Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is the Boston Brahmin accent and it is dying out. Mercifully.

The Kennedys were not Brahmins.

Agree. A Brahmin accent is more English. The Kennedy accent is traditional Boston Irish catholic.

The upper classes in MA tend to have a much lighter accent than lower classes. It’s also mostly an eastern MA thing.

The upper classes always have less of an accent.

Anonymous wrote:OP did you write this thread after watching this week's episode of Timeless?

I notice the accent of the actor playing the young JFK was really strong.

I am guessing that the accent he had in the 30s evolved, not just for him but generationally too.

Its like you rarely hear a strong Long Island or Brooklyn accent any more, or Staten Island. The last time I heard any of those was in movies from the 1980s.

Are you talking about the movies or in real life? I listen to Z100 in the AM, and there are always people calling in with those accents. Plus several of the people on the show have the accent.

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

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

OP did you write this thread after watching this week's episode of Timeless?

I notice the accent of the actor playing the young JFK was really strong.

I am guessing that the accent he had in the 30s evolved, not just for him but generationally too.

Its like you rarely hear a strong Long Island or Brooklyn accent any more, or Staten Island. The last time I heard any of those was in movies from the 1980s.

Anonymous wrote:Do they still teach the Mid-Atlantic accent anywhere? Can you learn it in drama school?

Not sure if they teach it in drama school still, but one of my good friends from college is a dialect coach in Hollywood. She also does workshops for actors breaking into the business.

Anonymous wrote:Do they still teach the Mid-Atlantic accent anywhere? Can you learn it in drama school?

No but i picked it up by watching lots of Frasier episodes!

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.

Anonymous wrote:John Kerry is the prototypical Boston Brahmin accent. Prep school educated, descended directly from the Forbes and Winthrop families. He didn't attend Harvard, but his family was more worldly than the rest of the provincial Boston Brahmins.

I was coming here to say the same thing about Kerry.

The Kennedy Boston accent is broader in sound.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, does anyone here know if the Kennedys were WASPs?

No, they were Irish Catholics, so neither Protestant nor technically Anglo-Saxon.

I think the PP was being facetious...you cannot be a WASP if you are Catholic.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, does anyone here know if the Kennedys were WASPs?

No, they were Irish Catholics, so neither Protestant nor technically Anglo-Saxon.

And, I might add, the English didn't even consider the Irish to be white!

True that, plus how many Kennedys actually live in that area now?

John Kerry is the prototypical Boston Brahmin accent. Prep school educated, descended directly from the Forbes and Winthrop families. He didn't attend Harvard, but his family was more worldly than the rest of the provincial Boston Brahmins.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, does anyone here know if the Kennedys were WASPs?

No, they were Irish Catholics, so neither Protestant nor technically Anglo-Saxon.

And, I might add, the English didn't even consider the Irish to be white!

Anonymous wrote:Hey, does anyone here know if the Kennedys were WASPs?

No, they were Irish Catholics, so neither Protestant nor technically Anglo-Saxon.

Anonymous wrote:Jackie has an upper class, mid Atlantic accent, Kennedy's had a lower middle Boston accent. It helped them be one of the people

I disagree. DH's family are all Bostonians (Southie, Dorchester) and they do not sound at all like the affected Kennedy accent.

Anonymous wrote:Hey, does anyone here know if the Kennedys were WASPs?

WASCs. Duh.