Blog 7: I Hate Ron Collin

Jon Cuccia
English 1101
Dr. Jennifer A. Hughes
16 October 2009


In each of the four web pages I visited for this blog were prevailing points which stood out to me. The first web page I visited was “Ron Collin’s Southern Dialect Converter” (http://vaiden.net/convert.html). His page immediately set the tone by playing obnoxious banjo music, and shortly afterwards I noticed the confederate images and a particularly questioning image of Beavis picking his nose while dressed up as Uncle Sam. Seeing as all this preludes the actual southern dialect conversion, I was pretty upset to begin with. I estimate his page contained a few hundred southernisms, many of which are unheard of and thought up only for humor, and a few which reference back to themselves. The combination of all this left a bad taste in my mouth, and I gathered that rather than a genuine respect for southern dialect, Mr. Collins displayed more of an enthusiasm, although I am certain he holds all things southern very dear to him.

Moving along, I came to the two web pages by alpha dictionary. This first one, “Are you a Yankee or Rebel?”(http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html) I found quite interesting. Throughout the questions, it displayed the origins of certain ways of pronunciation and dialect, whether they are widely used throughout the U.S., the southeastern U.S., the Deep South, the Midwest, or Northeastern U.S. and Great Lakes areas. Thus, the quiz lets you examine dialects in general, is informative. The second page by alpha dictionary is “A Glossary of Southern Accents” (http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/southernese.html). This page is like the very first page in many ways, as it has a similar list of southern words and what they mean. It is different, however, in that it has added depth, such as what part of speech each word is. The text is formatted into a table, making it easy to read, and lastly the font color doesn’t clash with the background in a way that makes reading painful. Overall, I believe the alpha dictionary pages maintain a bit playful humor, while still being informative. Of the four pages I visited, these two display the best use of moderation in dealing with the southern dialect.

Finally, I visited the wikipedia page “Southern American English” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_American_English). The page was very in depth, including the differentiation between new and old southern dialects, as well as charts displaying areas affected by certain phonetical changes. The page goes very far to depict the “indiscriminate twang” that Rosina Lippi-Green describes in her book “Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Southern Bells” with phonetic symbols and using word examples. Overall I found the page very informative and impartial, just as a wiki entry should be.

In conclusion, I leave my thoughts on the matter of Southern language and it’s reputation, and even dialects in general. Most people use Standard American English when communicating formally and in writing. No one speaks with Standard American English, and everyone speaks differently. I fail to see the reason of language controversy between the North and the South as anything more than a continuation of the long-held enmity between the two.