The Southern accent, historically prominent in Atlanta, is diminishing among younger generations, particularly influenced by migration patterns. Susan Levine's family highlights this change, as her sons do not share her accent. Research reveals a notable decline in regional accents across various demographics, with a surge of over 5.8 million people moving to the South contributing to this shift. Linguists note that the changes start in urban settings, rather than being driven by mass media, suggesting a cultural evolution away from traditional dialects in favor of more generalized speech.
Even though they too grew up in Atlanta, Levine's two sons, born more than a quarter century after her, never spoke with the accent that is perhaps the most famous regional dialect in the United States, with its elongated vowels and soft 'r' sounds.
Young people today, especially the educated young people, they don't want to sound too much like they are from a specific hometown.
A series of research papers published in December documented the diminishment of the regional accent among Black residents of the Atlanta area, white working-class people in the New Orleans area and people who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The classical white Southern accent... peaked with baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 and then dropped off with Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1980.
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