| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
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| SOUTH MIDLAND REGIONAL DIALECT |
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| This is one of the two main divisions of the regional dialect that other Americans often incorrectly believe all Southerners speak. (Southern is the other.) South Midland occurs in the high country and inland in all the southern states below the Ohio River, as well as through the lower Mississippi valley, the Ozarks, Oklahoma, and the Texas panhandle. Unlike Southern, South Midland retains its r coloration; it also has a number of vowels, diphthongs, and other features peculiarly its own (to Northern ears, South Midland pen sounds like pin, and think like thank, for example). It shares certain linguistic features with Southern, and it also shares many with North Midland, the dialect of the Midwest below the Great Lakes and of the states of the Central Mississippi valley. | 1 |
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| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
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