Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 14:13:47 -0400

From: "Dale F.Coye" CoyeCFAT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Re: Southern accent -



Southern accents are probably not in danger of extinction, but my

observations of freshmen arriving from the South here at Princeton show that

many have no trace of the salient southern phonetic features like

monophthongs in the vowel of my, etc. They could easily pass as

northerners. The same is true for speakers from eastern New England and New

York City. So there is movement away from the local standard to what is

perceived as a national standard. Maybe not much, but some.