The Old Virginia accent is one that is primarily heard in the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Traces of this dialect and its characteristic drawl can also be heard in adjacent states, including words that are pronounced differently, such as "out" and "house."

Characteristics

Southern and south midland accent characteristics include:

• "drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]
• /ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind
• /oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil
• /u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday
• au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt
• /e/ > /ei/ in bed, head
• /e/ > /i/ in pen, ten
• greasy > greazy
• carry > tote
• dragged > drug
• you > you all, y’all

History

The earliest English settlers of the colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 were mainly people from Southern England

Southern England

Southern England, the South and the South of England are imprecise terms used to refer to the southern counties of England bordering the English Midlands. It has a number of different interpretations of its geographic extents. The South is considered by many to be a cultural region with a distinct...

. However, Virginia received more colonists from the English West Country

West Country dialects

The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....

, bringing with them a distinctive dialect and vocabulary.

The Boston, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk, Virginia

Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....

 and Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

 areas maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to England. Thus, the colonists and their descendants defined "social class" according to England's connotations. As the upper class English dialect changed, the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas changed. One example, is the "r-dropping" of the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting in the similar "r-dropping" found in Boston and parts of Virginia today.

Famous Old Virginia accents

Some famous people who speak with this accent are U.S. Congressman Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode

Virgil Hamlin Goode, Jr. , is an American politician, last serving as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented the 5th congressional district of Virginia from 1997 to 2009...

 and Mayor of Richmond and past-Governor of Virginia L. Douglas Wilder.

See also

• Tidewater accent
  Tidewater accent
  Tidewater accent, also known as Tidewater English or the Tidewater Dialect is a specific dialect of Southern American English. While the dialect is said to have roots up and down the eastern seaboard, it is primarily concentrated in the southeastern part of Virginia otherwise known as the Tidewater...
  
  
• Southern American English
  Southern American English
  Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma.The Southern dialects make...
  
  
• Charleston, South Carolina accent

External links

• Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by a Richmond, Virginia
  Richmond, Virginia
  Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
  
   native, featured in the George Mason University
  George Mason University
  George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...
  
   Linguistics program Speech Accent Archive.
• http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/niceandcurious/manyvoices.htm"Virginia’s Many Voices," Fairfax County, Virginia
  Fairfax County, Virginia
  Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
  
   Library]
• International Dialects of English Archive, "Dialects Of Virginia"
• http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html"A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics at University of Pennsylvania
  University of Pennsylvania
  The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
  
  ]