Charleston Extends Its Boundaries. Elements of the “Holy City” are Now Found in the Upstate.

With South Carolina’s political power now residing in Charleston (Governor Mark Sanford, Lt. Governor Andre Bauer, Speaker Bobby Harrell, President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, House Majority Leader Jim Merrill), it’s no wonder that other parts of our fair state long for the days when they had some relevancy to Charleston. This is especially true of Greenville.

With Governor Campbell promoted to glory and David Wilkins promoted to Ottawa, missing is Greenville’s status as the center of the palmetto political universe, and I couldn’t help notice that several elements are taking on a Charleston flare.

For the epicureans, there is Soby’s New South Cuisine. It’s a native Greenville restaurant with a Charleston twist. More overtly was the addition of High Cotton in the spring of 2007. Now, The Boathouse plans to open a location in Greenville’s downtown this spring.

Aside from the restaurant overload, it seems that language and dialect are traveling up the state, as well. I was in Greenville this past weekend visiting with some friends at an oyster roast when they suggested we go out for a fun meal the following night. They wanted to go to their favorite Mexican restaurant in an area known as Augusta Road.

Apparently, this is where you pay for the ZIP Code, and Old Greenville meets “Fake it ’til you make it.” So here we were listening to the table behind us rattle on about “The Club” which I was later informed meant the Greenville Country Club. The table in front of us was discussing the tacky Christmas lights the yankees up the street had for Christmas, and the table in front of us was discussing who was about to get what European sports car.

Other than a ridiculous pretentiousness and unnecessarily loud conversational tones specifically designed so everyone knew they were there and what they were talking about, what else did they have in common?

It was the accent.

I don’t mean what you normally think of when you think of the Upstate with the Southern “twang.”

No. These people abandoned their linguistic roots in favor of coastal speech — the kind where additional syllables are added and the “r” sound is replaced by “ah” or “uh.”

What even made this more interesting was that such emphasis was placed in their accents, I could see that they weren’t faking. They really talked that way and apparently had for some time.

I was so intrigued by these people, I found myself lost for a few minutes. When I returned and it was time to leave the restaurant I halfway expected to walk out and see The Battery.

Alas, it was only Augusta Road.

– Bo Burdette