"Posh" American accent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, like the Kennedys and FDR spoke. It's a WASPy northeastern boarding school accent.

Kennedys are not WASPs

The term WASPs means nothing anymore. Literal definition = a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination. The Anglo-Saxon ethnicity is Germanic.

WASPs families in England were practically inbred. The US is a country full of mixed heritage and people don’t marry under the same circumstances of old timey England.

Also who uses the word posh?

Someone on this board always says that “WASP means nothing” and that the Kennedys are basically WASPs. I mean, no. That is kind of the whole thing about the kennedys. They were rich and old-ish money and preppy and did the whole New England family compound thing, but they were not WASPs. It was very much noted in the 60s. Just the same as Catholics in Chevy chase wearing preppy clothes and going to the CC Club are not WASPs.

It’s not a value judgment. I don’t think WASPs are better or worse or richer or poorer or more or less cultured than Catholics. But there is a WASP tradition that’s beyond just aesthetics and it’s dumb to call the Kennedys WASPs or say it’s not a thing anymore.

+1. It was a big deal when Kennedy was elected because he was the first Irish Catholic. Before that, the presidency was very much a protestant thing and WASPs looked down on catholics.

-- and old family WASP who only admits it anonymously online

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, like the Kennedys and FDR spoke. It's a WASPy northeastern boarding school accent.

Kennedys are not WASPs

The term WASPs means nothing anymore. Literal definition = a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination. The Anglo-Saxon ethnicity is Germanic.

WASPs families in England were practically inbred. The US is a country full of mixed heritage and people don’t marry under the same circumstances of old timey England.

Also who uses the word posh?

Someone on this board always says that “WASP means nothing” and that the Kennedys are basically WASPs. I mean, no. That is kind of the whole thing about the kennedys. They were rich and old-ish money and preppy and did the whole New England family compound thing, but they were not WASPs. It was very much noted in the 60s. Just the same as Catholics in Chevy chase wearing preppy clothes and going to the CC Club are not WASPs.

It’s not a value judgment. I don’t think WASPs are better or worse or richer or poorer or more or less cultured than Catholics. But there is a WASP tradition that’s beyond just aesthetics and it’s dumb to call the Kennedys WASPs or say it’s not a thing anymore.

+1. It was a big deal when Kennedy was elected because he was the first Irish Catholic. Before that, the presidency was very much a protestant thing and WASPs looked down on catholics.

-- and old family WASP who only admits it anonymously online

The other thing people don’t get is that the Preppy Handbook was about more than clothes. It was an almost perfect encapsulation of WASP way of life, then and now. There were no Catholic schools mentioned in the book for a reason. People can try to dress and act like WASPs, but you really have to have it engrained in you since birth to really understand the way of life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, like the Kennedys and FDR spoke. It's a WASPy northeastern boarding school accent.

Kennedys are not WASPs

The term WASPs means nothing anymore. Literal definition = a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination. The Anglo-Saxon ethnicity is Germanic.

WASPs families in England were practically inbred. The US is a country full of mixed heritage and people don’t marry under the same circumstances of old timey England.

Also who uses the word posh?

Absolutely. My thoughts as well. I occasionally see comments on DCUM discussing and analyzing “wasps” and “old money” - but these populations exist in such tiny populations that they are fairly irrelevant in modern society. Catholics are seen as the same as wasps, no one cares about perceived differences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yep, like the Kennedys and FDR spoke. It's a WASPy northeastern boarding school accent.

Kennedys are not WASPs

The term WASPs means nothing anymore. Literal definition = a white person of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who belongs to a Protestant denomination. The Anglo-Saxon ethnicity is Germanic.

WASPs families in England were practically inbred. The US is a country full of mixed heritage and people don’t marry under the same circumstances of old timey England.

Also who uses the word posh?

White Anglo-Saxon protestant till fairly recently described almost the entire population of England. There is no such thing as a WASP in Britain because the term didn't exist when both coal miners and dukes were white, Anglo-Saxon protestants. They were just called upper class.

[Anonymous]

I’m a brit so take this with a pinch of salt, but accents that have always struck me as US posh include:
- Evelyn; the mother from 2.5 men (plus other characters that actress plays Eg the mom in one fine day)
- Meryl Streep
- Rory Gilmore’s grandparents
- ivanka
- James spader in all 80s movies
- Anthony Hopkins
- bunny from sex and the city

Am I close on any of these?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a brit so take this with a pinch of salt, but accents that have always struck me as US posh include:
- Evelyn; the mother from 2.5 men (plus other characters that actress plays Eg the mom in one fine day)
- Meryl Streep
- Rory Gilmore’s grandparents
- ivanka
- James spader in all 80s movies
- Anthony Hopkins
- bunny from sex and the city

Am I close on any of these?

Parlously wrong on this one. Also, isn’t Anthony Hopkins British?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a brit so take this with a pinch of salt, but accents that have always struck me as US posh include:
- Evelyn; the mother from 2.5 men (plus other characters that actress plays Eg the mom in one fine day)
- Meryl Streep
- Rory Gilmore’s grandparents
- ivanka
- James spader in all 80s movies
- Anthony Hopkins
- bunny from sex and the city

Am I close on any of these?

Parlously wrong on this one. Also, isn’t Anthony Hopkins British?!

Haha you are correct. I was thinking of him in sil.
What is ‘parlously’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a brit so take this with a pinch of salt, but accents that have always struck me as US posh include:
- Evelyn; the mother from 2.5 men (plus other characters that actress plays Eg the mom in one fine day)
- Meryl Streep
- Rory Gilmore’s grandparents
- ivanka
- James spader in all 80s movies
- Anthony Hopkins
- bunny from sex and the city

Am I close on any of these?

You are describing people of a different generation. Accents are generational. Our grandparents spoke differently than we did, and actors most certainly speak with affected language (James Spader, Meryl Streep- she’s a Jersey girl!)