“One way to handle stereotypes about Southerners was to stop acting Southern….Sociologist Lewis Killian interviewed a young woman in the late 1940s who had successfully dropped her Southern accent and spoke Northern, at least most of the time.
” ‘When I went to Columbus, Ohio, from North Carolina, they called me … hillbilly, stumpjumper and all that stuff. Right then I decided to get rid of my accent. The only time I talk like a Southerner now is when I get schnapps under my belt.’ ‘
— From “The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America” by James N. Gregory (2007)
Reminds me of asking directions in Bainbridge, MA. I know the woman was speaking English, of a sort, but I could not understand a word she said. It made for a silly and unsatisfactory conversation.