My Southern Bay-yell

My sweet Meredith has a very strong accent at times. For a while now I've been trying to figure out where she got it from. A few weeks ago one of Meredith's preschool teachers, Mrs. Pat, told me how much she just loved Meredith's little southern accent. She said Meredith will come over to ask a question and start out, "Mrs. Pay-at..." Many one syllable words are drawn out into two. Princess Belle is Princess "Bale" which rhymes with 'Sale' - but really stretch it out when you say it. I've been trying to figure out how to write out the way she says 'girls', but I just cannot do it. You'll just have to come visit us and ask Meredith if her baby doll is a boy or a gi-erl. How did she acquire this accent? The only reason I can think of is that we lived in South Carolina from the time she was 8 months old until she was 17 months old. And many of the people we met and interacted with there are true southerners. And by the time she was 18 months old she was talking a lot, so I guess she was soaking up all those southern drawls.