Southern Appalachian vs. Northern Appalachian accents

I think the video makes a valid point. I'm from central West Virginia and growing up Griffith's accent seemed natural and familiar to me. I didn't perceive Knotts as having an Appalachian accent, but then again most of the people I talk to from up in the extreme north of West Virginia don't sound like West Virginians to me. I work with a guy from Mt Airy and while his accent seems natural to me he doesn't have the caught/cot merger that I do.

I never noticed this! I’m from Fairmont which is like 30 mins from Morgantown and the accents of northern WV and southern WV are soooo different

The northern West Virginian Appalachian accent seems to be influenced a bit more by those of rust belt states. The northern panhandle being somewhat near Ohio and Pennsylvania also helps.

Knott's was born in WV, Andy was born in NC. Definitely a difference, yet similarities on the vowel stresses. Don has more twang while Andy has more drawl.

I'll take exception to Bobby Lee saying the video is pointless. I think anyone in the acting profession including Griffith is aware of their voice, whether or not they took formal voice lessons. They can speak with the accent they spoke growing up when they want, or they can move their accent closer to General American when they want. I know I can, and I'm not an actor. I don't think Knotts would move away from his natural accent for this role. It's the great thing about these two actors in these roles- they're able to use their natural accents. I hate all the movies that have Californians and New Yorkers doing bad "Southern" accents.

From the mid Ohio valley, West Virginia. My dad always spoke with a mix of them both. People at his work actually nick named him Barney. I have a retirement picture of him with it printed in parentheses.

Northern Appalachia you say. Try where I'm from, Pennsylvania's Northern border with New York. We're Appalachians that are so Northern we're... kinda more Northern than Appalachian.

I have lived in Kentucky all my 77 years . I speak Southern and really Southern .

You must not know this, but Don Knotts took elocution lessons to make his accent less Southern because audiences couldn't understand him. So this is sort of pointless.

West Virginia is not really North. That is Central Appalachia. Virginia is definitely the South. Mount Airy, NC is right near the VA state line.

I was raised in Charleston, West Virginia and i grew up hearing some native West Virginians speak more of a northern accent while others spoke with more of a southern accent.

While these are certainly Appalachian accents I feel like Tennessee and northern Alabama (where I'm from) have some of the strongest accents

Mount airy worships Andy. My grandparents couldn’t stand him in highschool tho lol

My mother, her two sisters and brother were from Morgantown (WVA) and I think my mom and her sister's must be tone deaf b/c they have no accent and my uncle had a thick one. Their parent's both had noticeable southern accent's. Maybe it is less these days. I spent summer's in Grafton and Clarksburg and everyone I met had strong accents. I live in NY metro area now. I am familiar with all of New England as well as mid-Atlantic. West Virginia is not like any of that. It's not just majority rural, but southern.

The show had "mess" of different accents that were not Appalachian, but from different parts of the South or the north.

I'm from eastern Ohio, my grandparents are from northern West Virginia. Don Knotts' accent always sounded a bit familiar to me and I never even realized I even HAD an accent until my ex pointed it out to me when we were still together hehe.

I love Andy Griffith show and Barney came from west virginia.

The abolishment of slavery?

I don't know what any of THIS has to do with accent variations but think it's funny how nobody knows anything about an act that freed people you hardly EVER see in this show🤷🏼‍♂️😮👦🏾. 🤓😎✌🏼

Mr Goldstein, I love this video. Please let me ask, what do you think of the European people as well as their descendents here in the United States?