Southern accents differ from state to state and even from different parts of the same state. Some southern accents are hicky and some are quite genteel and lovely. My grandmutha, Carlita, bent one syllable words in the middle to make them two syllable words. She spoke in a lock jaw accent, similar to the New England lockjaw, but with a lovely drawl to it.
I have noticed that along the coast of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, people have a similar accent to Grandma-ma. They say suthun, yayus, langinth, straingth, sayix and dahlin'. I wish had retained that accent, but I moved away from Mobile when I was almost seven. I picked up the cajun accent in my years in Morgan City, LA. But when I moved to Atlanta in 1970, the hicky accent rubbed off on me, though I have picked up things that come out here and there, from all the places I have lived. I have lived or spent months in 13 states and 22 cities or towns. I go to call someone baby and out comes bay. Bay is SE Louisiana. I also call boo boos: bo bos.
To those trying to lose the southern accent: I say, "Don't!" I live up here in very mundane, very vanilla, very boring as far as culture goes, Michigan. I long for the characters of the south. People are mostly very reserved and straight up around these parts. They don't joke much or laugh or poke fun at themselves and their culture. I love the southern cultures. I say cultures because they differ from place to place down south as do the dialects, accents and customs.
But it's not hard to stand out here and be "exotic". People think I have this great personality. But my type of personality is not uncommon in the south.
