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Tidewater Accent is an American English accent and is also a dialect.

It is a type of Southern accent found along the coastal Eastern Seaboard Region of the United States as far north as The Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is principally associated with the Tidewater region of Virginia, including the Hampton Roads region, and with the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

This accent was 'inherited' from the early English settlers, and has evolved for 400 years in most of the region. A notable exception of interest to linguists is tiny isolated Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay because its people speak a totally unique dialect of American English, hypothesized to be nearly unchanged since the days of its first occupation by English colonists. Each of the original surnames and several of the present surnames on the island originated in the British Isles particularly Cornwall.

House is pronounced houes,
Out is pronounced ouet,
A Thousand is pronounced ah thoesend,
Wipe is pronounced wahp,
Door is pronounced Dow-ah

Floor is pronounced flow-ah

Store is pronounced stow,
Water is pronounced wah-duh,
Down is pronounced Day-own

See also

• Hampton Roads
• Tidewater region of Virginia

External links

• Virginia’s Many Voices

• Articles lacking sources from April 2008
• American English
• Southern United States