Question: What countries influenced the development of the Southern accent?
Answer: Linguists have found that the Southern accent is influenced by the British, Irish, and Scottish accents of early U.S. settlers, and that there are two kinds of Southern accents: coastal and inland. Their differences are mainly related to how vowels are pronounced. Coastal accents still include many pronunciations influenced by early European settlers, while the inland accent has become more of its own dialect—deeper, richer, and more drawn out. It’s the accent typically associated with the classic Southern drawl.
