Fun thing about us good ole Virginians, all out accents are different depending on where we’re from. I’m from Winchester(northwest bout 1 1/2 from DC) so some of us here sound kinda country with a twang some don’t. But Richmond and Nova sound very city. Norfolk and the seven cities are completely different from us up here
Why thank you, Aways a leap into the semi-unknown when giving these a go. I always strive to have just enough command to keep the accent from grating on the ears of natives. How did you find this vid?
Grew up in northern VA and one thing I did recognize is saying twunny instead of twenty. I have notebooks from my early years where I would spell it like that back in the "sound it out" days
I moved back to Reston, Virginia after 10 years in Florida. And all these transplants here always ask me where I’m from in the south. And I look down on my feet and I say you’re looking at it.😂 I may be 40 now, but 1989 when I moved to this town, it was mostly trees farms we even had a huge, wild zoo! Man I remember when they built the Reston town Center and all the trees got torn down. Now coming back from a neighboring city on a road that still has trees are plentiful, I start to see buildings in the train line, and suddenly think I must’ve zoned out and drove to Arlington, Virginia! But now the city has just grown with large, tall buildings. I’m not used to anymore. but people think I’m messing around when I tell them I’m from here and matter fact, I live in the same house. My mom bought when I was in second grade. My glow-in-the-dark stars are still on the ceiling and glowing! people who have lived here their whole lives sound like they’re from here but people mistake us to be from West Virginia or further south. But they don’t realize is West Virginians and North Carolina’s have a totally different drawl and sound a bit more ignorant then Virginians. Not saying, they are more ignorant, I’m just saying their accent sounds like they are straight neck or hillbilly. This is a great video, and I love how well you were able to pull that accent.❤
Virginia Beach native here and I am not picking up anything that sounds familiar to me. Hampton Roads area accent is different from other areas of VA. VB specifically has its own kind of accent in my opinion. Coastal with a slight southern twang. Growing up I do remember my elders having an accent that was different from my own and anyone from the region that is in their mid to late 60s still has it although it’s slightly faded.
Matt, I love what you’re doing! I’m from Hanover county, and my family goes pretty far back in Hanover and Caroline. I agree with C Davis that your attempt includes many southern generalities that are not definitive for Va, but your interpretation of “down” is definitely on the right track for tidewater. To my ear , the pronunciation of ou and ow is what sets us apart. In Caroline “out” is “oat”, but toward the southeast corner of the state it can be more like “ite”.And they blend: “out of the courthouse” can be “oat of the courthayse”. The r in court is audible, but treated gently. To my father, house is “hoase” but houses sounds something like “hayuwses”, closer to general southern. I wish I could express that better in writing. The late father of a close friend of mine was an architectural historian in Richmond, brought up in Dinwiddie. He pronounced all ou’s and ow’s close to how you interpret “down” regardless of context. He pronounce warm as “wahm”. Some of my contemporaries in Dinwiddie still “talk aboat deeyuh huntn” and shout “coes oat!” to notify each other that some cattle have escaped from pasture. Another idiosyncrasy of the tidewater is “the” being sometimes pronounced as a formal “thee” “ Deddy‘ll be oat in thee deeyuh woods all day Sarrdey”. Sometimes in Southside , “Krystal’s dresser” is “Krustal’s drussah”
I'm in King George right next to Caroline. If you know where Milford is within Caroline it's like a totally different accent compared to the rest of VA, even Caroline itself. I have relatives that live there, I've come across folks that live in that small area and I knew right away they were from Milford.
Got it pretty close. Got a new subscriber because of that :) Northern Neck VA here. My wife's family was further north near DC so she does not share this accent with me. My kids can tell the difference. Words like Wash, Antenna, and oil they always point out I say it different than mommy lol.
I grew up in Loudoun county , near the Fairfax county line, and all the old people I remember had Tidewater accents , very similar to Richmond. I wonder what changed ?
Excellent effort at the Virginia accent however, your rendition sounds much more like friends of mine from the western part of the state closer to Bluefield, Virginia/West Virginia. I solidly agree with Megan Crittenden's comments, including the less of Bill Clinton. I can't speak for accents from other states, but being born and raised in rural southeastern Virginia, there are many, many different Virginia accents. I appreciate your attention to detail and your willingness to take on a particular accent for an audiobook. I am an avid consumer of audiobooks, and the narrator makes or breaks the work. Thank you for making your projects as authentic as possible.
I kind of agree. I am souther virginian (15 minutes from the border) and I think this more represents a good southern accent then South Virginian. I think our accents have bits of twang but not much of the "awww" or "aahhh"s
damn it's definitely getting there. couple of words you threw out there sounded like my grandma and made me happy, not an accent talked about much. A lot different than the virginia appalachian accent from my other grandparents haha.
Sounds reminiscent of some of the older folks in my church. I’m from the DMV, so I’m pretty high up north in VA, but a lot of the older folks in my life were originally from farther south in VA!
@@narratormatt I’m so far up in Virginia that the accent is just standard American. But, there are three distinct accents I can think of. The one in your video is a great example of a southern Virginia. Then there’s the coastal accent, which is a very subtle variation of the southern. My favorite is the Appalachian accent, though! It sounds like this! ruclips.net/video/03iwAY4KlIU/видео.html
@@theonionqueen3519this is not representative of how northern Virginia used to be. I am much older (born in 79,) from Loudoun and I remember people saying I sounded Tidewater. The old people had it too when I was growing up in the 1990s. It's sad nova is so gone from Virginia.
Tidewater accent is pretty specific. There's not a single accent in Virginia as those from the Western part of the state speak much differently than those from tidewater who speak much differently from those from northern VA. The Tidewater accent is non-rhotic. The 'R' at the end of a word is not pronounced. So "Tidewater" is pronounced as "Tide watuh" with equal stress on the Tide and WA. Also the "ou" is pronounced pretty uniquely. Not quite the Canadian "OO" but pretty close. More like "ouoo" with the ou being very short. So "ouoot of the houoose" for "out of the house." Gloucester Courthouse is pronounced "Glahstuh Co(r)t houoose." With the 'r' being barely perceptible and court and house as two separate words. Newport News is pronounced "Nooput Nooz." Norfolk is pronounced "Nawfuk." Portsmouth is pronounced "Po(r)tsmuth" or "Po(r)tsmith." Also the word "there" is pronounced "theyuh" in old school Tidewaterese. So it is voiced as two syllables instead of the typical one syllable. There are of course degrees as to how strongly these characteristics might appear in one's speech if they are from Tidewater.
True. Even though I always thought I had more of a country accent, when I tell people I’m from northern Virginia they then tell me it makes sense why I have a East Coast mid Atlantic accent. I think it’s because you get a lot of people from Philly, New York, and New Jersey that drizzle down here so we might say coffee as coophey, but still have a twang
I can see that is true. I’m from Reston so we were about his country is Winchester, but always a planned community. I remember when I started going to rave parties in DC I would always meet people from Winchester and I would always call them country bumpkins because they were so far away from, what I used to call as an ignoramus; less civilized, modern stores. But he was, I can, to get anything cool for the punk rock scene or any type of cool, non-basic bitch, clothing, or music, you had to go to DC. Now we’re booming metropolis like Arlington, funny thing is after 10 o’clock at night. The streets are like a ghost town. People only come here to work.
Also the non-rhoticity depends on age, part of the area, etc. The elderly are the most likely to have it. Also, there's a greater chance of someone who is younger having that Tadwatuh accent if theyuh from oatsahd the major cities.
@@jackesioto depends on the family. I've known people who were from Hampton, lived and grew up their whole lives there and you'd think they were from Deltaville by the way they talked.
I never thought I had much of a Central Virginia accent until I was asked where I was from when she heard me speaking. I’ve noticed that with the CV accent, the emphasis is on “O” sounds. In those, the tongue comes up to, but not on the soft palate. In other words, the mouth is held the way you show in your drawing. In the Tidewater, you’ll hear for instance Tide pronounced with a balloon opening the mouth, then flattening out on the D E and really opening up the whole mouth, tip of the tongue against the back of the teeth and sort of making a spoon with the back of the tongue on W A. Ther T E R sounds like TA R, with tip of the tongue behind the teeth, then opening that bubble again. Sounds like TI De Wough derah. Other parts of Va have more of what people think of as a typical Southern accent lite. Northern Va has no accent now, it was never strong anyway, getting more pronounced as you get almost to Charlottesville, then you begin to get the CV accent which moves West into the Shenandoah and East to about Orange when the accent begins to turn to Tidewater.
@@narratormatt I suppose it caught my eye because you were discussing Virginia accents and linguistics fascinate me; how any why accents and language developed in America particularly.
Dog is Dooooooooooooooooog. Boat is Boooooooooooooooat. Home is Hooooooooooome. South West Cornwall English accent. It goes from Eastern Shore Maryland down to the Outter Banks of North Carolina.
The thing is, there really are so many variations of the Virginia accent, depending on region, education, etc. Two people from the same region can seem worlds apart -- and mine is kind of funky: While I spent nearly 30 years in Virginia, I've spent the last 8 or so living in Austin, Seattle, and now New York City. I've had people say I speak using a combination of southern and PNW.
This is a correction post. I was wrong about not hearing my own accent in there. I am from The Eastern Shore of Virginia (The Delmarva Peninsula). I hear my accent in here with the emphasis on the Ls, the way I say this or dis, and the O words. The ime, y words are pretty thick. I could go on. You nailed it! People don't usually pay us any mind because we're separated from the rest of the state and are 1 1/2 hours from Maryland so it's great to be represented.
@@ebonysmith1493 I've been listening to samples and it seems that even though the O's and the U's don't have the more distinct eh-O and ewe sound, there are more Southern-isms on the whole.
I just saw this other video and realized that what you might be modeling the Virginia accent after is more the Tidewater area. In this other video, he does the same thing, but when he moves on to the Appalachia and the North Carolina accent he gets closer to a true general Virginia accent (with the exception of Richmond, which is its own separate thing, sounding much more Gone With The Wind lol). In this video, at the 12th minute, he absolutely nails Virginia.. ruclips.net/video/H1KP4ztKK0A/видео.html
I'm from the tidewater area, it stops in the middle of my county in Southern Virginia. To me you sound more West Virginian/maybe deep North Carolinian, I've worked with quite a few. I've been told I sound southern, but i dont see it. Also im learning spainsh and some Spanish speakers said I sound italian while speaking Spanish lol (technically im like 20% but no clue why I would sound italian) I never really thought of virginia having different accents which is interesting. I talk to a lot of different people and probably watch to much tv to really notice the different accents. We had a Georgia women move here, i loved her old southern accent.
Funny how you don't consider Tidewater to be as striking as I do... the hype about the region is how unique the accent is due to the isolation. Have you heard of similar theories?
@@narratormattWhile learning spainsh I realize I need to listen more, not talk as much. The guys from cuba where I work said as much lol. I've always enjoyed listening to accents, foreign music also always loved chatting with people from different countries (Skype, aol days). I was the strange one in my area because I like learning about different cultures. I wasn't trying to insult anyone, here we have a lot of bases so people from all over the country live in this area. You don't really hear that old accent like you use to imo. Edit: you are right though, I definitely didn't apreappreciate the history and traditions of the area. While learning spainsh it does seem more interesting. I actually had a childhood memory come back.... We use to call ant lions, "backa doodles" I think some would call it a doodle bug. I use to throw ants and others bugs in their sand traps, it was like a having a digi pet back in the day lol.
The way I look at doing a Virginian accent is it's like you're perpetually on the verge of sneezing, idk if that's very perceptive but it helps me lol ALSO this is very helpful, I've been pseudo-accenting for awhile but I haven't looked into the actual specificities of the sounds so it always felt awkward
I love the sneezing image... it's actually a similar approach to when I'm doing an impersonation of someone (Nicholas Cage is perpetually bobbing and weaving like a boxing marionette). Are you from Virginia?
Virginia accents vary a lot. Central Va. had the most beautiful accent that has almost disappeared completely. Makes me so sad. A few words , good to know for Va.: caint (cant) , deeeeede (daddy) h..long o..se (house), aboat (about) , ahnt (aunt) , vahse (vase) and even old school said bummer for bomber. Was with 3 people in Virginia . Two of them had a heavy Virginia accent. The 3rd person was from Michigan. The Michigan guy hung around with the Virginia people a lot , in Va. . The Michigan guy was trying to fix a flat tire (tahrrr) .The Virginia 2 were watching. The Michigan guy was frustrated and kept calling the tire" eggnut". The Virginia people and I watched him for a while and and finally asked why in the world are you calling that tire egg nut.. eggnut tire. And he said that's what you say. And we laughed so hard when we realized he thought he thought the word ignorant was egg nut because in Virginia it was pronounced eggggnent.
One glaring mistake is in the reading of the poem. The tidewater accent of old Virginia is spoken very softly and much slower, w/ the syllables stretched out. One would only know this by growing up with it or around those who speak w/ the accent. Also, it is much more this way w/ the upper classes, making is sound more granduer. The working class spoke or speaks perhaps a bit faster & louder w/ not as lovely of a tone.
I'm from the Tidewater Region (Eastern Shore) and I speak very fast. I am told my accent is thick. I have not been to many other parts of Virginia so I can't speak to the dialect there. I should get around my state more though
Im.an expert on virginia accents. Iĺl tell you below highway 64 is where all the southern accents are. The further southwest you go the stronger the accents get. SWVA (roanoke and beyond) is the strongest. But i love the virginia piedmont accent in the south and central parts of the state
Very cool. you sent me down a rabbit hole looking for specifically SWVA accents. I found these clips which seem to be in line with what you're talking about. I focused on looking for rural folk since my guess was that they would have the strongest accents. Do you agree? ruclips.net/video/xD9Hh6mEmhs/видео.html ruclips.net/video/j-_0tW6LeuM/видео.html
Absolutely. As a matter of fact it's the rural areas that haven't been horded by outsiders that still have a southern accent. I use highway 64 as divider
There are lots of Virginia accents north of 64. I was in Luray VA this past weekend and the accents up there were pretty thick. A cross between Appalachian and Tidewater
Congratulations for the effort, but Clark Gable did as well in Gone with the Wind. Sorry. I grew up in the southern Piedmont of Virginia in a county where three isoglossal boundaries crossed; then I lived in Richmond. My parents grew up 50 miles apart (in Virginia) in families with two distinct dialects. I studied linguistics in graduate school. I love dialectology. I really just don't hear anything in this video that sounds like a Virginia accent.
Huh! Do me a favor and review the vid of this guy and let me know where I'm veering from his accent (I drew a lot from it) ruclips.net/video/vJT4wVgTw0k/видео.html
Same here, born in Virginia Beach, grew up in Williamsburg and live in new Kent county, he sounds a little more Carolina than Virginia to my ear, if I heard him in public I’d prob ask where he was from. There’s just something “off” about it, or maybe I’m just hearing the effort behind his attempt 🤷🏻♀️
@@narratormatt The post-vocalic "r" is one of the main things. It is not consistent throughout Virginia, HOWEVER, it is consistent with each individual speaker. And few original Virginia dialects had a post-vocalic "r" with the exception of some areas along the Carolina border and in the mountains. A commenter below has noted that this sample sounds something like a Carolina accent. I believe that's what he's hearing: Carolina Piedmont, where they pronounce the post-vocalic "r" rather strongly (although NOTHING like the upper Midwest - Great Lakes accent). In any event, the post-vocalic "r" is soft even in the areas of Virginia and the Carolinas that have it, with the exception of the far west Appalachian Mountains. This is VERY noticeable in words such as horse, ordinary, oar, Norfolk and at the end of words such as mother, father, letter, over, mirror. It's the vowels that give "foreign" speakers away. You have nailed the long "i" sound; that is native proficiency! But, despite a valiant effort, I fear that most people in the county were I grew up (the county with three isoglosses) would be offended at the artificiality. BTW, they have consolidated five tiny high schools in that rural county. Now that all kids from ages 14 to 18 go to high school together, it has become impossible to determine where people live based on their speech. It was still possible when I was growing up. Those linguistic variations in a small county with only 16,000 inhabitants really trained people's ears to language differences. It's such a pity that all these dialectal differences are dying out all over the nation.
Well, like a lot of accents, it usually depends on the company you keep. While growing up, did your friends have a General American accent (ie no Virginia)?
Well that's fine and all, but I was looking for the Shenandoah Valley accent which is Scots-Irish with u sounded like oo quite a bit like a Canadian. My mother always got a chuckle to hear cheerleaders at the football games shout, poosh am back! poosh am back! poosh em way back! instead of pronouncing the word push.
Huh... yeah, I can see that, I suppose. I didn't think the accent that I was using was as regal as I would assume Jefferson's was. Is that how you would describe it?
I didn’t realize we had audio recordings of Thomas Jefferson speaking. Pretty sure that doesn’t exist… How does one surmise you would sound like Thomas Jefferson? Are you reincarnated? Are you a ghost?
You describe the accent and give decent examples at the start of the video but your final imitation at the end sounded like a mix of standard southern accent plus mild-Tidewater-ish-VA. The now rare VA accent does not sound like other southern accents.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic Funny, I have a cousin who I visited while she was growing up in VA. I was a little kid and when she asked me if I wanted a Coke, she pronounced it "Keh-oak" like a Brit. I asked her if she was doing a British accent while my older brother hurried to the scene to shut me up.
I'm guessing this is true everywhere, but there is no single accent for the state. It varies quite widely. Northern VA has a Yankee accent big-time, and the western half of the state is hard-core hillbilly. Richmond and Norfolk are definitely southern, dropping the 'r' and dropping the 'g' in 'ing' endings, every time. For some reason, Rosalynn Carter, who is from GA, sounds exactly like the old ladies from Richmond, who for the most part are no longer with us. And with all of the above, I'm talking about the way white people talk. I can't perceive black English usage clearly enough to make subtle distinctions. For years I just thought it was wrong, even though I could often notice particular consistencies, as though it has its own rules. Turns out it does; the version of English spoken by most African-Americans is now recognized a dialect of English, rightly so, I think.
Well, sort of. Maybe the more southwest accent. If I heard you talking on the street I wouldn't peg you as a Virginian, I'd assume you were maybe old-school southern Maryland.
@@narratormatt I think you did a fine job. I think the key to the accents though is that it's more than just saying words a certain way , it's how you say them. Accents are more than just how we pronounce the words, it's how we say them (delivery) . So... when people are trying to do an "accent" that isn't their own, they are more focused on how to say the word instead of speaking that way as if it's second nature. We learn our own accents as second nature. This is probably hard for most actors to do. For the accent to sound natural you can't be thinking about how you're going to say the word. So it's hard to pull off for most people. I was surprised to learn that most Southern accents are extremely difficult for non Southerners to do, save if they are British.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic good points. I notice that when my British friends are putting on an "American" accent, quite a few of them default to southern. Likely due to the original closeness of the accents from settler days, no?
Fun thing about us good ole Virginians, all out accents are different depending on where we’re from. I’m from Winchester(northwest bout 1 1/2 from DC) so some of us here sound kinda country with a twang some don’t. But Richmond and Nova sound very city. Norfolk and the seven cities are completely different from us up here
Richmond was definitely tidewater but it's very diluted now, becoming like Nova.
Yea Nova here…people have said I sound like I’m from everywhere.
Not to mention up in the mountains…where I’m from, Roanoke. 🫠
To you think, likewise, there's a noticeable divide in speaking style between races?
@@earthstarr32756Absolutely correct, the Blue Ridge has a unique Virginia accent. Virginia doesn’t have one accent.
Originally from Norfolk, VA, and I could hear hints of my mother, my grandmother, and my great grandmothers in your reading of the lyrics. Well done!
Why thank you, Aways a leap into the semi-unknown when giving these a go. I always strive to have just enough command to keep the accent from grating on the ears of natives. How did you find this vid?
@@narratormatt I was working on developing a character, and trying to decide on an accent. Stumbled on your video and enjoyed he nostalgia thoroughly!
@@susangray5446 mewsic to mah ears!
@@susangray5446 BTW was this for role-play?
My grandmother was from Virginia. ❤ I could swear she spoke like a Brit sometimes! 😮
Glad to see your still doing this! Been following since the Romanian accent vid :))
Spot on, I lived in Richmond I'm Australian but from what I remember he has it right
Grew up in northern VA and one thing I did recognize is saying twunny instead of twenty. I have notebooks from my early years where I would spell it like that back in the "sound it out" days
I moved back to Reston, Virginia after 10 years in Florida. And all these transplants here always ask me where I’m from in the south. And I look down on my feet and I say you’re looking at it.😂 I may be 40 now, but 1989 when I moved to this town, it was mostly trees farms we even had a huge, wild zoo! Man I remember when they built the Reston town Center and all the trees got torn down. Now coming back from a neighboring city on a road that still has trees are plentiful, I start to see buildings in the train line, and suddenly think I must’ve zoned out and drove to Arlington, Virginia! But now the city has just grown with large, tall buildings. I’m not used to anymore. but people think I’m messing around when I tell them I’m from here and matter fact, I live in the same house. My mom bought when I was in second grade. My glow-in-the-dark stars are still on the ceiling and glowing! people who have lived here their whole lives sound like they’re from here but people mistake us to be from West Virginia or further south. But they don’t realize is West Virginians and North Carolina’s have a totally different drawl and sound a bit more ignorant then Virginians. Not saying, they are more ignorant, I’m just saying their accent sounds like they are straight neck or hillbilly. This is a great video, and I love how well you were able to pull that accent.❤
Virginia Beach native here and I am not picking up anything that sounds familiar to me. Hampton Roads area accent is different from other areas of VA. VB specifically has its own kind of accent in my opinion. Coastal with a slight southern twang. Growing up I do remember my elders having an accent that was different from my own and anyone from the region that is in their mid to late 60s still has it although it’s slightly faded.
Well done! That o sound is also present in DC and Maryland.
Great tip. Thank you!
I’m a Tennessee native from “up in the tippy top” as I used to say. Born in VA… I got all of what you said but, I grew up all over the south.
How did it seem like I did on this one?
Matt, I love what you’re doing! I’m from Hanover county, and my family goes pretty far back in Hanover and Caroline. I agree with C Davis that your attempt includes many southern generalities that are not definitive for Va, but your interpretation of “down” is definitely on the right track for tidewater. To my ear , the pronunciation of ou and ow is what sets us apart. In Caroline “out” is “oat”, but toward the southeast corner of the state it can be more like “ite”.And they blend: “out of the courthouse” can be “oat of the courthayse”. The r in court is audible, but treated gently. To my father, house is “hoase” but houses sounds something like “hayuwses”, closer to general southern. I wish I could express that better in writing.
The late father of a close friend of mine was an architectural historian in Richmond, brought up in Dinwiddie. He pronounced all ou’s and ow’s close to how you interpret “down” regardless of context. He pronounce warm as “wahm”.
Some of my contemporaries in Dinwiddie still “talk aboat deeyuh huntn” and shout
“coes oat!” to notify each other that some cattle have escaped from pasture.
Another idiosyncrasy of the tidewater is “the” being sometimes pronounced as a formal “thee”
“ Deddy‘ll be oat in thee deeyuh woods all day Sarrdey”.
Sometimes in Southside , “Krystal’s dresser” is “Krustal’s drussah”
What amazing insight. And so helpful to me and the fans. What inspired you to look at this particular vid? Are you working on something right now?
I'm in King George right next to Caroline. If you know where Milford is within Caroline it's like a totally different accent compared to the rest of VA, even Caroline itself. I have relatives that live there, I've come across folks that live in that small area and I knew right away they were from Milford.
@@potatomuffin4420 most people peg me for Fredricksburg accent , even though I grew up near Fairfax!
Got it pretty close. Got a new subscriber because of that :)
Northern Neck VA here.
My wife's family was further north near DC so she does not share this accent with me. My kids can tell the difference.
Words like Wash, Antenna, and oil they always point out I say it different than mommy lol.
Thank you again for the insight and the encouragement. The combo of those two moves the learning forward like no other force.
I grew up in Loudoun county , near the Fairfax county line, and all the old people I remember had Tidewater accents , very similar to Richmond. I wonder what changed ?
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic the people moving to that area. Huge cultural shift.
Excellent effort at the Virginia accent however, your rendition sounds much more like friends of mine from the western part of the state closer to Bluefield, Virginia/West Virginia. I solidly agree with Megan Crittenden's comments, including the less of Bill Clinton. I can't speak for accents from other states, but being born and raised in rural southeastern Virginia, there are many, many different Virginia accents. I appreciate your attention to detail and your willingness to take on a particular accent for an audiobook. I am an avid consumer of audiobooks, and the narrator makes or breaks the work. Thank you for making your projects as authentic as possible.
Thank you so much. Which virginia accents are the *furthest* sounding from the one in this vid, do you think?
I grew up in Portsmouth and I lived in NC. These sounds more like some of the dialects I’ve heard in NC.
Has anyone confused one for the other? Sort of like how Australian and South African can get mixed up.
I kind of agree. I am souther virginian (15 minutes from the border) and I think this more represents a good southern accent then South Virginian. I think our accents have bits of twang but not much of the "awww" or "aahhh"s
@@messeduppika5314 do you think this is Appalachian-influenced (more nasal twang and good hard r's) ?
damn it's definitely getting there. couple of words you threw out there sounded like my grandma and made me happy, not an accent talked about much. A lot different than the virginia appalachian accent from my other grandparents haha.
excellent. Always rewarding to have people say that I remind them of family.
Sounds reminiscent of some of the older folks in my church. I’m from the DMV, so I’m pretty high up north in VA, but a lot of the older folks in my life were originally from farther south in VA!
What would you say are the key differences between north and south? Any clips we can listen to?
@@narratormatt I’m so far up in Virginia that the accent is just standard American. But, there are three distinct accents I can think of. The one in your video is a great example of a southern Virginia. Then there’s the coastal accent, which is a very subtle variation of the southern. My favorite is the Appalachian accent, though! It sounds like this! ruclips.net/video/03iwAY4KlIU/видео.html
@@theonionqueen3519 Yes, this video is the one that I've modeled my Appalachian accent on. Great vid.
@@theonionqueen3519this is not representative of how northern Virginia used to be. I am much older (born in 79,) from Loudoun and I remember people saying I sounded Tidewater. The old people had it too when I was growing up in the 1990s. It's sad nova is so gone from Virginia.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic yeah, it feels like two different places now-NOVA, and then the rest Virginia. I’m from Fairfax myself.
Tidewater accent is pretty specific. There's not a single accent in Virginia as those from the Western part of the state speak much differently than those from tidewater who speak much differently from those from northern VA.
The Tidewater accent is non-rhotic. The 'R' at the end of a word is not pronounced. So "Tidewater" is pronounced as "Tide watuh" with equal stress on the Tide and WA.
Also the "ou" is pronounced pretty uniquely. Not quite the Canadian "OO" but pretty close. More like "ouoo" with the ou being very short. So "ouoot of the houoose" for "out of the house."
Gloucester Courthouse is pronounced "Glahstuh Co(r)t houoose." With the 'r' being barely perceptible and court and house as two separate words. Newport News is pronounced "Nooput Nooz." Norfolk is pronounced "Nawfuk." Portsmouth is pronounced "Po(r)tsmuth" or "Po(r)tsmith."
Also the word "there" is pronounced "theyuh" in old school Tidewaterese. So it is voiced as two syllables instead of the typical one syllable.
There are of course degrees as to how strongly these characteristics might appear in one's speech if they are from Tidewater.
I reckon that’s abooot right
True. Even though I always thought I had more of a country accent, when I tell people I’m from northern Virginia they then tell me it makes sense why I have a East Coast mid Atlantic accent. I think it’s because you get a lot of people from Philly, New York, and New Jersey that drizzle down here so we might say coffee as coophey, but still have a twang
I can see that is true. I’m from Reston so we were about his country is Winchester, but always a planned community. I remember when I started going to rave parties in DC I would always meet people from Winchester and I would always call them country bumpkins because they were so far away from, what I used to call as an ignoramus; less civilized, modern stores. But he was, I can, to get anything cool for the punk rock scene or any type of cool, non-basic bitch, clothing, or music, you had to go to DC. Now we’re booming metropolis like Arlington, funny thing is after 10 o’clock at night. The streets are like a ghost town. People only come here to work.
Also the non-rhoticity depends on age, part of the area, etc. The elderly are the most likely to have it. Also, there's a greater chance of someone who is younger having that Tadwatuh accent if theyuh from oatsahd the major cities.
@@jackesioto depends on the family. I've known people who were from Hampton, lived and grew up their whole lives there and you'd think they were from Deltaville by the way they talked.
I never thought I had much of a Central Virginia accent until I was asked where I was from when she heard me speaking.
I’ve noticed that with the CV accent, the emphasis is on “O” sounds. In those, the tongue comes up to, but not on the soft palate. In other words, the mouth is held the way you show in your drawing. In the Tidewater, you’ll hear for instance Tide pronounced with a balloon opening the mouth, then flattening out on the D E and really opening up the whole mouth, tip of the tongue against the back of the teeth and sort of making a spoon with the back of the tongue on W A. Ther T E R sounds like TA R, with tip of the tongue behind the teeth, then opening that bubble again. Sounds like TI De Wough derah. Other parts of Va have more of what people think of as a typical Southern accent lite. Northern Va has no accent now, it was never strong anyway, getting more pronounced as you get almost to Charlottesville, then you begin to get the CV accent which moves West into the Shenandoah and East to about Orange when the accent begins to turn to Tidewater.
What specific feedback. Thank you! What brought you to this video? I'm always curious.
@@narratormatt I suppose it caught my eye because you were discussing Virginia accents and linguistics fascinate me; how any why accents and language developed in America particularly.
@@miask be sure to check some of my other vids and the feedback in the comments. I almost always am fortunate to get fans' insights.
Dog is Dooooooooooooooooog. Boat is Boooooooooooooooat. Home is Hooooooooooome. South West Cornwall English accent. It goes from Eastern Shore Maryland down to the Outter Banks of North Carolina.
The thing is, there really are so many variations of the Virginia accent, depending on region, education, etc. Two people from the same region can seem worlds apart -- and mine is kind of funky: While I spent nearly 30 years in Virginia, I've spent the last 8 or so living in Austin, Seattle, and now New York City. I've had people say I speak using a combination of southern and PNW.
This is a correction post. I was wrong about not hearing my own accent in there. I am from The Eastern Shore of Virginia (The Delmarva Peninsula). I hear my accent in here with the emphasis on the Ls, the way I say this or dis, and the O words. The ime, y words are pretty thick. I could go on. You nailed it! People don't usually pay us any mind because we're separated from the rest of the state and are 1 1/2 hours from Maryland so it's great to be represented.
Oh, that's fantastic feedback. Are there any Western-VA qualities I should keep an ear out for? Perhaps for another accent vid?
@@narratormatt The West Virginia accents I've heard are a lot thicker than mine.
@@ebonysmith1493 I've been listening to samples and it seems that even though the O's and the U's don't have the more distinct eh-O and ewe sound, there are more Southern-isms on the whole.
@@narratormatt I agree! The southern element is there in both and anybody that hears me speak will know I'm from the south
From Chincoteague 😊
Would depend on what part of Virginia..born raised southwest Virginia we don't sound nothing like north Virginia
I just saw this other video and realized that what you might be modeling the Virginia accent after is more the Tidewater area. In this other video, he does the same thing, but when he moves on to the Appalachia and the North Carolina accent he gets closer to a true general Virginia accent (with the exception of Richmond, which is its own separate thing, sounding much more Gone With The Wind lol). In this video, at the 12th minute, he absolutely nails Virginia.. ruclips.net/video/H1KP4ztKK0A/видео.html
Very impressive video! Thank you for the reference.
That sounds like the old Richmond accent. My grandmother had it, but it's pretty much gone now.
Not really it’s still there
Look up a very Richmond phone call
@@jasoncampos2933 sadly , it's not really. Very diluted
I'm from the tidewater area, it stops in the middle of my county in Southern Virginia. To me you sound more West Virginian/maybe deep North Carolinian, I've worked with quite a few. I've been told I sound southern, but i dont see it. Also im learning spainsh and some Spanish speakers said I sound italian while speaking Spanish lol (technically im like 20% but no clue why I would sound italian) I never really thought of virginia having different accents which is interesting. I talk to a lot of different people and probably watch to much tv to really notice the different accents. We had a Georgia women move here, i loved her old southern accent.
Funny how you don't consider Tidewater to be as striking as I do... the hype about the region is how unique the accent is due to the isolation. Have you heard of similar theories?
@@narratormattWhile learning spainsh I realize I need to listen more, not talk as much. The guys from cuba where I work said as much lol. I've always enjoyed listening to accents, foreign music also always loved chatting with people from different countries (Skype, aol days). I was the strange one in my area because I like learning about different cultures. I wasn't trying to insult anyone, here we have a lot of bases so people from all over the country live in this area. You don't really hear that old accent like you use to imo. Edit: you are right though, I definitely didn't apreappreciate the history and traditions of the area. While learning spainsh it does seem more interesting. I actually had a childhood memory come back.... We use to call ant lions, "backa doodles" I think some would call it a doodle bug. I use to throw ants and others bugs in their sand traps, it was like a having a digi pet back in the day lol.
Thanks so much for sharing your story, @@thetightwadhomesteader3089
The way I look at doing a Virginian accent is it's like you're perpetually on the verge of sneezing, idk if that's very perceptive but it helps me lol
ALSO this is very helpful, I've been pseudo-accenting for awhile but I haven't looked into the actual specificities of the sounds so it always felt awkward
I love the sneezing image... it's actually a similar approach to when I'm doing an impersonation of someone (Nicholas Cage is perpetually bobbing and weaving like a boxing marionette). Are you from Virginia?
@@narratormatt no but I've met a lot of people with the accent
I'm from Central VA, Some things are good some aren't.
What do you think are the not good? Educate us!
Virginia accents vary a lot. Central Va. had the most beautiful accent that has almost disappeared completely. Makes me so sad. A few words , good to know for Va.: caint (cant) , deeeeede (daddy) h..long o..se (house), aboat (about) , ahnt (aunt) , vahse (vase) and even old school said bummer for bomber. Was with 3 people in Virginia . Two of them had a heavy Virginia accent. The 3rd person was from Michigan. The Michigan guy hung around with the Virginia people a lot , in Va. . The Michigan guy was trying to fix a flat tire (tahrrr) .The Virginia 2 were watching. The Michigan guy was frustrated and kept calling the tire" eggnut". The Virginia people and I watched him for a while and and finally asked why in the world are you calling that tire egg nut.. eggnut tire. And he said that's what you say. And we laughed so hard when we realized he thought he thought the word ignorant was egg nut because in Virginia it was pronounced eggggnent.
I'm from fredericksburg and there are many of us here that still sound like this
In the Michigan accent you hear tiyurr and fiyurr instead of tire and fire
One glaring mistake is in the reading of the poem. The tidewater accent of old Virginia is spoken very softly and much slower, w/ the syllables stretched out. One would only know this by growing up with it or around those who speak w/ the accent. Also, it is much more this way w/ the upper classes, making is sound more granduer. The working class spoke or speaks perhaps a bit faster & louder w/ not as lovely of a tone.
I'm from the Tidewater Region (Eastern Shore) and I speak very fast. I am told my accent is thick. I have not been to many other parts of Virginia so I can't speak to the dialect there. I should get around my state more though
Yes , Virginians speak more relaxed
Im.an expert on virginia accents. Iĺl tell you below highway 64 is where all the southern accents are. The further southwest you go the stronger the accents get. SWVA (roanoke and beyond) is the strongest. But i love the virginia piedmont accent in the south and central parts of the state
Very cool. you sent me down a rabbit hole looking for specifically SWVA accents. I found these clips which seem to be in line with what you're talking about. I focused on looking for rural folk since my guess was that they would have the strongest accents. Do you agree? ruclips.net/video/xD9Hh6mEmhs/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/j-_0tW6LeuM/видео.html
Absolutely. As a matter of fact it's the rural areas that haven't been horded by outsiders that still have a southern accent. I use highway 64 as divider
There are lots of Virginia accents north of 64. I was in Luray VA this past weekend and the accents up there were pretty thick. A cross between Appalachian and Tidewater
Congratulations for the effort, but Clark Gable did as well in Gone with the Wind. Sorry. I grew up in the southern Piedmont of Virginia in a county where three isoglossal boundaries crossed; then I lived in Richmond. My parents grew up 50 miles apart (in Virginia) in families with two distinct dialects. I studied linguistics in graduate school. I love dialectology. I really just don't hear anything in this video that sounds like a Virginia accent.
Huh! Do me a favor and review the vid of this guy and let me know where I'm veering from his accent (I drew a lot from it) ruclips.net/video/vJT4wVgTw0k/видео.html
It passes oddly for Tangier island maybe but it's not familiar to me either.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic huh.
Same here, born in Virginia Beach, grew up in Williamsburg and live in new Kent county, he sounds a little more Carolina than Virginia to my ear, if I heard him in public I’d prob ask where he was from. There’s just something “off” about it, or maybe I’m just hearing the effort behind his attempt 🤷🏻♀️
@@narratormatt The post-vocalic "r" is one of the main things. It is not consistent throughout Virginia, HOWEVER, it is consistent with each individual speaker. And few original Virginia dialects had a post-vocalic "r" with the exception of some areas along the Carolina border and in the mountains. A commenter below has noted that this sample sounds something like a Carolina accent. I believe that's what he's hearing: Carolina Piedmont, where they pronounce the post-vocalic "r" rather strongly (although NOTHING like the upper Midwest - Great Lakes accent). In any event, the post-vocalic "r" is soft even in the areas of Virginia and the Carolinas that have it, with the exception of the far west Appalachian Mountains. This is VERY noticeable in words such as horse, ordinary, oar, Norfolk and at the end of words such as mother, father, letter, over, mirror. It's the vowels that give "foreign" speakers away. You have nailed the long "i" sound; that is native proficiency! But, despite a valiant effort, I fear that most people in the county were I grew up (the county with three isoglosses) would be offended at the artificiality. BTW, they have consolidated five tiny high schools in that rural county. Now that all kids from ages 14 to 18 go to high school together, it has become impossible to determine where people live based on their speech. It was still possible when I was growing up. Those linguistic variations in a small county with only 16,000 inhabitants really trained people's ears to language differences. It's such a pity that all these dialectal differences are dying out all over the nation.
I’m from VA and I have no VA accent. I often wonder why that happens. Why some people get an accent and others don’t. Do you know?
Well, like a lot of accents, it usually depends on the company you keep. While growing up, did your friends have a General American accent (ie no Virginia)?
It seems like maybe you're either 1. Native but from occupied Virginia 2. Not native to Virginia or your parents are from elsewhere
This is a Richmond accent.
Look up a very Richmond phone call
Oh that's lovely. Thanks for the tip!
Where are you from? You sound like Jeff Goldblum.
0:42 coming in your what?! 👀🤔😂
Oh lord... 😆
What part of VA is he elocuting? I was born and raised in va beach and lived nearly a decade in Ricmond. I'd give him north west, va, maybe
Well that's fine and all, but I was looking for the Shenandoah Valley accent which is Scots-Irish with u sounded like oo quite a bit like a Canadian.
My mother always got a chuckle to hear cheerleaders at the football games shout, poosh am back! poosh am back! poosh em way back! instead of pronouncing the word push.
Virginia still has its southern Accent
December = DEE simba
So emphasis on the first syllable? I never would have guessed.
@@narratormatt Old school Albemarle County.
You sound more like the old school Thomas Jefferson accent
Huh... yeah, I can see that, I suppose. I didn't think the accent that I was using was as regal as I would assume Jefferson's was. Is that how you would describe it?
I didn’t realize we had audio recordings of Thomas Jefferson speaking. Pretty sure that doesn’t exist… How does one surmise you would sound like Thomas Jefferson? Are you reincarnated? Are you a ghost?
You describe the accent and give decent examples at the start of the video but your final imitation at the end sounded like a mix of standard southern accent plus mild-Tidewater-ish-VA. The now rare VA accent does not sound like other southern accents.
What would you say makes it distinct?
It's definitely Southern with unique sounds in the ou sounds and also a slightly British lilt.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic Funny, I have a cousin who I visited while she was growing up in VA. I was a little kid and when she asked me if I wanted a Coke, she pronounced it "Keh-oak" like a Brit. I asked her if she was doing a British accent while my older brother hurried to the scene to shut me up.
couldn't, didn't and wouldn't, drop all the letters except first and last but still 2 syllables.
Oh, I love that. So it would be basically, "Kun'" and "Wun'" yes?
I'm guessing this is true everywhere, but there is no single accent for the state. It varies quite widely. Northern VA has a Yankee accent big-time, and the western half of the state is hard-core hillbilly. Richmond and Norfolk are definitely southern, dropping the 'r' and dropping the 'g' in 'ing' endings, every time. For some reason, Rosalynn Carter, who is from GA, sounds exactly like the old ladies from Richmond, who for the most part are no longer with us. And with all of the above, I'm talking about the way white people talk. I can't perceive black English usage clearly enough to make subtle distinctions. For years I just thought it was wrong, even though I could often notice particular consistencies, as though it has its own rules. Turns out it does; the version of English spoken by most African-Americans is now recognized a dialect of English, rightly so, I think.
I'm from northern VA. I dont have a Yankee accent.
Born and raised in RVA. I appreciate the effort but no.
Well, sort of. Maybe the more southwest accent. If I heard you talking on the street I wouldn't peg you as a Virginian, I'd assume you were maybe old-school southern Maryland.
Wow! I never considered Maryland to have an accent but its proximity makes sense!
This sounds nothing like NoVa or southern Virginia where are you referencing
Does it sound like *any* region?
I uhhh disagree.. lol
Hit me. What are the giveaways?
I HATE ICE CREAM MAKE A NEW SAYING PEEASE
Explain!
NO
@@realscottcawthon Fine! I'm taking my ice cream and going home!
This is very wrong. Gross.
Ah nuts. Where to begin with why... can you share specifics? We'll all learn.
@@narratormatt I think you did a fine job. I think the key to the accents though is that it's more than just saying words a certain way , it's how you say them. Accents are more than just how we pronounce the words, it's how we say them (delivery) . So... when people are trying to do an "accent" that isn't their own, they are more focused on how to say the word instead of speaking that way as if it's second nature. We learn our own accents as second nature. This is probably hard for most actors to do. For the accent to sound natural you can't be thinking about how you're going to say the word. So it's hard to pull off for most people. I was surprised to learn that most Southern accents are extremely difficult for non Southerners to do, save if they are British.
@@MeadeSkeltonMusic good points. I notice that when my British friends are putting on an "American" accent, quite a few of them default to southern. Likely due to the original closeness of the accents from settler days, no?
Guy needs more practice.
Ah, don't we all when breaking into new turf?
@@narratormatt 😉 I’m a Virginian.
@@utoobia What would you say are the areas that could use the most work on my accent?