ABSTRACT
Roughly speaking, there are three general dialects spoken in the South. These comprise what is commonly called the Southern dialect. Actors often erroneously use this hybrid speech for a character who lives any-
where in southern United States, thus making no distinction between lowland, mountain, or coastal areas. The three main dialect divisions of the South are as follows:
1. The general Southern dialect is spoken by approximately 30,000,000 persons in the southern low country, exclusive of the segregated mountain districts and of the Tidewater region. This includes the states of Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware (except the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia Peninsula and along the eastern coast to South Carolina), Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, southern Illinois, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, and Texas, excluding the southeast section.
