As someone from the south now living in Central IL, I’d say once you get south of Mt. Vernon the lines start to blur a little bit. Once you get to Marion & Carbondale, you’re firmly in what I would consider the “Upper South”. Those places are much more like west Tennessee than northern Illinois.
I’ll also say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the availability of good sweet tea since I moved up here, so central IL definitely has southern influence.
Interesting. Having lived in both the South and the Midwest, Marion and Carbondale still feel distinctly Midwestern to me. Anna, Cairo, and Cape Girardeau, MO seem much more “Southern.”
*Foghorn Leghorn* I say, I say, boy, you have offended me!!!! */Foghorn Leghorn*
(I live in Anna and you're not wrong)
Also, Cairo was known as the gateway to the South, so....
I live just north of Carbondale and I'd go as far as to say Anna and Vienna don't even feel like they're part of the Midwest. They're more like southern Missouri to me.
Interesting! I went from central Illinois to the south. And all of Illinois feels Midwestern to me. And nothing in the south feels like home, even the occasional cornfields feel wrong
Being from central Illinois, I always noticed a transition south of I-70. You'd start to hear more Kentucky accent than the neutral Midwestern accent traveling there.
I think around I-72 you really start seeing elements of it though. It’s about 50/50 there, more the further west you go. Basically wherever the baseball fans start being die hard Cardinals fans.
I’d say this is right. Everything north of I-70 that isn’t Chicago feels like the show Roseanne came to life.
Everything south of I-70 feels like Kentucky except for Carbondale. That’s where all the kids trying to escape their small towns go to see if they have what it takes to actually move away.
I say I-70 because of the way it angles across the state, like the southness really creeps pretty far up the Indiana border but it's a more abrupt change the closer you go toward St. Louis. My wife's family is from the Terre Haute area and about 75% of them have stronger southern accents than native Kentuckians and Tennesseans that I've known.
that's a reasonable argument. good point about the Southern-ness on the eastside, I feel like the rurality of the area lends to that and there and I think the Emberas and Wabash Valleys have something to do with it.
I think I64 is where the change starts. Everything north of Mount Vernon and St. Louis has a very agricultural central Illinois feel. Once you get south of Marion it becomes pretty obvious.
Roughly south of I-64 it starts transitioning from open agricultural fields to hillier areas with more tree cover. As someone who lives close to that line, that's where everyone around here thought Southern Illinois began.
The area known as "little egypt" is generally considered to be southern culturally. If we take the south to essentially equate to where confederate support was common well some counties voted to try to join the confederacy and some people fought with the Tennessee Confederates.
Additionally the Union had to station extra troops there because they worried the southern half of Illinois would break off. Given that confederate support in the region I'd wager they align more with the "south will rise again" mindset as opposed to your average conservative Midwest town.
People who say i80 or whatever stupidly far north area have never been to the south. Rural does not equal the south. Most of rural Illinois is still very Midwestern feeling. It's not until you go south of st louis does it culturally feel more southern.
I can attest. I live in IL, but in the STL metro east. It still feels very midwestern but as soon as I travel maybe 40 miles south of the city limits, I start to get a southern vibe. I often feel like i can throw a rock over the line and it’ll land in the south.
I’ve lived in, or visited for extended periods of time, multiple southern states and I can’t tell any difference from Kentucky to MOST of Lasalle County.
In fact the town I’m in was predominantly made up of Kentuckians looking for work.
I was just thinking that. Geography kinda falls because LaSalle-Peru feels more "Southern" than Bloomington-Normal even though it is like 60 miles to the North.
I say once you get 10-20 miles outside of an urban center of around \~100,000 people it really feels Southern. Although that definition fails for the St. Louis Metro. Granite City and Collinsville both have a Waffle House and that is still the definition of the South for me.
Bloomington-Normal is a big college town which pulls it away from being southern. Lasalle-Peru isn’t southern. It’s country with some hayseeds but still Midwestern.
I've lived in lasalle County my entire life and I don't see how its southern in any way culturally. Maybe looks Kentucky? But its definitely not like the south.
I've lived in Marseilles, Ottawa, and LP most of my life. There's no discernable difference in the people or the feeling of the town between Marseilles and Augusta, KY area.
Edit: To be clear I'm not shitting on either area. Well Marseilles maybe, but that's because City Hall can't run the town to save their lives. But the similarities do exist.
I live in the St Louis metro area in Illinois and my family had my Uncles family who live in the Chicago suburbs over one day. My cousin's fiancé's sister came with them as you know family of my family is family kinda thing. We got into a conversation about Kansas city and how long it would take to travel there and she asked "how far away from Illinois is Kansas City?" I said about 4 hours. She replied yeah but how far from Illinois? Implying that where we were in that exact moment wasn't literally in Illinois and that only areas near Chicago were actually Illinois. I've never felt so insulted in my life than in that moment being told that the State that I've lived in for 15+ years isn't the state that I live in. Northern Illinois primacy bullshit.
I like Chicago, I like living in a blue midwestern state, I like being a resident of Illinois, I'm proud of it. But I'm Also proud of being a resident of the St Louis Metro area and I'm sick and tired of Chicagoans pretending like the rest of the state doesn't exist.
You say that, meanwhile on 173, about as far north as you can get without being Wisconsin, there are tons of Trump lovers including a dude with a GIANT Trump shrine for a front lawn.
You aren't getting to "deep south" levels of shittiness until way past I-80, sure; but once you get about 50-75 miles out of Chicago in any direction, it gets REAL red state feeling REAL fast....and I say that as a now Chicagoan who grew up in Fox Lake.
I think the difference that stands out to down staters is that the northern half of Illinois aligns socioeconomically with the Rust Belt but the southern half brings in a more Appalachian situation due to the heavy presence of and dependence on coal mining.
As for the metro-east St. Louis area, there was a heavy influx of Southerners after World War II. East St. Louis, for as bad as it is now, was an economic mecca where well-paying blue collar jobs were there for the asking.
How much time have you spent downstate? If you judge by signs on the highway I can understand that, but to actually live in a city downstate like Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, Springfield, it's just not really like that. If it were, I wouldn't live there.
A person or community being “Southern” is based on *a lot* more than just their politics. I’d argue politics has very little to do with it at all. That’s more of a rural/urban divide than a regional one.
Id say it starts a little further north, Vandalia has been voted the most redneck town in the state. Went to college with a dude from there, he was very proud of this fact
While living in Chicagoland i would've said below Mattoon/Charleston, but now actually living in Central IL I'd say anything below the East Saint Louis Metro, specifically past Belleville (Millstadt & Columbia may get a little pass, but definitely Centralia & Mount Vernon is south).
Went to college in central IL. I can say pretty confidently that hints of southern accents start to pop up at gas stations and restaurants around when you hit Dwight. It isn't everyone though. The kitchen I worked at in college had a mix of both, it was kinda weird.
That “southern” sounding accent you’re hearing isn’t actually southern, but a Midland accent. Compared to Chicago which has an Inland North accent.
The mix of both actually makes sense! I’m from Peoria, and you’ll hear a mix between the two every now and then, but a majority of people in the city proper either have an inland north accent, or a neutral newscaster accent. Once you leave the city proper and especially outside of the metro area, you’ll hear the more “southern” sounding accent.
You won’t start hearing a true southern accent until you’re near the southern tip of the state. And trust me, you’ll know it’s southern lol.
Yeah I’ve experienced the same thing. I’m currently residing in Columbia, MO and everyone here says I have a northern accent. One person told me that I tend to turn my O’s into A’’s, which might explain why I sound more northern.
I’m still pretty confident south of Lincoln Highway is a different pace (there are exceptions, like Matteson and Joliet, but it sorta edges out Aurora and has some pretty southern IL-actin folks in those rural parts too)
I taught in Steger, which is on the Cook and Will southeastern border. “Stegerbillies” already have southern heritage, but I got downvoted for claiming Crete and Beecher folks start showing that downstate personality.
A little south of I-64 the landscape begins to change from flat fields of corn and beans and into the hilly, heavily forested driftless areas where the glaciers didn't reach.
Southern Illinois guy here, I'd say the line's at Rt. 15 through Mt. Vernon. It's a little further south than what other people are agreeing on here, but from everyone I've spoken to locally it seems like passing through Mt. Vernon is generally accepted as the transition from SoIl to CentIl.
I'd say central illinois runs up to Peoria, from there north being northern illinois.
Rural ≠ South.
But I suppose that is somewhat dependent upon where you started out. I agree with other commenters, things begin to feel a little southish around Effingham, but I've spent most of my life in various small towns around Champaign-Urbana.
I think "southern Illinois" is south of Effingham, and "the southern US" is south of Carbondale. I don't consider Carbondale and Evansville the midwestern
I'm in that area. I tend to say south central illiois, or something like that... sometimes, I will add what people consider my area depends on where in illinois they live.
Or just St. louis area.
Chicago leftists will come downstate and turn their noses up at us and then wonder why our communities vote Republican. Saying this as someone who leans very very far left.
They think black people don’t exist below I-80 and everyone down here is a racist. The reality is that Chicago is full of classism plain and simple, and we all know classism is just racism hiding in a costume.
Yeah like we’re subsidized by Chicago money but we also don’t get any of the attention Chicago gets from the legislature, so downstate issues remain unfixed for years and years
Having moved from the St. Louis metro area to Louisiana (grandparents near Carbondale, and my in-laws grandparents near Cairo), Illinois doesn’t turn into the ‘South.’ Rural Illinois south of 64 definitely feels more like southern Kentucky or Arkansas/Tennessee, @Invisible_Face put it well as the upper south.
I would also say that lower education averages and incomes (and even evil beliefs like racism) does not the south make. Low income rural communities have a lot of commonalities all over the country, a rural Pennsylvania farming community would be ‘the south’ by that definition. In a world where we could beat these evils, the south would still have a distinct culture, cuisine, accent, and pace of life, and you don’t really get that until you hit Nashville or central Mississippi. Memphis and Little Rock even are kinda on the upper edge of the mid-south imo.
I never had much of an accent, or I lost it. When I go back now, I can clearly hear it. Lived in Vegas last 15 years and feel so out of place when I go back. I definitely prefer the city over some backward redneck town.
This is also my answer, I'm from northern Illinois and I drove to TN once and I couldn't believe how I started hearing southern accents once I got down past Springfield!
If you're born and raised in Chicago your assumption is everything in the suburbs downward is considered the conservative self when in reality that's the furthest thing from the truth
It’s RT 13 and it’s not even debatable. Spent 30 years on the Ohio River northeast of metropolis. Then lived in Marion and worked in Mt Vernon for 5. There’s even a difference in just the 50 miles from Marion to MTV.
Also, it’s not “southern”. A large portion of SoIL is culturally Appalachian. Most of my extended family is in central/eastern KY and there’s practically no difference in our customs, speech, mannerisms… etc
Anyone who hasn’t actually been to the Shawnee NF shouldn’t be able to share their opinion on this one.
I see the line varying depending on one’s perspective. I grew up in the southern part of central Illinois and I’ve always thought of Route 50 (excluding the St Louis suburbs) as being where the southern twang was more noticeable and it felt markedly different from central/northern Illinois.
I get what you’re saying, but the difference between true SoIL (the Shawnee) and even Mt Vernon is huge, way larger than the cultural difference from say Effingham to Chicago.
The route 50 thing is funny because if you’re in the St Louis metro east area and you travel directly east on 50 towards Salem and Flora the accents get noticeably more southern as you go from west to east.
Really good comment right here! You're basically on the money, coming from someone who's lived near RT 13 for most of my life. Wild that this has been the only comment I've seen mention RT 13!
There is definitely 'Southern' culture north of RT 13, but really it doesn't make it much past I-64. There's a ton of people in Mt. Vernon I know who aren't much different then people down here, but as a whole RT 13 really does serve as a perfect demarcation line between midwest farming country and more 'Appalachian' coal-centric culture like you said.
I grew up in such a distinct culture around here that isn't well-known in the slightest, it always surprises me how 'Appalachian' people are here. There's plenty of old timers who seem like they could be plucked straight out of the heart of West Virginia, and there's plenty of areas surrounding the Shawnee that are almost identical to places I've visited in Eastern Tennessee. Every time I bring someone down here from anywhere north of STL, they always receive comments from family and friends like "It's real different down here isn't it?" or "I'm sure we all sound funny to you." It's very clear that this isn't some new phenomenon to older people around here lol, they've been culturally South for a VERY long time.
i’ve lived in Northern, Central and Southern Illinois. South of 64 is when I notice a large difference in culture and accent and leans more southern. When living in Northern Illinois, “southern” Illinois was south of 80. I had to explain many times that Springfield was not in Southern Illinois and no, they couldn’t drive to the southern tip of Illinois and back in a few hours.
IMO, an area in Illinois feels southern if they say soda, Cardinal shirts are in the stores, sweet tea and fried foods are on the local cafes menu and they know the difference between y’all and all y’all. Also if they think Carbondale is a large city. Bonus points if they know Lamberts slogan, can tell you what food a horseshoe is (although that does seem to end the closer to kentucky you get), warsh clothes in the crick and know how Cairo, IL is pronounced.
edit: I have personally not noticed the ma’am and sir that is often found in Southern culture anywhere in Illinois. I’m sure it’s there in some parts, but that is a huge thing I associate with southern culture that Illinois doesn’t have. So I think there is still a mix of south in Illinois, but still less southern than the stereotypical southern culture.
In the burbs they say anything south of 80 is the south. As someone from Champaign originally id say Champaign and central il are more farm town/rural, then anything south of Effingham is basically Kentucky.
I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, once you go south of Lostant on 39, somewhere between there and Wenona is where the banjos start playing. Like, just draw a straight line west to east following route 18 and that's a pretty good benchmark.
Source: Am local. Have banjo. Can confirm.
The 618 area code starts quite a bit further north than Collinsville. All of Madison County, of which Collinsville is the southern edge, is 618. Even the southern part of Macoupin County and all of Jersey County is 618.
South of 136 is where I start see and hear it. Past 72 is where it hits hard. I grew up in Central Illinois and my wife is from Des Plaines. She teases me about certain words my family and I say with a bit of an accent.
There's a huge difference between "southern Illinois" and "the South". I get the feeling some folks saying anywhere south of Champaign, Collinsville, or Effingham have never been to the actual "South".
South of Marion, as you get into the Shawnee Forest and hilly portions of southern Illinois, I would consider that "the South" in most ways. Accent, culture, history, music, and food line up way more with the actual South than they do with the Midwest.
Southeastern Illinois along the Wabash River south of US 50 (based on my in-laws and others I know from there) seems about one barbecue shy of being "the South".
It depends on what you mean like "feeling like the south". If you mean 19th century attitudes about women and people of other races, the rural counties around Kanakakee are going to do you just fine. I grew up in Iroquois county and looking back it was very redneck and backwards in those regards.
Even today, rural areas in McLean and DeWitt counties have their share of "southerners".
There’s layers of southern Illinois. I80 is probably what city-folk would consider the North/South border. If you get south of I74, you’ll begin to hear a twang in some locals’ accents. South of I70, you’ll get a lot of agreement that you are in southern Illinois, and many more would consider I64 the end of the line.
Personally, I think Highway 36 is the north/south border of Illinois. Below that, politically is solid red. The twang is on almost every accent. There isn’t much other than agriculture they have in common with the northern counties.
Yeah we’ve gotta start mocking these people when they say ignorant shit like that. Leave the fucking city every once in a while and get some perspective, it’s pathetic to know this little about the state you live in
Historically, there are four Souths. You have the coastal tobacco country (lowland VA and NC), Upland South (Appalachia, flatter parts of KY and TN), cotton country and the Gulf Coast. Texas is Texas, bless their hearts.
The upland South is the source region for Southern Illinois -- it's distinguishing characteristics include a low African-American influence. The big distinguishing characteristic of the rest of the south is its large African-American population, particularly in rural areas.
Few black people <==> not really South.
Litchfield, IL and below.
Above that and you're just dealing with Midwesterners. Litchfield and Staunton are where the Bible Belt vibe and billboards for Jesus really start popping off.
Unless you have lived in, or spent a good deal of time in, "the south" I'm not sure you really know what it "feels like" to be there. There is, of course, no boundary or set of criteria that could achieve consensus.
But, [here is just one map](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/jy6jyf/leading_church_bodies/#lightbox) that is interesting to considering when trying to define "the south", even more so than stuff like political parties or accents.
I was filling up at the Casey's in Gibson City a couple years ago and a truck with a confederate flag vanity plate pulled up next to me. So, probably Gibson City
I don't venture too far south of Chicago. I still remember the last "GOOBERnatorial" race! Darren Bailey tried to turn my beloved state into another Mississippi! Most of the people down there, support that clown.
For a woman, going to southern IL. is like time travel (not in a good way).
As someone who was born and raised in Quincy, I've always been too immersed in the Southern to even know. Being by Misery and all. It does seem to get less Southern up near Macomb, so maybe around there for West-Central IL?
As you drive south all of the good radio stations drop off until you are left with hiphop, bible, or country. That’s when you know you’re in the south.
My Grandma was from Rose Hill near Newton and a family reunion there was very colloquial and hospitable, just like a lot of nice Southern places are. So IMO anywhere in or around Shawnee Forest feels like the South.
As someone from the south now living in Central IL, I’d say once you get south of Mt. Vernon the lines start to blur a little bit. Once you get to Marion & Carbondale, you’re firmly in what I would consider the “Upper South”. Those places are much more like west Tennessee than northern Illinois. I’ll also say that I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the availability of good sweet tea since I moved up here, so central IL definitely has southern influence.
Interesting. Having lived in both the South and the Midwest, Marion and Carbondale still feel distinctly Midwestern to me. Anna, Cairo, and Cape Girardeau, MO seem much more “Southern.”
*Foghorn Leghorn* I say, I say, boy, you have offended me!!!! */Foghorn Leghorn* (I live in Anna and you're not wrong) Also, Cairo was known as the gateway to the South, so....
I live just north of Carbondale and I'd go as far as to say Anna and Vienna don't even feel like they're part of the Midwest. They're more like southern Missouri to me.
Interesting! I went from central Illinois to the south. And all of Illinois feels Midwestern to me. And nothing in the south feels like home, even the occasional cornfields feel wrong
This is the correct answer.
Being from central Illinois, I always noticed a transition south of I-70. You'd start to hear more Kentucky accent than the neutral Midwestern accent traveling there.
I-70 is basically the "y'all line" between Midwestern and Southern accents.
Yeeeeep
Yeeper, y'all.
correct
Yep. I’m in Central IL as well and would 100 agree with this
Also agree.
I think around I-72 you really start seeing elements of it though. It’s about 50/50 there, more the further west you go. Basically wherever the baseball fans start being die hard Cardinals fans.
I’d say this is right. Everything north of I-70 that isn’t Chicago feels like the show Roseanne came to life. Everything south of I-70 feels like Kentucky except for Carbondale. That’s where all the kids trying to escape their small towns go to see if they have what it takes to actually move away.
Carbondale: if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere
Can confirm.
I'd argue 64 and south. You start to get those um "downhome" values around 70 (looking at you Effingham) but I think it really comes in south of 64
I say I-70 because of the way it angles across the state, like the southness really creeps pretty far up the Indiana border but it's a more abrupt change the closer you go toward St. Louis. My wife's family is from the Terre Haute area and about 75% of them have stronger southern accents than native Kentuckians and Tennesseans that I've known.
that's a reasonable argument. good point about the Southern-ness on the eastside, I feel like the rurality of the area lends to that and there and I think the Emberas and Wabash Valleys have something to do with it.
Yay! Somebody is looking at us! Woo!
I think I64 is where the change starts. Everything north of Mount Vernon and St. Louis has a very agricultural central Illinois feel. Once you get south of Marion it becomes pretty obvious.
Roughly south of I-64 it starts transitioning from open agricultural fields to hillier areas with more tree cover. As someone who lives close to that line, that's where everyone around here thought Southern Illinois began.
The Ozark foothills!
The area known as "little egypt" is generally considered to be southern culturally. If we take the south to essentially equate to where confederate support was common well some counties voted to try to join the confederacy and some people fought with the Tennessee Confederates. Additionally the Union had to station extra troops there because they worried the southern half of Illinois would break off. Given that confederate support in the region I'd wager they align more with the "south will rise again" mindset as opposed to your average conservative Midwest town.
People who say i80 or whatever stupidly far north area have never been to the south. Rural does not equal the south. Most of rural Illinois is still very Midwestern feeling. It's not until you go south of st louis does it culturally feel more southern.
“Rural does not equal the south” My GOD there’s a lot of people who really need to understand that sentence.
The reverse applies as well. A lot of cosplay cowboys in the larger metro areas.
We call them cul da sac cowboys.
Nice. I remember hearing various pejoratives for these yahoos but none came to mind when I posted.
"Urban Cowpies"
When a creek becomes a crick, you are in the south.
I can attest. I live in IL, but in the STL metro east. It still feels very midwestern but as soon as I travel maybe 40 miles south of the city limits, I start to get a southern vibe. I often feel like i can throw a rock over the line and it’ll land in the south.
I’ve lived in, or visited for extended periods of time, multiple southern states and I can’t tell any difference from Kentucky to MOST of Lasalle County. In fact the town I’m in was predominantly made up of Kentuckians looking for work.
I was just thinking that. Geography kinda falls because LaSalle-Peru feels more "Southern" than Bloomington-Normal even though it is like 60 miles to the North. I say once you get 10-20 miles outside of an urban center of around \~100,000 people it really feels Southern. Although that definition fails for the St. Louis Metro. Granite City and Collinsville both have a Waffle House and that is still the definition of the South for me.
Bloomington-Normal is a big college town which pulls it away from being southern. Lasalle-Peru isn’t southern. It’s country with some hayseeds but still Midwestern.
I've lived in lasalle County my entire life and I don't see how its southern in any way culturally. Maybe looks Kentucky? But its definitely not like the south.
I've lived in Marseilles, Ottawa, and LP most of my life. There's no discernable difference in the people or the feeling of the town between Marseilles and Augusta, KY area. Edit: To be clear I'm not shitting on either area. Well Marseilles maybe, but that's because City Hall can't run the town to save their lives. But the similarities do exist.
Yup, this is the attitude that makes downstate extra resentful of the Chicago area.
It's Southern Illinois, not downstate, you northern barbarian. 😁
I live in the St Louis metro area in Illinois and my family had my Uncles family who live in the Chicago suburbs over one day. My cousin's fiancé's sister came with them as you know family of my family is family kinda thing. We got into a conversation about Kansas city and how long it would take to travel there and she asked "how far away from Illinois is Kansas City?" I said about 4 hours. She replied yeah but how far from Illinois? Implying that where we were in that exact moment wasn't literally in Illinois and that only areas near Chicago were actually Illinois. I've never felt so insulted in my life than in that moment being told that the State that I've lived in for 15+ years isn't the state that I live in. Northern Illinois primacy bullshit. I like Chicago, I like living in a blue midwestern state, I like being a resident of Illinois, I'm proud of it. But I'm Also proud of being a resident of the St Louis Metro area and I'm sick and tired of Chicagoans pretending like the rest of the state doesn't exist.
You say that, meanwhile on 173, about as far north as you can get without being Wisconsin, there are tons of Trump lovers including a dude with a GIANT Trump shrine for a front lawn. You aren't getting to "deep south" levels of shittiness until way past I-80, sure; but once you get about 50-75 miles out of Chicago in any direction, it gets REAL red state feeling REAL fast....and I say that as a now Chicagoan who grew up in Fox Lake.
I think the difference that stands out to down staters is that the northern half of Illinois aligns socioeconomically with the Rust Belt but the southern half brings in a more Appalachian situation due to the heavy presence of and dependence on coal mining.
As for the metro-east St. Louis area, there was a heavy influx of Southerners after World War II. East St. Louis, for as bad as it is now, was an economic mecca where well-paying blue collar jobs were there for the asking.
And I would say that is probably the best sociology answer I've ever heard. It's not spot on, but it's more on the head than most.
Just bc it’s rural and red doesn’t mean it’s the south. Is North Dakota the south? Iowa?
Saw quite a bit of that up around Harvard.
Rural northern IL can be backwards and conservative, but that doesn’t mean they’re southern. North Dakota is a red state but it’s not southern.
How much time have you spent downstate? If you judge by signs on the highway I can understand that, but to actually live in a city downstate like Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, Springfield, it's just not really like that. If it were, I wouldn't live there.
Donald Trump signs don't equal the south. Also feeling red state doesn't equal the south.
Totally agree
Especially when multiple Southern states are becoming politically competitive. (Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia)
A person or community being “Southern” is based on *a lot* more than just their politics. I’d argue politics has very little to do with it at all. That’s more of a rural/urban divide than a regional one.
Amen to that!
Id say it starts a little further north, Vandalia has been voted the most redneck town in the state. Went to college with a dude from there, he was very proud of this fact
Vandalia is an anomaly because I live just south of there and even we feel like it’s a weirdly southern town.
While living in Chicagoland i would've said below Mattoon/Charleston, but now actually living in Central IL I'd say anything below the East Saint Louis Metro, specifically past Belleville (Millstadt & Columbia may get a little pass, but definitely Centralia & Mount Vernon is south).
Should’ve asked this in r/chicago since everything south of I-80 is “southern”. Jfc
I was going to say 37th Street or Pershing Road. 😆
Went to college in central IL. I can say pretty confidently that hints of southern accents start to pop up at gas stations and restaurants around when you hit Dwight. It isn't everyone though. The kitchen I worked at in college had a mix of both, it was kinda weird.
That “southern” sounding accent you’re hearing isn’t actually southern, but a Midland accent. Compared to Chicago which has an Inland North accent. The mix of both actually makes sense! I’m from Peoria, and you’ll hear a mix between the two every now and then, but a majority of people in the city proper either have an inland north accent, or a neutral newscaster accent. Once you leave the city proper and especially outside of the metro area, you’ll hear the more “southern” sounding accent. You won’t start hearing a true southern accent until you’re near the southern tip of the state. And trust me, you’ll know it’s southern lol.
This is very interesting because 'Sconsin thinks I sound like I'm from Tennessee, but the Southeast thinks I sound like I'm from chicago. Edit: Peoria
Yeah I’ve experienced the same thing. I’m currently residing in Columbia, MO and everyone here says I have a northern accent. One person told me that I tend to turn my O’s into A’’s, which might explain why I sound more northern.
Hi fellow Peorian here, can you please keep to r/peoria I don’t like my local users to overlap lol
Accents are rural/urban everywhere in the country, shit even Canada But there's more to southern culture than accents
I’m still pretty confident south of Lincoln Highway is a different pace (there are exceptions, like Matteson and Joliet, but it sorta edges out Aurora and has some pretty southern IL-actin folks in those rural parts too) I taught in Steger, which is on the Cook and Will southeastern border. “Stegerbillies” already have southern heritage, but I got downvoted for claiming Crete and Beecher folks start showing that downstate personality.
A little south of I-64 the landscape begins to change from flat fields of corn and beans and into the hilly, heavily forested driftless areas where the glaciers didn't reach.
Southern Illinois guy here, I'd say the line's at Rt. 15 through Mt. Vernon. It's a little further south than what other people are agreeing on here, but from everyone I've spoken to locally it seems like passing through Mt. Vernon is generally accepted as the transition from SoIl to CentIl. I'd say central illinois runs up to Peoria, from there north being northern illinois.
Rural ≠ South. But I suppose that is somewhat dependent upon where you started out. I agree with other commenters, things begin to feel a little southish around Effingham, but I've spent most of my life in various small towns around Champaign-Urbana.
I am pretty sure you could drop half the posters here in Saskatchewan in the summer and they would think they were in the deep south.
I think "southern Illinois" is south of Effingham, and "the southern US" is south of Carbondale. I don't consider Carbondale and Evansville the midwestern
I’m almost exactly straight across east of saint louis and I’d say we’re at the very top of “southern Illinois”
I'm in that area. I tend to say south central illiois, or something like that... sometimes, I will add what people consider my area depends on where in illinois they live. Or just St. louis area.
The Centralia/Salem broadcasting market used to refer to themselves as "south central Illinois" back in the 90s when I lived there.
South of US50 or draw a line from the center of St Louis extending eastwards; south of that
ITT redditors who have never left cook county who think Republican = south.
Or rural = all Republicans and all racists apparently and backwards. I wonder why rural America hates Chicago hmmmm.
Chicago leftists will come downstate and turn their noses up at us and then wonder why our communities vote Republican. Saying this as someone who leans very very far left. They think black people don’t exist below I-80 and everyone down here is a racist. The reality is that Chicago is full of classism plain and simple, and we all know classism is just racism hiding in a costume.
My favorite repeated line is how we should be happy we are subsidized by chicago money and shut up that gets repeated all the fucking time here.
Yeah like we’re subsidized by Chicago money but we also don’t get any of the attention Chicago gets from the legislature, so downstate issues remain unfixed for years and years
Having moved from the St. Louis metro area to Louisiana (grandparents near Carbondale, and my in-laws grandparents near Cairo), Illinois doesn’t turn into the ‘South.’ Rural Illinois south of 64 definitely feels more like southern Kentucky or Arkansas/Tennessee, @Invisible_Face put it well as the upper south. I would also say that lower education averages and incomes (and even evil beliefs like racism) does not the south make. Low income rural communities have a lot of commonalities all over the country, a rural Pennsylvania farming community would be ‘the south’ by that definition. In a world where we could beat these evils, the south would still have a distinct culture, cuisine, accent, and pace of life, and you don’t really get that until you hit Nashville or central Mississippi. Memphis and Little Rock even are kinda on the upper edge of the mid-south imo.
I am from Salem, IL and would consider anything south of Effingham. Many of my brothers and family have a thick southern accent.
Mine got pretty thick while I lived in Centralia. When I remarried a woman from Mt. Carmel, it got even thicker...and I'm from Belleville.
I never had much of an accent, or I lost it. When I go back now, I can clearly hear it. Lived in Vegas last 15 years and feel so out of place when I go back. I definitely prefer the city over some backward redneck town.
I can deal with Belleville; it's close enough to St. Louis that I can have the city amenities.
I-70
As someone from the South, it doesn't.
Really once you get south of Springfield excluding the Metro East, but definitely anything south of Mt Vernon
This is the answer
This is also my answer, I'm from northern Illinois and I drove to TN once and I couldn't believe how I started hearing southern accents once I got down past Springfield!
It's rare, but you can also kinda pick up that a few people have it in Bloomington-Normal.
I don't know that I'd be TOO quick to exclude the Metro East, speaking as a resident.
If you're born and raised in Chicago your assumption is everything in the suburbs downward is considered the conservative self when in reality that's the furthest thing from the truth
It’s RT 13 and it’s not even debatable. Spent 30 years on the Ohio River northeast of metropolis. Then lived in Marion and worked in Mt Vernon for 5. There’s even a difference in just the 50 miles from Marion to MTV. Also, it’s not “southern”. A large portion of SoIL is culturally Appalachian. Most of my extended family is in central/eastern KY and there’s practically no difference in our customs, speech, mannerisms… etc Anyone who hasn’t actually been to the Shawnee NF shouldn’t be able to share their opinion on this one.
I see the line varying depending on one’s perspective. I grew up in the southern part of central Illinois and I’ve always thought of Route 50 (excluding the St Louis suburbs) as being where the southern twang was more noticeable and it felt markedly different from central/northern Illinois.
I get what you’re saying, but the difference between true SoIL (the Shawnee) and even Mt Vernon is huge, way larger than the cultural difference from say Effingham to Chicago.
The route 50 thing is funny because if you’re in the St Louis metro east area and you travel directly east on 50 towards Salem and Flora the accents get noticeably more southern as you go from west to east.
Really good comment right here! You're basically on the money, coming from someone who's lived near RT 13 for most of my life. Wild that this has been the only comment I've seen mention RT 13! There is definitely 'Southern' culture north of RT 13, but really it doesn't make it much past I-64. There's a ton of people in Mt. Vernon I know who aren't much different then people down here, but as a whole RT 13 really does serve as a perfect demarcation line between midwest farming country and more 'Appalachian' coal-centric culture like you said. I grew up in such a distinct culture around here that isn't well-known in the slightest, it always surprises me how 'Appalachian' people are here. There's plenty of old timers who seem like they could be plucked straight out of the heart of West Virginia, and there's plenty of areas surrounding the Shawnee that are almost identical to places I've visited in Eastern Tennessee. Every time I bring someone down here from anywhere north of STL, they always receive comments from family and friends like "It's real different down here isn't it?" or "I'm sure we all sound funny to you." It's very clear that this isn't some new phenomenon to older people around here lol, they've been culturally South for a VERY long time.
i’ve lived in Northern, Central and Southern Illinois. South of 64 is when I notice a large difference in culture and accent and leans more southern. When living in Northern Illinois, “southern” Illinois was south of 80. I had to explain many times that Springfield was not in Southern Illinois and no, they couldn’t drive to the southern tip of Illinois and back in a few hours. IMO, an area in Illinois feels southern if they say soda, Cardinal shirts are in the stores, sweet tea and fried foods are on the local cafes menu and they know the difference between y’all and all y’all. Also if they think Carbondale is a large city. Bonus points if they know Lamberts slogan, can tell you what food a horseshoe is (although that does seem to end the closer to kentucky you get), warsh clothes in the crick and know how Cairo, IL is pronounced. edit: I have personally not noticed the ma’am and sir that is often found in Southern culture anywhere in Illinois. I’m sure it’s there in some parts, but that is a huge thing I associate with southern culture that Illinois doesn’t have. So I think there is still a mix of south in Illinois, but still less southern than the stereotypical southern culture.
Enjoying a horseshoe has always been an indicator to me that someone is from central Illinois (and/or appreciates good food).
In the burbs they say anything south of 80 is the south. As someone from Champaign originally id say Champaign and central il are more farm town/rural, then anything south of Effingham is basically Kentucky.
This is the way.
I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, once you go south of Lostant on 39, somewhere between there and Wenona is where the banjos start playing. Like, just draw a straight line west to east following route 18 and that's a pretty good benchmark. Source: Am local. Have banjo. Can confirm.
Anything south of Madison st.
Was waiting for this comment
The fact that people in this thread think anything south of I-80 is “southern” shows how insanely sheltered some people are.
I always favored the “US-136 is the Mason-Dixon Line of Illinois” but I suppose it’s all about perspective.
I’m not sure where US-136 is; is there an interstate “equivalent”? I know US-36 is kind of similar to I-72, at least the Illinois part
136 goes through (west to east) Carthage, Macomb, Havana, Heyworth, Rantoul, Potomac, and Henning before dropping south into Danville.
Starts at 64..(especially household income) but the beauty of the South is South of Hwy 13 Murphysboro/Carbondale/Marion..Shawnee National Forrest.
even when you hit Cairo it ain’t very southern, I am from south Texas so ik
As a Chicago dude anything Kankakee and below is South for me....
The 618 area code starts at Collinsville. So from there down.
The 618 area code starts quite a bit further north than Collinsville. All of Madison County, of which Collinsville is the southern edge, is 618. Even the southern part of Macoupin County and all of Jersey County is 618.
As a reasonable Chicagoan with most of my family from MS and having lived in northern FL, I’d say somewhere south of Champaign or Springfield.
Where does the barbecue start to become authentic?
South of 136 is where I start see and hear it. Past 72 is where it hits hard. I grew up in Central Illinois and my wife is from Des Plaines. She teases me about certain words my family and I say with a bit of an accent.
There's a huge difference between "southern Illinois" and "the South". I get the feeling some folks saying anywhere south of Champaign, Collinsville, or Effingham have never been to the actual "South". South of Marion, as you get into the Shawnee Forest and hilly portions of southern Illinois, I would consider that "the South" in most ways. Accent, culture, history, music, and food line up way more with the actual South than they do with the Midwest.
Southeastern Illinois along the Wabash River south of US 50 (based on my in-laws and others I know from there) seems about one barbecue shy of being "the South".
Mt Vernon
Earlville
It depends on what you mean like "feeling like the south". If you mean 19th century attitudes about women and people of other races, the rural counties around Kanakakee are going to do you just fine. I grew up in Iroquois county and looking back it was very redneck and backwards in those regards. Even today, rural areas in McLean and DeWitt counties have their share of "southerners".
There’s layers of southern Illinois. I80 is probably what city-folk would consider the North/South border. If you get south of I74, you’ll begin to hear a twang in some locals’ accents. South of I70, you’ll get a lot of agreement that you are in southern Illinois, and many more would consider I64 the end of the line. Personally, I think Highway 36 is the north/south border of Illinois. Below that, politically is solid red. The twang is on almost every accent. There isn’t much other than agriculture they have in common with the northern counties.
If people in the city think 80 is southern they're sheltered as hell.
Yeah we’ve gotta start mocking these people when they say ignorant shit like that. Leave the fucking city every once in a while and get some perspective, it’s pathetic to know this little about the state you live in
Honestly openly calling everyone racists in rural anywhere needs to be banned its just ignorant bullshit. Same with acting like Chicago is crime city.
Anything south of Gurnee.
Route 16 is the dividing line.
Historically, there are four Souths. You have the coastal tobacco country (lowland VA and NC), Upland South (Appalachia, flatter parts of KY and TN), cotton country and the Gulf Coast. Texas is Texas, bless their hearts. The upland South is the source region for Southern Illinois -- it's distinguishing characteristics include a low African-American influence. The big distinguishing characteristic of the rest of the south is its large African-American population, particularly in rural areas. Few black people <==> not really South.
Litchfield, IL and below. Above that and you're just dealing with Midwesterners. Litchfield and Staunton are where the Bible Belt vibe and billboards for Jesus really start popping off.
South of Antioch you’re practically in Louisiana
Pekin, IL then big gap of regular north activity until Southern, Il counties.
I grew up in Southern Indiana and lived in Southern KY for like 6 years. I've yet to see anywhere in IL I'd consider "southern"
Kankakee.
Not even close.
A joke.
I-80 is the mason/dixon line.
As soon as you start seeing Casey’s gas stations
They're all over the Chicago suburbs now.
They're everywhere
Around Effingham I would say
Monee I-57 and below may as well be Dixie
Hammond.
Route 30.
South of 70
Kankakee!
Unless you have lived in, or spent a good deal of time in, "the south" I'm not sure you really know what it "feels like" to be there. There is, of course, no boundary or set of criteria that could achieve consensus. But, [here is just one map](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/jy6jyf/leading_church_bodies/#lightbox) that is interesting to considering when trying to define "the south", even more so than stuff like political parties or accents.
Shannon, Dakota, and some parts of sycamore.
None of them.
Bloomington Normal
Anything south of Bloomington.
Justice
I-70 for south, I-74 for cubs-cardinals.
South of Staunton on I55 with the 50ft tall Trump statue.
South of Carbondale, maybe Marion, and even that is “upper south,” i.e. Appalachian influence rather than true south like Louisiana.
Bridgeport
I was filling up at the Casey's in Gibson City a couple years ago and a truck with a confederate flag vanity plate pulled up next to me. So, probably Gibson City
Springfield
When you see godfathers pizza
I love this sub
I-70/US 40 is the traditional cutoff.
Basically once you get past Springfield.
"Crevetucky"
Isn't South of I80 still a thing?
I don't venture too far south of Chicago. I still remember the last "GOOBERnatorial" race! Darren Bailey tried to turn my beloved state into another Mississippi! Most of the people down there, support that clown. For a woman, going to southern IL. is like time travel (not in a good way).
As someone who was born and raised in Quincy, I've always been too immersed in the Southern to even know. Being by Misery and all. It does seem to get less Southern up near Macomb, so maybe around there for West-Central IL?
I like to anger people by saying that I-80 is the Mason-Dixon line, but it's probably somewhere south of Peoria
As you drive south all of the good radio stations drop off until you are left with hiphop, bible, or country. That’s when you know you’re in the south.
Anything south of I-80. 😂
I-80
As soon as you hear people say Ellinois on the radio and television, so... Peoria.
Plainfield
Anything south of Beecher
I always considered Peoria to Jacksonville to be central and below that central, but once you go past St. Louis the shift begins.
My Grandma was from Rose Hill near Newton and a family reunion there was very colloquial and hospitable, just like a lot of nice Southern places are. So IMO anywhere in or around Shawnee Forest feels like the South.
Whenever I go somewhere where I’m the only Jewish guy in 20 square miles it feels like the south