Hrm...100% Dixie on the basic test, but only 60% on the advanced.
I have little to no southern accent, and most people who meet me are surprised to find out that I spent something like 15 or 16 years growing up/living in Tennessee. (I wasn't born there, but we moved there when I was 8 or 9...oh, and my father was born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas so accented English was something I grew up hearing at home. My mom is Chinese, so that's an entirely different kind of accented English.)
I can turn on an accent when I want/need to, and I easily drift into one when having a conversation with someone who has an accent, but it's not normally detectable (unless I've been drinking Jack Daniels). But despite the lack of accent, a lot of southern colloquialisms are deeply embedded in my vocabulary--obviously, since I didn't even realize that some of them were considered predominantly "southern".
Oh, and I thought it was The War Between the States. Heh.



Reply With Quote