Southern Accents outside the South

In my opinion, the Philadelphia accent doesn't necessarily strike me as sounding Southern, but certain features are vastly different from my own Inland North dialect and the dialects you will find in New York City and in areas further north. For example, Philadelphia speakers have a different cot/caught distinction than New Yorkers and Inland Northerners. Philadelphians also have a fronted diphthong in words such as "goat" and "boat"; they generally rhyme "on" with "dawn" instead of "don"; they have a very unique pronunciation for words such as "towel"; and they often merge "Merry" with "Murray". All of these examples could put them more into the Southern category, but the Philadelphia accent is very unique, and deserves a category of its own. Baltimore dialects, on the hand, strike me as sounding a bit more Southern, but most variations seem to have Philadelphianesque features.

As for the list you posted, I have never heard anyone from Western New York with Southern dialect features. I'm not saying it's impossible, but people from Western New York generally have a variation of the Inland North dialect. However, it would be very interesting to see the rural examples. Perhaps you could convince your friend from Western New York to upload a speech sample. I can't say that I have ever heard this in speakers from Oakland, but I have noticed it in speakers from the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. I have found it as far north as Columbus, Ohio, but not all Columbus natives have Southern influences.

I am positive that I heard all of these accents in all of the people from the places I mentioned.

Especially the rural areas I mentioned. I wonder if the isolation brings out the drawl, I don't know?

And I do not believe I pronounce merry like Murray. I pronounce merry and Mary the same though. Sort of like the French pronunciation of "mer" for both.

I pronounce caught like kawt because I emphasis the au and cot like c"ah"t.

I don't pronounce on like don, so I guess it its closer to sounding like dawn.

I spent five years in upstate NY, right in the Finger Lakes where you are, Yuppers -- my mom got her master's at Cornell, so congrats on getting in and good luck on your studies -- and I never noticed any kind of southern accent influence there. I later went to school with one guy from Philadelphia -- we called him Philly Steve -- and I never noticed anything even vaguely southern about his speech. But he's a whopping sample of one, so take that for what it's worth. If you do the "cawt" thing I would peg you more as an east coaster than a southerner, myself.

In what geographic regions in the U.S. is there a lack of happy tensing?

I don't know of any... Apparently the traditional upper class Southern Accent.

Interesting... I'm a southerner. I pronounce "Mary," "merry," "marry" and "Murray" each with a different vowel. Another interesting divider - my pronunciation of "comfortable" has four syllables. How many does yours have? :)

What is "happy" tensing?

I say "merry" "Mary" and "marry" the same, but "Murray" is definitely different. I'm from Dallas.

I'm with you, Skip. And we have different accents.

I'm guessing happy tensing is where you alter the A in happy to something else -- a short E, I suppose.

The lack of "happy-tensing" in the South is restricted to the non-rhotic Southern dialects, which are dying out. It's a feature of the Tidewater Dialect of the eastern seaboard, as well as the coastal dialect in Mississippi.

>>I'm guessing happy tensing is where you alter the A in happy to something else -- a short E, I suppose.<<

Furthermore, the actual change you describe there sounds Upper Midwestern not Southern - heh; the form of the NCVS here in southern Wisconsin very often entails historical /æ/, as in "happy", becoming [ɛ̞] or [ɛ] when not markedly stressed, especially amongst younger people...

As a resident of northern Indiana, I've always thought that people in the southern half of the state talk with what seemed to me like a bit of a southern drawl.

<<As a resident of northern Indiana, I've always thought that people in the southern half of the state talk with what seemed to me like a bit of a southern drawl.>>
That's true. I also listened to the way some south Indianans talked, and they had a southern drawl indeed.