TromboneChat

Can you identify the regional accent demonstrated in this audio clip?



https://www.youtube.com/v/oP0XI3ljWpc

Mid-Atlantic to my ears, early to mid twentieth century vintage

EDIT: Not mid-Atlantic coast, but literally in the middle of the ocean between two nations divided by a common tongue. It isn't really regional, unless maybe Hollywood. It is a studied accent, meant to be easy on the ears of both UK and American English speakers. The only place you're likely to hear it nowadays is in "classic" films.

Connecticut - possibly Hartford? But big town, not rural.  Educated.

          Nottinghamshire,  UK

Quote from: Bruce the budgie on Apr 06, 2017, 07:52AMMid-Atlantic to my ears, early to mid twentieth century vintage

EDIT: Not mid-Atlantic coast, but literally in the middle of the ocean between two nations divided by a common tongue. It isn't really regional, unless maybe Hollywood. It is a studied accent, meant to be easy on the ears of both UK and American English speakers. The only place you're likely to hear it nowadays is in "classic" films.


I think that's a fair assessment.  I've heard that called "Trans-Atlantic". 

Imagine my surprise when I looked up the speaker, WWII WAC Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, and found that she had been born and raised in Texas with no eastern school education that I can detect.

She was born in 1905, her formative years would have been way before the "talkies", so it must be something she affected in adulthood.

Looking over her CV as shown in that link, it's entirely plausible that she got some voice coaching for broadcast public speaking roles, or picked it up by osmosis from her cosmopolitan milieu. What we heard in the clip may not have been her everyday speaking voice.

I noticed something similar happening in a class held on the campus of an old university in the UK, over a couple of weeks in the mid seventies. Mostly anglophones attending, about evenly divided between us and our cousins. In the corridors and dining room, the Americans tended to soften our rhoticity, the better to blend into the hubbub. Unconscious, or intentional? You tell me; most likely somewhere in between.

For me, the key to Col. Hobby's accent lay in the vowels and diphthongs. Taken all together, they didn't resemble any register of any dialect of natural spoken English I ever heard as an Army brat, and later as a professional itinerant electron pusher. Between marriages i spent a lot of time with a Boston girl who came from old Yankee upper crust, and didn't hear any of the folks in her family or social circle talking like that.

I grew up in Ohio, but moved to East Texas when I was in my 20s.  After a while when talking to locals I sounded just like them.  When I talked to my friends and family back in Ohio, my accent quickly changed back.  A former president of the American Society of Safety Engineers was from Louisiana.  He could give a safety presentation and sound like a midwesterner, then tell a joke about Cajuns and sound like he was still livin' in the bayou.  Ever hear the actor Simon Baker on TV sound 100% American  He is British.

Quote from: Bruce the budgie on Apr 08, 2017, 10:07AMLooking over her CV as shown in that link, it's entirely plausible that she got some voice coaching for broadcast public speaking roles, or picked it up by osmosis from her cosmopolitan milieu. What we heard in the clip may not have been her everyday speaking voice.

I noticed something similar happening in a class held on the campus of an old university in the UK, over a couple of weeks in the mid seventies. Mostly anglophones attending, about evenly divided between us and our cousins. In the corridors and dining room, the Americans tended to soften our rhoticity, the better to blend into the hubbub. Unconscious, or intentional? You tell me; most likely somewhere in between.

For me, the key to Col. Hobby's accent lay in the vowels and diphthongs. Taken all together, they didn't resemble any register of any dialect of natural spoken English I ever heard as an Army brat, and later as a professional itinerant electron pusher. Between marriages i spent a lot of time with a Boston girl who came from old Yankee upper crust, and didn't hear any of the folks in her family or social circle talking like that.

My first reaction to a quick listen when it was posted was "This reminds me strongly of RP, but it isn't quite". It's definitely dominated by the affectedness in it, and is somewhat reminiscent to my ears of early BBC announcers, though it sufficiently differs from that accent that I thought I'd have a better listen before making a guess.

Here's another great accent. Authentic, but I've never actually heard one like it here, even out in west Texas...

https://www.youtube.com/v/ZZSLHUTkK70


Ironic post script: a few weeks after talking here about the US being "top dog" in the air (or is that "dawg"?) he got shot down and spent the duration as a guest of the Germans.

Reminds me of a story about the BBC accent.  A complete affectation, it was entirely learned and no one in England actually talked like that in everyday life.

Quote from: robcat2075 on Apr 09, 2017, 10:08AMHere's another great accent. Authentic, but I've never actually heard one like it here, even out in west Texas...


Ironic post script: a few weeks after talking here about the US being "top dog" in the air (or is that "dawg"?) he got shot down and spent the duration as a guest of the Germans.

Sounds a little like Trip Tucker.

https://www.youtube.com/v/vO3Z2yeElvk

Quote from: robcat2075 on Apr 09, 2017, 10:08AMHere's another great accent. Authentic, but I've never actually heard one like it here, even out in west Texas...


Ironic post script: a few weeks after talking here about the US being "top dog" in the air (or is that "dawg"?) he got shot down and spent the duration as a guest of the Germans.

Sounds a little like Trip Tucker.

https://www.youtube.com/v/vO3Z2yeElvk