Six years might seem like long enough for the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson to master the melodious Baltimore accent, but please take into account that he spends maybe half the year here.
So there’s really nothing wrong with his recent feeble attempts at sounding local.
Nobody should give him crap for this. He’s got a point about his upbringing. Maybe it’s not even possible to go from a Floridian accent to a Baltimore one. I would call a linguistics professor to find out the answer, but I assume they all have real work to do and this simply is not that important.
Because much of the fault here lies with Complex! The words Lamar was given do not lend themselves to proper Baltimore-ification. They’re too short. Yes, people say “you” in a distinct way here, but to experience the full glory of the accent you must identify words and phrases that utilize its entire spectrum. This accent needs space to unfurl.
One time I was driving and listening to a sporting event on the radio. It happened to be sponsored by “wells farGOEHHH” and “heWM dePOEEEHHHH.” I almost drove off the road. The pronunciation of all these words, in quick succession, being read by a local radio voice interrupting the purposely bland Announcer Guy that had been calling the game … it was majestic.
Here’s the crazy thing: All Complex really had to do to let Lamar find his footing with this accent was give him the chance to pronounce the name of his own teammate: Odafe Oweh.
