What dialect do you speak?

I live in the capital of South Carolina and the younger generation here does not speak with a Southern accent as the older generation does. It's part of the tragic trend of regional accents and dialects slowly disappearing in favor of that bland general American Midwestern accent you are likely to associate with most Americans. I was also irritated in high school when the girls would try to emulate that idiotic California valley girl dialect where you say "like" all the time.

My father speaks with a Lowland Southern accent and dialect. If you read the book Albion's Seed by historian David Hackett Fisher in his section about the "speech ways" or dialect of the Southern English Cavaliers that settled coastal Virginia in the 17th century who's speech patterns spread throughout the lower South being the ancestors of the speech of both whites in this part of the South and black Americans in general, my father uses a lot of the words and expressions found within.

In general, I am very close to my father and as a kid, I would mimic the way he talked and thus I have absorbed many aspects of his dialect. So yes, I kind of speak with a lower South dialect.

Well it depends on what region of the USA you're talking about. Below is a map of American dialects.




As you can see, on the eastern part of the map there are four bands stretching from the East Coast to the limits of the West where the settlers mixed together creating a leveled dialect. Each of these dialects traces back to the first settlers of the United States.

The most Northern band traces back to the accent of East Anglia in the 17th century because the first settlers there were Puritans and their descendents from East Anglia. That accent and dialect was kind of a harsh metallic nasally whine.

The Midland area traces back to the 17th century Midlands of England because it was settled by Quakers from the Midlands of England and their descendants and is where the bland general American accent comes from. 

The inland South traces back to the borders area of England and Scotland in the 17th century because the area was settled by Scots Irish from the borders of England and Scotland and the colony they had in Northern Ireland (the Protestants there) and they have a more rhotic form of the Southern accent.

The Lowland South has its origins in Southern England in the 17th century because the area was settled by Southern English Cavaliers either directly from England or second hand through Barbados and the original dialect of that area would be similar to the black dialect today but it diverged into a white and a black dialect that are related but different.

This is all written about in the book I mentioned Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. It is a myth that the United States was settled by a homogenous WASP group or that we all trace our origins to Puritans (the original settlers in my area HATED Puritans). Different regions were settled by different people for very different reasons creating very different cultures.

Oh, i'm not trying to argue. I'm just trying to inform you what the most native original dialects of the first settlers are. In answer to your question. I do have a lot of books by various scholars on various subjects, so yes a small library. I just have very good research skills and on my free time i'm usually researching stuff from scholars about subjects that I am fixated on at the moment. It's just a natural skill I have I guess.