Southern accent flex.

Authentic video! When my daughter was just shy of 3, I heard her shout from the bathroom, “Mama help me!” in a Southern accent. Living in rural Texas, I was amazed by her keen observation of the regional dialect and her ability to mimic it. I’m from Colorado, so I playfully prompted her to try a Colorado accent in response. It was fascinating to hear the shift in accent (e.g., shift from /mi/ to /meɪ/, making “Colorado” more nasally) and lexicon—“mama” vs. “mommy.” 

#Linguistics #Language #Dialect #Pronunciation #regionaldialects