From Matthew McConaughey‘s signature drawl, to the dulcet tones of Reese Witherspoon and Renée Zellweger, the Southern American accent is synonymous with a number of Hollywood blockbusters.

But perhaps not for much longer.

That’s because new research suggests the classic accent in dying out among younger people — with Generation X particularly to blame.

Scientists observed the most notable change between baby boomers and those born between 1965 and 1982, when the accent fell off a cliff. 

‘We found that, here in Georgia, white English speakers’ accents have been shifting away from the traditional Southern pronunciation for the last few generations,’ said lead author Margaret Renwick, associate professor at the University of Georgia (UGA).  

Iconic: Matthew McConaughey’s signature southern drawl is well known, but new research suggests the classic accent in dying out among younger people – with Generation X particularly to blame

Along with the dulcet tones of Reese Witherspoon (pictured) and Renée Zellweger, the Southern American accent is synonymous with a number of Hollywood blockbusters

READ MORE: Why ARE Gen Z Americans putting on British accents?

‘Today’s college students don’t sound like their parents, who didn’t sound like their own parents.’

She added: ‘We had been listening to hundreds of hours of speech recorded in Georgia and we noticed that older speakers often had a thick Southern drawl, while current college students didn’t.’

Professor Renwick said this in turn led them to ask the question ‘which generation of Georgians sounds the most Southern of all?’

‘We surmised that it was baby boomers, born around the mid-20th century,’ she added.

‘We were surprised to see how rapidly the Southern accent drops away starting with Gen X.’

The team of researchers are the first to identify the accent shift in Georgia. 

Their analysis was based on recordings of white people native to Georgia who were born from the late 19th century to the early 2000s, with the researches specifically focusing on the way the speakers pronounced vowels.

They found that older Georgians pronounced the word ‘prize’ as prahz and ‘face’ as fuh-eece, but the youngest speakers use prah-eez and fayce.  

‘Changes to the diphthong in “prize” are the oldest characteristic pronunciation in Southern speech, that can be traced back well over 100 years,’ Professor Renwick said. 

‘The Southern pronunciation of words like “face” emerged in the early 20th century. These are distinctive features of the traditional Southern drawl.’

Analysis: Researchers found that older Georgians pronounced the word ‘prize’ as prahz and ‘face’ as fuh-eece, but the youngest speakers use prah-eez and fayce

‘The demographics of the South have changed a lot with people moving into the area, especially post World War II,’ said co-author Jon Forrest, UGA assistant professor in the department of linguistics. 

He added that what scientists had observed in Georgia was part of an overall shift not just in other southern states but across the wider US as well. 

‘We are seeing similar shifts across many regions, and we might find people in California, Atlanta, Boston and Detroit that have similar speech characteristics,’ Professor Forrest explained.  

As linguistic patterns differ for other ethnic groups, the researchers now want to study cross-generational accents among African Americans, too.

The new study has been published in the journal Language Variation and Change.

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Call for the Dead

by John le Carré (Penguin Modern Classics £9.99, 176pp)

With this, his first novel, John le Carré introduces us to George Smiley, a short, fat, bespectacled intelligence officer whose shambolic appearance belies a talent for detecting what others fail to see or choose to ignore.

The story opens with Smiley in trouble. Having cleared a middle-ranking civil servant as a security risk, the man is found shot dead, having apparently taken his own life. In defiance of his superiors, who are keen to close the case, Smiley embarks on his own investigation.

With the help of Inspector Mendel, a stolid policeman on the edge of retirement, he enters the shadowy world of international subterfuge, where violence is second nature to the hunters of state secrets.

Smiley’s task is made harder by his realisation that a former friend and ally is now his chief antagonist. With Call for the Dead, John le Carré was established as the leading writer of authentic spy fiction.

The Wheel Spins

by Ethel Lina White (British Library Crime Classics £9.99, 256pp)

Forget the film, read the book. When Alfred Hitchcock purloined the basic plot of The Wheel Spins for his classic 1938 movie, The Lady Vanishes, he did no favours to Ethel Lina White, whose original work, battered by screen competition, fell from sight. But there is a big difference between the two versions.

Whereas Hitchcock made the disappearance of a tweedy governess on a transcontinental train into a spy story, the novel is more a psychological battle of wits between Iris, a fiercely independent young lady, and her fellow passengers. Why do they deny the existence of Miss Froy? Could it be that Iris is suffering from delusions?

There is a doctor on board intent on persuading her to rest and to accept the support of a young admirer who is equally convinced that she needs medical help.

How Iris comes through it all to rescue Miss Froy is a fabulous masterwork of frustration in a mental and intellectual battle against the odds.

Murder in Merrywell 

by Jane Bettany (HQ £8.99, 320pp)

Emerging from a painful divorce, ex-journalist Violet Brewster moves to the Peak District for a fresh start. Hoping to make a living in video production, her first commission is to record the history of the local parish.

Long-standing residents seem only too happy to share their memories of people and places. But not all is easy going for our intrepid sleuth.

When she starts to ask questions about the unexplained disappearance of a woman 40 years earlier, there are signs of hostility. Ignoring advice to mind her own business, Violet redoubles her efforts, undeterred even when an elderly villager, willing to share long-held secrets, is found dead.

The problem with cosy crime is that much of it is so laid back as to induce slumber. Happily, Jane Bettany triumphs over this hazard with a thoroughly enjoyable and suspenseful story.

Classic British childhood dinners such as jacket potatoes and beans on toast are disappearing from dinner tables across the country in favour of more sophisticated roast chicken and Mexican tacos, a survey has found.    

A quarter of children under 10 have never tried toad-in-the-hole and one in five have not tasted spaghetti hoops, according to the poll.    

As many as 27 per cent have never had cream of tomato soup, while a quarter (25 per cent) haven’t tried tuna pasta bake.

Experts said health-conscious parents determined to pack nutrients into their children’s meals were prompting the changes to meal-times, as well as social media, where ideas for more adventurous dinner ideas can be shared. 

Almost two thirds (64 per cent) of the parents surveyed said the food their children eat is very different from what they were served in their youth, with half claiming many classic dinners are not healthy enough. 

A quarter of modern children have never tried toad in the hole – once a classic dinner – and the popularity of jacket potatoes could also be declining… 

Cream of tomato soup and chicken nuggets and chips are some old school classics

Fish finger sandwiches and tuna pasta bake are perhaps not as popular as they once were

In the survey, 77 per cent agreed that meals such as fish fingers are seen as old-fashioned and outdated now. 

Toad-in-the-hole (24 per cent), frozen burgers (20 per cent) and spaghetti hoops on toast (19 per cent) made the list of children’s dinners falling out of favour.

Instead, children are more likely to be served so-called superfoods such as avocado, a key ingredient in tacos and burritos, both of which made the top ten most popular family dinners, and eggs, which are also rich in brain-boosting omega-3.

Roast chicken and spaghetti bolognese topped the list of the most popular choices.  

Children today also seem to have more sophisticated palates. Some 48 per cent of parents regularly serve Italian classic carbonara, 37 per cent make the Mexican staple dish tacos and 36 per cent often give their children a French omelette and salad.  

However, old-fashion British favourite dippy eggs and soldiers remain a fixture of family dinner tables (40 per cent), as does shepherd’s pie (57 per cent).  

Andrew Joret, spokesman for British Lion Eggs, which commissioned the survey of 2,000 British parents, said social media : ‘Kids’ meal preferences, and what their parents choose to feed them, seems to be changing with nutrition and social media both impacting choices.

Spaghetti bolognese and carbonara feature on the list of popular modern favourites

Lasagne and ‘dippy eggs and soldiers’ are also modern favourites for families 

Burritos and tacos are new favourites, as a survey shows how children’s meals have changed

‘However, our survey shows that eggs remain a constant favourite as they are nutrient-rich, quick, easy and affordable, and parents can serve them runny to children of all ages including babies when they are stamped with the Lion mark.’

Overall, 87 per cent of parents said they enjoy getting their children involved in cooking meals, which leads to them being more adventurous.

The Widow Couderc

(Penguin Classics £10.99, 192pp)

by Georges Simenon

(Penguin Classics £10.99, 192pp)

Along with 83 Maigret novels, Simenon found time to explore the wider reaches of the criminal mind. For The Widow Couderc he follows in the wake of Jean, a destitute ex-convict, as he wanders aimlessly in the French countryside hoping for something to turn up.

His luck seems to be in when he encounters Tati, a rugged widow who singlehandedly runs a farm. For board and lodging, Jean is taken on as a farmhand, a role that soon extends to the bedroom.

But an easy-going relationship comes under strain when Tati’s estranged family threaten to take over the farm, while Tati herself fears losing Jean to a rival.

First published in 1942, there is never any doubt that this poignant story will end tragically. But once started there is no turning back. The genius of Simenon, aided by a brilliant translation, compels the eye and captures the heart.

Sepulchre Street

(Head of Zeus £20, 400pp)

by Martin Edwards

(Head of Zeus £20, 400pp)

Rachel Savernake is a 1930s feminist of independent means, who brings beauty and brains to her mission to expose the seamier side of high society.

Her latest adventure finds her at a surrealist exhibition where the artist displays live models to re-enact violent deaths. The artist herself features as Marie Antoinette on the guillotine. A performance that turns horribly real when the blade falls.

The suicide verdict is beyond question, except that before the fatal act, the victim had appealed to Rachel to unmask whoever had forced her to take her own life.

With a star-struck crime reporter in tow, Rachel embarks on a delightfully convoluted plot involving a glamourous courtesan with royal connections, a Soho gangster bent on revenge and a hit man who leaves nothing to chance.

In treating us to what is as much a thriller as a traditional mystery, Edwards hits all the right notes to create a palpable hit.

At Bertram’s Hotel

(HarperCollins £12.99, 272pp)

by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins £12.99, 272pp)

Braving the aches and pains of advancing age, Miss Marple is in London, resting up in the comfort of an Edwardian-style hotel catering for the better class of out-of-towners. But something is not quite right about the place.

Some of the guests strike a discordant note, while the staff are just too obsequiously attentive. It is not long before trouble erupts.

When an elderly clergyman goes missing and a man is shot dead in a nearby street, Miss Marple leaves it to the avuncular Chief Inspector Fred Davy to do the leg work in exposing the corruption that underpins the hotel’s façade of impeccable respectability. But while ostensibly concentrating on her knitting, it is Miss Marple’s powers of observation that clinch the case.

With a plot that ranks high in the Christie canon, At Bertram’s Hotel is reissued as a handsomely designed hardback, the perfect gift to oneself or a deserving friend.

Private Lessons

by Bernard O’Keefe

Private Lessons by Bernard O’Keefe

(Muswell Press £9.99, 368pp)

With the violent death of a private tutor to the mega rich, Inspector Garibaldi is pitched into the world of hothouse parenting. For those in the money, no price is too high for access to the best schools and universities.

Garibaldi finds that the late tutor — young, good looking and charming — had a devoted roster of students, none of whom will hear a word against him. Even so, he is convinced they are holding something back. Likewise their parents, whose priority is to protect their façade of upper-crust gentility.

While Garibaldi struggles to make sense of what appears to be a motiveless crime, the complications multiply with a succession of knife-point threats against the victim’s friends and fellow tutors.

As the secrets of the sheltered life of entitlement begin to emerge, the twists and turns of an exceptionally clever plot make for compulsive reading. In this, the second of the Garibaldi mysteries, Bernard O’Keefe proves to be a star turn.

Murder in Dublin

by Christina Koning

Murder in Dublin by Christina Koning

(Allison & Busby £19.99, 284pp)

Blinded in the Great War, Frederick Rowlands finds that his other senses are more than adequate to make his reputation as a private detective.

In this latest in a set of Christina Koning reissues, Rowlands comes to the aid of an old flame whose husband, Lord Castleford, an English-born landowner in Ireland, has been receiving death threats, presumed to be from Irish nationalists.

Castleford refuses to take the threats seriously, even after Rowlands discovers that a riding accident involving his host was deliberately engineered. But matters take a yet more serious turn when Castleford is wrongly accused of the murder of his vindictive half-brother.

Determined to see justice done. Rowlands is caught up in a family too much at war with itself to recognise the enemy within. With vivid characterisation and a keen ear for dialogue, Christina Koning has all the qualities of a first-class mystery writer.

Dear Little Corpses

by Nicola Upson

Dear Little Corpses by Nicola Upson

(Faber £8.99, 320pp)

With the threat of a looming war, a mass evacuation takes children from the cities to the safety of the countryside.

The central character in Nicola Upson’s brilliant mystery series — Josephine Tey, the renowned crime novelist from the golden age — is on hand to welcome the bewildered migrants to her Suffolk village.

When, in the chaos and confusion of a makeshift operation, a young girl vanishes without trace, the blame is put on administrative bungling.

But it soon becomes clear that more is at stake. Not all those who are ready to accept young strangers into their homes are acting selflessly. Ulterior motives begin to surface as Josephine, discreetly supporting her friend, Inspector Penrose, exposes the seamier side of a tight-knit community.

The pain of separation and loss is a recurring theme of a story that, for Josephine, takes on a personal edge as her lover prepares to leave for America. The unforgettable impact on the reader raises this novel to a class of its own.