South or North...Your in America Regardless

Tyler Benson
Dr. Hughes
Engl. 1101
10/15/09

For this Blog I chose the first two websites and scanned through them, the first being easier to leave due to the harsh banjo music which made it almost impossible to bear. The second website intrigued me more, however, because it allowed me to express what I used in language, and I was able to see where most of the things I say come from. Both sights were intriguing, even though the banjo music made me want to leave as soon as I opened the first link, but both sights treated the Southern dialect in different and very distinct ways. What I found was that they were quite the polar opposites when treating the South with respect and not being biased. To me being biased against dialect, the north or south in general, seems alright.
The first website (http://vaiden.net/convert.html) immediately opened with the dreaded instrument of the Southern stereotype…the banjo. AS soon as I opened it I began to laugh, but after a while it took its toll on me and I had to get off the site. I did read many of the things that were posted on it, including the pictures and translations if words supposedly used by all Southerners. Some interesting ones being, “Algebra”, which is Algae of the bra apparently. There were more very funny and stereotypical definitions, which some people more than likely would have found offensive if from certain parts of the south. I think if the author of the website would have included the regions in which the word was used based off actual surveys this website would be fairly legit. I do believe that it was more of a fun, joking sort of sight not really meant to be scholarly. To me this is perfectly fine, I am sure if you search hard enough you will find a website that does the same thing only with stereotypical words that Northerners use. It just comes down to having fun. This website is for entertainment purposes and Southerners and northerners both need to get over pride for their accent and get along.
The second site that I viewed (http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html ) took me to a sort of survey type format in which I proceeded in answering questions using my own day to day word use. It was very entertaining and I spent some time on it going back and choosing different options just to know where the word came from. The website looked like the person was unbiased and actually viewed both the north and south with distinct regions. They did not clump them together, and example being if you answered a certain way it would say it comes from Texas and the South eastern United States or the Midwest and New England area. It is not clumping people together which is a good thing making it to where the prideful north and south cant moan and complain about the website. I liked this website more than the first, not because of its treatment of the south, but because it is informative and interesting.
The main point that needs to be made is that the north and south are just in a large argument and need to all in all just get over it. They create identities for each other that are partially true and partially not. Lippi-Green says it well in her work “Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Southern Belles” when she talks about the north and south basically making up things about each other. Lippi-Green states that “The North and the South have conspired to create each other’s identities as well as their own.” (205). This quote is entirely true when it comes to viewing the northern areas and southern ones as well. The South and North are just prideful and attack each other’s accents saying that theirs is superior. It doesn’t matter, let them fight it out. It is pointless to waste energy arguing about who is superior based on accents separated by a civil war that happened in the past. The south and north need to see that it is pointless, they are all Americans above anything…they should act like it.