Southern accent (United States)

For 19th- and early 20th-century Southern U.S. accents, see Older Southern American English.

In the United States, a Southern accent, Southern twang, or simply Southern is the sound system of the modern Southern regional dialect of American English.

English in the American South underwent several major sound changes from the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, during which a rural-originating sound system, including two chain shifts of vowel sounds, expanded geographically through the whole region. This regional accent is fairly unified, contrasting with the more diverse and localized sound systems of earlier 19th-century Southern dialects. Still, there remains ongoing variation in the Southern accent regarding various potential differences based on a speaker's exact sub-region, age, ethnicity, and other social factors.

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