Is "Southernification" of rural America happening? [View all]

[Buckeye_Democrat]

In general around the entire country, I mean?

I've been wondering for many months if most of my coworkers were immigrants from the South, based on how they talked, so I finally decided to ask the Southern-sounding people this week where they grew up as children.

To my surprise, all of them (except one from TN) stated they were born and raised in Ohio (not too far from our workplace)! And they still live there, always small RURAL towns. Some of them even said that their ancestors were farmers in Ohio for over a couple hundred years!

Yet I'm old enough to recall when people from those small towns did NOT talk like Southerners! On a related note, I also remember when I'd NEVER see a Confederate flag around here, but now I expect to see them if I drive on a nearby rural road.

So are these local rural people TRYING to talk like Southerners now?!

Before posting this topic on DU, I did a Google search and found someone else likewise pondering the "Southernification of Rural America":
https://modelcitizen.substack.com/p/the-density-divide-and-the-southernification