European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 the stars and stripes saturday october 26, 1985 Southern folks fixin to Gussie up the Way they talk toddy s crossword Sybil Plohmann United press International some. Southern folks Reckin y All heard bout enough of Dawes and Young uns and awl the kind you put in your Vee Hickle so they re Lixin to set a spell and Gussie up the Way they talk Gist a bit. They ate adding a Lew letters dropping a Lew syllables and trying like Heck to say right Here instead of rat it s just a matter of self improvement said Gary Harris. 45, an Atlanta lawyer who enrolled in a How to lose your Southern accent class. It s not so much thai i Don t want to be a southerner anymore but i just want to speak the drawl is a fixture of Southern life. Often maligned and frequently mimicked it is always an ear Catcher North of the Mason Dixon Lino. More than a few southerners can recall a childhood trip to new York or Pennsylvania or Michigan where they were constant hounded by Northern pals to say that As a result. Southerners always have been defensive and protective of their accent and proud. The drawl is to the South what the statue of Liberty is to new York City. It s the first thing you encounter when you visit there. As network television and widespread travel blur regional boundaries dialects lose their Sharpness and in some cases their desirability. With a growing number of Southern professionals believing their Success can hinge on the Way they talk and sound to non southerners classes such As the one Harris attended Are popping up around the South. Said one speech pathologist. Thirty years ago. Southern dialect was Normal speech in the South. Now it s becoming them o lighting word. Many southerners can raise a ruckus at the despicable notion of ending words with Ings instead of simply in others Are infuriated at the thought of sounding like northerners. After All in some cases the drawl was about the Only thing the Union did t take after the civil War. Lewis Grizzard. An Atlanta newspaper columnist and staunch southerner took a Tongue in Cheek swipe at his neighbors who would willingly make their lips move in a less than southerly direction. I say if you Are going to classes to lose your Southern accent you Are turning your Back on your heritage and i Hope you wind up working behind the counter of a convenience store with three iranians and a former shiite holy Man Grizzard wrote in a recent column. Last year a television report on a Chattanooga tenn., class for those wanting to dilute their Southern accents caused a local tempest. Teacher Beverly Inman Ebel a speech pathologist reports people complained she was inking the South out of the South. While some speech teachers would just As soon erase a yonder and a mess of grits trom the language not All take hat approach. Sandy linear president of speakeasy inc. An Atlanta firm that conducts Public speaking seminars for executives across America encourages clients to clean up their bad habits but retain their accent Southern or otherwise. If you Start fooling around with accents. You re asking people to change a Basic part of said Linver who still bares a hint of her Canadian upbringing in her speech. Inman Ebel agrees. It s almost easier to learn a foreign language than to unlearn an she said because it becomes such a part of billio sue Knittel 28, an Atlanta native enrolled in a class to shape up her speaking ability at the urging of her employer a dentist who shuddered every time she answered the Telephone. He s a Yankee and he said i talked too Southern for him Knittel said. I have some trouble with vowels words like fillings give me problems. I was calling them feelings " Shelly Friedman a speech pathologist has been teaching Killel Harris and others since she started her classes earlier this year. When i first started teaching this i did t think anyone would be interested Friedman said. But i be been surprised. I just got a letter rom a Man who heard about the classes and wants to franchise Friedman a native ohioan. Says she teaches general american dialect but stops Short of pushing her students to abolish their Southern accent altogether. I want them to keep what they be got. I just want to trim the edges a Little she said. Friedman said the Southern drawl is typified by vowels being held Loo Long and is being chopped of the end of words. Articulation is the biggest problem. The first thing i Tell people is they have to open their Friedman said. But changing deeply embedded speech habits is a difficult task. Adults str Iii in Friedman s classes with an array of sounds. A common practice phrase comes out Hal Nal brain there Are different accents within the South. In parts of Virginia and North Carolina a mouse in the sounds a lot like a Moose in the it s still music to Linver s ears. She says Good grammar proper body language and the right delivery can turn an accent into an asset rather than a liability. I believe we should be Tho Best of what we Are Linver said. But in accents disappeared it would make life much less interesting to us he wok r across 1 amoeba Lik mass5 1/h action 9 Tittle. Shankar Planta tinn 14 hew15 footnote ahhr.16 King if comedy 1 7 marsh18 healthy 19 take in20 incline tion21 archaic 23 period 25 blunders28 rarely 32 floating33 loud speaker noise 34 desert sight 36 Petty officer37 Nancy s spouse 38 sprite by Jekjen Sheffer 39 Church 55 salad Dis part 56 sea eagles 42 the works down1 Witch concoction 2 tardy 3 Al lip tical 4 menu tolerates 6 rider"7 speech ifies8 Beach Shade 9 Auu 10 yoked 44 Iro obscure 48 min output 49 actor Jannings 60 51 Broadi cast 52 reminder 53 the Lone Ranger s la St name54 Alfalfa beasts avg. Solution time 28 Man. 11 by top20 energetic person22 24 is Soldier 25 Slang leg 26 the greatest 27 supporting 29 clock up 30man mouse 31 Gam pieces 35 tooth cover 38 "chicken"39 Bible Sailor 40 met offering41 excess sively43 bean choice45 state 46 Hammett s the curse"47 con cludes49 print units 10-26 Ann. To yesterday s Puzzle Nubert want to be when ice Groub Leo put most i Kiev a brain surgeon or a Polito Asj a we wins where ice ctr Havet know arithmetic
