Kennedys and that Boston accent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a really gross and tacky sounding accent.

I'd take it anyday over that shit from the south

Right but similar to New England, upper classes in the south don’t have as much of an accent. I’m often asked why I’m southern and don’t have an accept. Because I’m not white trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am from Boston and my whole life everyone has joked about the Kennedy accent. It is it's own thing. I hear the occasional echo here and there, like in a random word my dad might say, but I have never met anyone who consistently talks like the Kennedys. No one from Southie or Dorchester, no one from Harvard. Certainly not the younger generation of Kennedys. If more people spoke that way decades ago, they no longer do. Just like no one talks the way everyone did in all the classic movies from the 40s.

THIS.

I am a native who grew up in the Boston suburbs with parents who grew up on South Shore of MA near Boston. The Kennedy accent is just that - the Kennedy accent! It belongs to the previous generation of Kennedy alone.
Now a Boston accent is a more working class accent that you still hear in and around Boston. Think - Dennis Leary or Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (who can turn it on and off).
My parents have it. My siblings and I do not - perhaps that is because we grew up in a wealthier suburb. Most of my Boston area friends do not have it. If they do it is very subtle. But all my parents and their friends have it (mostly grew up lower middle class)......

[Anonymous]

My DH grew up in South Boston. He does NOT sound like a Kennedy. But, what the heck was Jackie Kennedy's accent? Her voice was whispery and soft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH grew up in South Boston. He does NOT sound like a Kennedy. But, what the heck was Jackie Kennedy's accent? Her voice was whispery and soft.

Jackie wasn't from Boston. She had a classic Mid-Atlantic prep school accent formed by a childhood in The Hamptons, Virginia/DC, Newport, and Connecticut. She was shuttled between the best prep schools in the country (Chapin School - Manhattan, Holton-Arms - NW DC, and Miss Porter's - CT).