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

It is spoken in the coastal Eastern Seaboard Region of the United States from 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 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 in Scotland, and the accent has a distinctly Celtic flavor, similar to those in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Cornwall, 4 of the 6 Celtic nations.

Examples of Tidewater accent

"House" is pronounced with a tighter pronunciation of the vowel; the vowel sounds closer to a long 'o.'

Door is pronounce "doe" (without the r)

Wipe is pronounced "wap"

Store is pronounced "stow"

Fish is pronounced "feesh"

House is pronounced "hoese" (long o)

Hog is pronounced "hoeg" (also long o)

Speakers of the Tidewater accent:

• Louis L. Goldstein
• Pat Robertson
• John Warner (U.S. Senator)

See also

• Hampton Roads
• Tidewater region of Virginia

• American English
• Southern United States