Southern accent/drawl amongst non Whites

Hi!

In the regions where Whites generally have a Southern accent, even a slight one, do non-Whites acquire the drawl as well, or do they tend to speak a rather General American?

In the thread "Southern Accents outside the South", Uriel said that only the Whites in eastern NM have a Southern accent, whereas the Hispanics don't.
How about non-Whites in Georgia in the Deep South (although a friend of mine from Atlanta who is white barely has any drawl)?

Another related question:
Are there Blacks who speak with a "White" Southern accent/drawl?

Thank you!

<<In the thread "Southern Accents outside the South", Uriel said that only the Whites in eastern NM have a Southern accent, whereas the Hispanics don't.>>

Most likely. In many parts of the Southwest, the racial segregation between the two is strong enough that they speak mostly different dialects.

<<How about non-Whites in Georgia in the Deep South (although a friend of mine from Atlanta who is white barely has any drawl)?>>

I don't quite know what you mean by non-whites here.

Both Atlanta and Dallas are Southern cities with many middle-class speakers who more or less speak General American. It's a result of the large number of Northerners who moved there for work.

<<Are there Blacks who speak with a "White" Southern accent/drawl?>>

Yes--in some parts of the south, there is little difference between black and white speech.

Well, for starters, there is a spectrum of southern accents, not just a "drawl."I live in Huntsville, AL, near the Alabama/Tennessee border. Except for influences similar to the ones which have "flattened" Atlanta's accent, Huntsville would fall into the southern Appalachian region (I'm not going to get technical and get into isoglosses, etc.) The native accent here is a nasally twang, more akin to mountain VA, eastern TN, and extending westward to Texas. The original white stock here is predominately Scots-Irish, which probably accounts for the accent, to a large degree. South Alabama, by contrast is predominately settled by English and the accent can be described as a drawl, non-rhotic, etc. To turn to the original question, blacks here, with no modification of accent, speak with a separate accent. It bears some resemblance to South Alabama, South Georgia, etc., but it's less influenced by region than the white accents. It's been postulated that it's a byproduct of the imprint of west African languages on English, and that's probably true. So, to sum up, they usually speak with neither a southern white accent nor a general American accent. Here, in Huntsville, the population is from all over the country, really from all over the world. Marshall Space Flight Center is located here, along with the US Army Missile Command, etc., accounting for the broad-based population. There are also many foreign-owned companies located here. So, as in Atlanta, kids graduating from high school here do not have a southern accent. Likewise, there being a large educated black middle class here, many of them do not speak with a black accent at all. I hope this helps. Your question was not as simple as you thought... :)

I have met hispanics and Asians with southern drawls, so yes, it does happen. probably depends on how many other hispanics and Asians are around to dilute the influence!

Eastern NM isn't a major "drawl" area, though -- it's only slight when it does exist. More midlands than southern. You have to go farther east to meet the real deal.

In what areas of the South do people use the GOAT vowel for the word "on"?

If there is a large enough non-white community, the non-whites will tend to speak English with their native language's accent. Otherwise yes, they will have a Southern drawl or twang (depending on which region). This is also true for many rural areas outside the South.

We have a secretary from Louisiana at my work, and she definitely uses a long O for "on" -- sounds more like "own".

I was born in Indiana, but I've lived in Florida for 8 years and I've never heard a non-caucasion person speaking with what would be considered the sterotypical southern accent. I've heard African Americans that were born in raised in the south speak with anof inflection of their own. Similar, but different.

I forgot to add that although Florida is about as far South as you can get in the US, I don't commonly hear people with a Southern Accent. In my experience that's more localized to Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia. But I'm not an expert.

Florida isn't really part of the South. I think only the people in the upper part are really Southern and likely to have the accent.

"Florida isn't really part of the South. I think only the people in the upper part are really Southern and likely to have the accent."

As a native North Floridian, I somewhat disagree with your comment. While it is true that the east coast starting at Orlando, as well as Tampa, aren't really southern, there is a lot of southernness in the rest of the state.

As far as my own accent, I have a somewhat hybrid Southern/GA one.

I agree with Uriel's post . :-)