ATHENS — A collaborative study between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech has found the classic Southern accent is undergoing rapid change in Georgia. The instigator? Generation X.
“We found that, here in Georgia, white English speakers’ accents have been shifting away from the traditional Southern pronunciation for the last few generations,” Margaret Renwick, an associate professor in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of linguistics and lead on the study, said. “Today’s college students don’t sound like their parents, who didn’t sound like their own parents.”
The Gwinnett Daily Post is a daily newspaper published in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and serves as the county's legal organ. The newspaper is owned by Times-Journal Inc. and prints Wednesday and Sunday each week.