I enjoy conversing with people with southern accents - As long as we can mutually poke fun at each other without any feelings getting hurt.

I have told this story here before, but here goes again. Years ago, I moved from Joliet, Illinois to Carbondale to attend SIU. My landlord was an older man who lived in a small town named Grand tower on the Illinois shore of the Mississippi River. Orval was making fun of my harsh Chicago area accent when I grabbed a pen and a notepad and wrote this on the pad:

tire
tar
Grand Tower

I then asked Orval to pronounce each of the above.

Orval replied "Tar, tar, Grand Tar."

I said "Orval, anyone who pronounces each of those three words the same should not be making fun of me."

He never teased me again about my accent.

I cringe when I hear anyone use a southern accent.

Ha, they wish they could speak like me

I guess it might make southerners cringe. Much like the English cringe when they hear Americans trying to speak with an English accent.

Oh yes. Especially those Outback Steakhouse commercials. I boycott the venue just because of this annoyance....plus I'm veg. How hard is it to hire a real Aussie?

A note on American actors and foreign accents.

When I watch a movie, it is for the content of the movie. Of course, really inept acting, bad dialogue, and bumbling accents lessen the overall enjoyment. Never having lived anywhere but Midwestern USA, my exposure to Australian, French, German, etc. accents has been entirely through the media, including movies. This post sparked a memory of having read an article titled "The Ten Worst Irish Accents in Hollywood Movies." Sean Connery and Julia Roberts both made the list twice. Here is a link:

[irishcentral.com]

Speaking of Irish accents, I am grateful that John Wayne was not asked to attempt to do an Irish accent in the movie QUIET MAN. I copied explanation from a website to which there is a link below.

While writing the script, Ford realized that the movie must accommodate the actors in his studio. The main character, Shawn Kelvin, grew up in Ireland, moved to America, and then returned to Ireland according to the story. However, the only choice Ford had as the main character was John Wayne. John Wayne could not effectively talk with an Irish accent. Thus, Ford decided Shawn would grow up in America rather than Ireland preventing the need for an Irish accent. This is one example of how Ford changed the story to accommodate the actors.

[123helpme.com]

The "Southern Accent" probably has more nuances than any other American accent. Natives of Western Kentucky, Alabama, and West Virginia are all said to have southern accents, yet each sounds very different from the other two.

Yes, I do cringe when I hear a person tried to mimic or imitate the southern pronunciation. For example, a married couplet I know who both grew up in the Chicago area moved to Kentucky 30 years ago. To this day, I cringe when I hear either of them say "y'all." It just does not sound the same as when a native Kentuckian says it. I have an acquaintance who went to college at Vanderbilt, and hearing him try to pronounce "Nashville" the way the natives do is extra cringeworthy. Here are a couple more southern cities that many non-Southerners have difficulty pronouncing: Louisville and New Orleans. It continues to amaze me every time I hear a nationally known NCAA basketball announcer say "Looey ville."

No offense to anyone, but being born and raised in the South, I cringe whenever I hear a southern accent, period. But the poor imitations do make me cringe slightly more.

That probably only happens if you're originally from the south.

I am from Kentucky but live in the hills of Ohio. There are many variations of a southern accent and Appalachian accents are also varied from north to south. It takes time and practice to really pull it off. I can switch from Ohio Appalachian to Kentucky Southern if I am around the folks who are speaking it. Fun stuff.

Some actors get it just right. How about “No Country for Old Men”? That sounded genuine to me, but I’m not a Texan.

There are many southern accents. Where they botch it, IMO, is when they mix them all up and don’t differentiate between social groups.

i wouldn't dare cringe about any accent, having a persistent german one myself in an attempt to speak aussie

Worse is Australian doing American.

It is worse for me when they try and Aussie accent.