the southern girl

In the midst of champagne toasts and the ongoing celebration at the beautiful election party I attended last night, I found myself caught up in an extraordinary conversation. Even more extraordinary was the moment I found myself caught out when the person I was speaking with said, “I detect a southern accent.”

Why, yes, I trilled. I’m from Northern Kentucky. I just moved here in April. We laughed and the conversation continued.

But it made me think.

For a long time, I resisted the urge to speak with the southern accent of my many friends and neighbors in Newport and later, Covington, Kentucky. I spoke eloquently (or so I thought) and without a hint of an accent. I enunciated my words properly, without any bluegrass slang. And I took great pains to sound Northern.

But over time, I learned some things that changed my attitude. Forever.

It was getting to know the hard-working people of the towns where I lived. My neighbors, my friends, the people at the post office and the bus drivers. Artists, writers, government officials and restaurateurs. I can’t do them all justice here, so I won’t try.

They weren’t dummies. They were unique individuals, with hopes and dreams like the rest of us, but expressed in a slow-talking, slightly southern drawl.

It’s that “slow-talking” cadence of the language of the South that fools you. Seems funny to outsiders. And it’s easy to assume that southerners are stupid. That we should distance ourselves from them. Talk pretty. Sound smart.

Some years ago I was visiting friends in Wisconsin and an actress who’d been taking voice lessons told me I sounded "a bit southern." At the time, I felt vaguely resentful, as if she had pointed out a stain on my blouse.

Nowadays, when I pronounce words in a way that makes my friends smile, I have to smile too. I take pride in my accent. In my inflection. If you talk to me, you’ll find out right quick that I do have a bit of an accent. And that’s just fine. I’m proud of who I am, and how I got here.

To be otherwise… Well, as we say where I come from, that ain’t right.

Question: What’s the plural of “y’all?”
Answer: “All y’all!”