Twang vs drawl vs accent?

[belly_ttt]

what are the differences between 'twang', 'drawl' and 'accent'?

[jlinger]

A twang is a nasal quality. Hold your nose, speak, twang.

To drawl is to speak slowly. Or as my Southern sister told me once, "accentuate the vowels" and as she said it, she drew out each vowel sound. Voila! Southern Drawl!

An accent is any difference in speech patter from your own.

[Tdol]

On BrE, a 'twang' can also be used when someone has a regional accent, though not very strong.

[dragn]

"Twang" can also refer to the Chicago Twang, or a rather nasally overemphasis on short vowel sounds (especially short a and short o) that is characteristic of the greater Chicago area. It fades somewhat once you get outside Cook County.

Greg

[belly_ttt]

I heard the phrase twang used in "Southern twang". How is that different from "Southern accent" and "Southern nasal drawl"?

[dragn]

I heard the phrase twang used in "Southern twang". How is that different from "Southern accent" and "Southern nasal drawl"?

I don't have a PhD in linguistics, but I strongly suspect they all refer to essentially the same thing. Incidentally, for what it's worth, in the South they usually call it a drawl: not a twang or a nasal whatever (assuming they call it anything at all, of course, since for them it's normal).

Greg

[jlinger]

It is not a Southern twang. It's a drawl.