re: How long does it take for me to develop a southern accent?

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Unless your spouse has one, you probably won't. There's so much media now that people hear neutral accents way more than their regional ones

Accent is nearly dead among the younger generation in the suburbs.

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Bingo. Quite a few books and a good amount of research has gone into studying the loss/decline of regional or geographical dialects and accents. It pretty much comes down to the fact that we've shrunk the world via technology, exposing people to other dialects/accents from a very early age. In the past the average person could live their entire life within the same few hollers, and never be exposed to any outsiders. Now, all it takes is a cell phone or a TV remote.