Anonymous
08/03/2023 15:09
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:I had a lisp as a little kid and had to go to a few years of speech class and they basically wash out your accent as part of the classes. I often unconsciously add an accent in from where i'm living because it sounds strange outside of a news cast
Yes! (Another speech class kid.) I often get asked why I have no accent despite living in the South. Part of my work involves field visits to rural SW va and while I'm there I end up adding a drawl and some "y'all"s.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 14:21
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
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.
This. It’s not really a big deal but it is annoying how everyone gets it wrong.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 13:46
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Southern for sure.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 13:41
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
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.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 13:20
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Anyone from NPR and Ohio. News broadcasters are trained to speak with an Ohio accent as it's easy to understand and neutral. I am originally from Ohio but had European parents. People ask me where I am from a lot. When I say Ohio or US, they are surprised. Move to Ohio and hang out with internationals
For some reason every time I’ve gone to Ohio I’ve met the rudest people ever. At first I didn’t think anything of it but it happened too often. No other state was like that. Southerners were a nice chatty bunch but the Midwest not so much.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 13:17
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
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?
Anonymous
08/03/2023 13:14
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Yep, like the Kennedys and FDR spoke. It's a WASPy northeastern boarding school accent.
Kennedy’s were catholic. Not wasps.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 12:50
Subject: Re:"Posh" American accent?
There are working class and regional accents, which are also primarily working to lower middle class. But the professional classes nationally have the same accent and it's been like that for a long time. It's very much based on clear pronouncing and grammar. The only "posh" accents I can think of would be old money people from a certain generation, either a clipped accent in the northeast/new England or a variant of the drawl in the coastal south. I remember a few from my childhood but they have largely died out.
Anonymous
08/03/2023 08:54
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Slightly overly articulated, reasonably fast speech with no discernible accent reads as most educated.
Yes, as someone who felt a bit out of place at a HYP school (and with a sing-songy odd voice myself), I remember being surprised at how the same everyone sounded. Even folks from the south did not really have southern accents (or at least did not "use" them at school).
Anonymous
08/03/2023 00:02
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anyone from NPR and Ohio. News broadcasters are trained to speak with an Ohio accent as it's easy to understand and neutral. I am originally from Ohio but had European parents. People ask me where I am from a lot. When I say Ohio or US, they are surprised. Move to Ohio and hang out with internationals
Are you my husband? He is from Ohio and has European parents and a very “neutral” American accent.
They still have the open "A" sound which I recognize is probably considered "neutral" but I wouldn't say it is posh.
Anonymous
08/02/2023 23:33
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Anyone from NPR and Ohio. News broadcasters are trained to speak with an Ohio accent as it's easy to understand and neutral. I am originally from Ohio but had European parents. People ask me where I am from a lot. When I say Ohio or US, they are surprised. Move to Ohio and hang out with internationals
Are you my husband? He is from Ohio and has European parents and a very “neutral” American accent.
Anonymous
08/02/2023 23:26
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anonymous wrote:Anyone from NPR and Ohio. News broadcasters are trained to speak with an Ohio accent as it's easy to understand and neutral. I am originally from Ohio but had European parents. People ask me where I am from a lot. When I say Ohio or US, they are surprised. Move to Ohio and hang out with internationals
People from Ohio don’t have a midwestern accent? I had family in Pittsburgh, the accent was awful.
Anonymous
08/02/2023 23:23
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Not by accent, but by grammar and vocabulary. Also, the lack of "um," like," and other nonsense fillers when speaking.
Anonymous
08/02/2023 23:21
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Anyone from NPR and Ohio. News broadcasters are trained to speak with an Ohio accent as it's easy to understand and neutral. I am originally from Ohio but had European parents. People ask me where I am from a lot. When I say Ohio or US, they are surprised. Move to Ohio and hang out with internationals
Anonymous
08/02/2023 21:20
Subject: "Posh" American accent?
Locust Valley Lockjaw