Virginians...

[shadows]

I'm writing a story and it has a kid from Virginia in it.

Anyone want to give me some local color?

How did they talk down there anyway?

Me northerner is afraid I'm gonna make him sound like a Yankee!

[CinaC]

Before the great "tongue-eating virus of 1999", they *did* speak English. Now they just gesture and moan, and if they don't get their way, they pull a gun and just start shooting.

[Pigskin]

Our local color is purple & gold but I don't know what it is over there. My son is there though & he says they still use their mouths to talk.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[KCadet]

Hey! I resemble those remarks!

Seriously though, where are planning on having the story take place? It sounds stupid, but different parts of this great state have people who speak completely different. For ex: in northern VA, everyone talks properly because of the rich commuters going into D.C.. Meanwhile, in places like southwestern VA, you're more prone to hearing drawls.

Just don't forget our unofficial state motto: "Who says government stiffs and slackjaw yokels can't live together?"

[207]

Originally posted by shadows:
I'm writing a story and it has a kid from Virginia in it.

Will it be anything like your neighbor Stephen King's stories??

i.e. slackjaw yokel couldn't live amongst government stiffs and terrorizes Washington area.

[nickg]

VIRGINS!!

alright, i'm ready for a discussion about vir....oh wait...you said Virginians....nevermind!!

[207]

Oh, the Virginians.. That's the old cowboy western series isn't it??

[FLLawdog]

If you wanna know how one Virginia dialect sounds, watch a NASCAR race and listen up for an interview with Ward Burton or Elliot Sadler. ESPECIALLY Ward!

Virginia is very unique. You have the mountains, you have the coast and you have urban areas. It's a true melting pot of various cultures and ways of life.

[Bill R]

KCadet is correct in that there are distinctly different accents in Virginia. I do however, take issue with his statement that Northern Virginians speak "correctly" though! Folks in the Tidewater speak very differently than people in the Mountains. People in the Piedmont have yet a different accent. Many of the folks in Northern Virginia talk like yankees

[Mike Tx]

Virginia is very unique. You have the mountains, you have the coast and you have urban areas. It's a true melting pot of various cultures and ways of life.

Sounds like Texas.

[kateykakes]

Originally posted by Bill R:
Many of the folks in Northern Virginia talk like yankees

I have a lot of relatives in Virginia. My mom comes from a very big family (including my mom, there are 13 kids). She was raised not far from Wytheville, VA and the drawl is very prominent.

A lot of those relative live up near the D.C. area (Springfield, Manassas, Alexandria, Haymarket). I spent a lot of summers in those areas growing up, and although there is a distinct difference in the drawl between Northern and Southern VA, it still so sounds so Southern to me!

I'm partial to the YANKEE accent! Nothing like a NYC accent or the sweet sounds of someone from MA. My two faves, although I love the Jersey and Philly accents.

[ 06-20-2002: Message edited by: kateykakes ]

[KCadet]

I'm just going by what I've heard over the 13 yrs I've been in VA. I moved from San Diego when I was five and moved to Chesapeake and Virginia Beach in southern VA. They definitely talk with a drawl there! Then I moved to Fairfax in northern VA and they talked more "proper" (in other words, you could actually understand them). Now I'm in central VA, and people here just talk weird.

[Tom]

I am a lurker on this board and a kid (17 y/o) from VA. I am originally from Chesapeake and now live on the Peninsula. What everyone has said here is about right. Fredericksburg is the true North-South line, forget the Mason-Dixon Line. The Virginia welcome center is near Fredericksburg, but if you drive in VA from the north you're welcomed by the center an hour after you actually entered VA. Northern Virginia ain't Virginia. Except for yankees, people south of Fredericksburg generally have some form of a drawl.

For local color I don't really know what to say. Our natural scenery is magnificent in Virginia, as good as any other state I've been in, though I haven't been to the left coast. There are beautiful mountains in the west and beaches in the east. I love Virginia and would never live anywhere else.

[KCadet]

Hey Tom! You hit the nail on the head, man! I live just north of Fredericksburg. That's why I said I live in central VA. No one really knows what side of the line we're on so I put myself in the middle.

BTW Tom. Check your PM.

[ 06-20-2002: Message edited by: KCadet ]

[shadows]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Thanks

I'm thinking Virginia Beach area, mostly. The Virginia Beach area's less moneyed folk.

No, this has nothing to do with Mr. King. Nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing!

The kid wasn't too vocal the first half of the book but now he found his tongue, and I'm like whoops! From the sound of it, he'd better drawl....