<p>Well, that’s certainly true. The southern half has an Ozarkian twang, while the northern half is “TV neutral” in its speech patterns. Lots of states have that kind of dichotomy, or are even more severely demarcated. Kentucky, for example, is really different in about 4 regions. People from Louisville up to the area just across from Cincy, for example, talk more like people from Indiana or Ohio, while just south of there you get a fairly strong southern accent. Then of course there is the whole Appalachian region, and the area in the southwest corner is fairly unique unto itself, somewhat more Ozarkian. It is difficult to generalize about most states. Even here in tiny Rhode Island, the people in the northern part tend to have the Boston accent where the r’s are dropped, only to appear where they don’t seem to belong (“I pahked the cah in Cuber”). People from the southern part have a fairly flat speech pattern.</p>