chores is done!"

While thats not necessarily wrong, there are accents where it would sound similar to that, "anything" isn't frequently shortened. If anything, haha, the "i" in "anything" may be turned into an "a", but you wouldn't end that word with an "n".

The usage of "ya" here is also a bit much unless the person is from the DEEP South, notably Louisiana, Alabama, or FAR Southern Georgia. Not Florida though, the Florida Southern accent, as far as I've experienced, is rare and sounds more like a Kentucky accent in my opinion.

People from more middle-range Southern states like Tennessee or Kentucky are going to speak with a sharper southern accent, while using that many "ya"s would be more common with characters that have deeper (not meaning stronger or thicker but literally in tone sounding more deep or rounded) accents from the deep South.

This is all opinion based on observation, but it's been rough reading fanfictions with southern characters in them being written with just... horrific accents. I understand not being able to write the accent at all and therefore just not including it, but it's been downright comedic some of the attempts at an accent people have been making in these fics. I refuse to name names bc this isn't meant to hate on anyone or shame someone for not understanding an accent, but it's something I've been thinking about a lot.

I also appreciate my fellow Southerners needing to tone it down when writing a character with an accent, because if I wrote everything my southern characters said with phonetic spelling, holding nothing back, I fear it would not be legible. Having to pick and choose how much you want to change in someone's dialogue to make it clear they have an accent while still making the dialogue legible is a skill I sometimes doubt I even possess.

[dont-open-dead-inside-net]

*voice of boy who just experienced romantic/sexual attraction for the first time* did you guys see that. that was insane. wdym you live like this

[estrellami-1]

(Push Away the) Lonely Times

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

“Just this, please,” Steven says politely the next time he rolls through Melvald’s.

Jim stops, looks for a second, then sighs. “Y’know how Jim wann’ed me t’look after ya?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’s a-thinkin’ there’s a conversation we best be havin’. Nuthin’ bad, not t’you, but we gotta get all the duckies in a row, huh?”

“Okay,” Steven agrees, slightly nervously. “Um. Now?”

Jim shrugs a shoulder. “Now. Or you’s could come over after work. Or I could come by yers.”

Steven considers it. “Now?”

“If you wanna,” Jim agrees. “‘Ere’s the whole of it. Yer folks ain’t lookin’ out for ya the way they’s supposed ta. Could mean lotsa trouble for ‘em. Could mean you get taken ‘way, put inna fos’er er summin’.”

“Oh,” Steven says quietly. He looks vaguely nauseous.

“Or you could stay wi’ me,” Jim continues. “No trouble. O’course, there might be when yer folks come back inna town, but Hop’s got ‘em.”

“Oh,” Steven says. “And… I can’t just keep living in my house?”

Jim shrugs. “Not the way we figure.”

“Oh.” He sighs. “I don’t want to be an inconvenience.”

“You ain’t,” Jim says, a tad harshly for the situation, but the kid needs to know. “I’unnow who tol’ you yer an inconvenience, kid, but it ain’t true. You needa place t’stay. I gotta empty house, jus’ me rattlin’ ‘round in there.”

“Just you?” Steven parrots, in awe, like he can’t believe someone else would befall the same fate he did. Jim wants to hug Steven, punch a wall about it. He does neither, takes a slow, deep breath. Lets it out.

“Yeah, kiddo. Y’wanna keep me comp’ny?”

Steven thinks about it. Fidgets with his fingers, looks down, back up. “Y-yeah. Um. When?”

“Soon ‘s yer ready. I c’n pick up you ‘n yer stuff after m’ shift.”

“Okay,” Steven agrees, then looks at the groceries between them. “Should I buy this?”

Jim leans down to smile at Steve. “Long as yer in m’ house, y’don’t gotta buy nuthin’ y’don’t wanna. I’ll get groceries. You be a kid.”

Steven blinks. “But I’m not, sir. I’m ten. Practically an adult.”

The way he says that is metered, stilted, and Jim grits his teeth. “Yer father tell y’that, boy?”

“Yes, sir, he did.”

“Yer father’s wrong. Yer a kid ‘till y’ c’n get a job. By my math, y’got six years still.”

“Oh,” Steven says, eyes wide. “Okay. Um. I’m gonna go pack.” He hesitates. “Should I put these back?” He motions to the groceries.

Jim laughs. “‘S m’ job, kiddo, not yers. Y’ go pack.”

“Okay,” Steven agrees, running out of the store after another small smile directed at Jim.

Jim sighs, rubs a hand over his face, and starts to put away the groceries Steven had brought up. He pauses mid-reach and considers the brownie mix in his hand before changing course, stashing it behind his register and resolving to get a tub of ice cream after his shift. He’s a kid, after all, and kids deserve brownies and ice cream.

So do adults, Jim reminds himself, smiling a little. Not without humor, thinks, especially adults who take in ten-year-olds who are too young to be living on their own.

Jim Bronsaw doesn’t pretend to be a saint, but he knows he’s a decent person. Maybe even more than decent, sometimes.

Permanent Taglist: @justforthedead89 @ilovecupcakesandtea @madigoround @bookbinderbitch @suddenlyinlove @nburkhardt @artiststarme

[poems-of-a-lover]

boys??? with accents????? who are just out there not kissing me??????

[weedle-testaburger]

the other day i finished peter davison's autobiography and i felt like watching an episode of this show he mentioned thinking had a really good script, and idk which thing is funnier to me about it: one of the neighbours being called the hartnells or the daughter having a bunch of cartman stuff in her room

[coconut530]

WE’LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE FRENCHIE

This ep reminds me of this vine:

[whalehouse1]

Also as a BluePulse shipper, finding out Bart is based in Alabama (I know, I know his vernacular would be different due to his age and upbringing along with his culture but I’m going to do what comics do with language and culture just for this) has been a gift for this reason alone.

JL member: What are you two doing?

Bart: Why nuthin’ much stranger. We’re just two swee’d yun’ southern boys havin’ a swell ol’ time.

Jaime: We’re jus’ ea’din’ sum go’ ol’ American apple pie an’ enjoyin’ the pleasure of eachothah’s company.

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Jesus fucking christ I hate the US south

[bywandandsword]

I'm listening to the Red Dragon audiobook, and the one thing I take issue with is that the narrator gives every other southerner an accent, but not Will Graham. None of the adaptations give him an accent. The man grew up poor in rural Louisiana and spent the first part of his career in New Orleans! He's gonna have some sort of accent!

He can be brilliant profiler that Hannibal is interested in or in love with and be a southerner with a southern accent, I promise!

[skrunksthatwunk]

nothing like having an inconsistent regional accent to make you feel like a faker. yeah i have a southern accent kinda technically but it sneaks in through the screen door in the back. it couch surfs. and basically only appears when im talking with people with strong accents. or about accents. or about the south. in a way that makes me seem more suggestible than anything. like i swear im not making fun of you this just happens for like three words and then goes away 💀💀💀

[the-lisechen]

.

[eldritchqueerture]

honestly its kinda hilarious how obsessed with detective noel i am now considering how at first i literally thought he was larson himself/sent by larson for an Embarassing amount of time

[pech-es]

i just started The Partner and i’m so excited now, he’s gonna eat this shit upppp 😩 haven’t read much yet but i’m so glad he’ll be doing a mystery/thriller, and as a southerner who HATES bad fake accents i’m happy that his actually good one might be returning to the screen