Anyways, this past Wednesday we read and discussed Dennis Preston's, "They Speak Really Bad English Down South and in New York City". In the reading there's multiple maps made of data from multiple groups of people illustrating where they think proper English is spoken and who they think speaks the most pleasantly (whatever that means). Amongst these maps is a map of the US with sections made by someone from Michigan (who probably thinks very highly of himself as apparently all people from Michigan do...) that illustrate where they think the dialect areas are in the US. Most of it is what you'd expect with Texans being singled out as hillbillies and of course people from Michigan being labeled as normal. One thing specifically caught my eye however, and that is that New England was circled and labeled as simply, "British". In a historical context, British would make sense, but when I think of the modern New England accent the LAST thing I think of is British. I asked about this in class and Professor Luthin mentioned an accent that I had never heard of before called Boston Brahmin. After listening to a video to a conversation between two men with the accent I can confidently say that it does in fact sound like British. ALOT like British. So, I'm not sure if that is actually what that person from Michigan was talking about in the map, but honestly I don't care anymore. This whole post was a McGuffin to get all of you to look up the Boston Brahmin accent and have your mind blown...
If you happen to listen to it let me know what you think! this isn't really a discussion that can lead to a deep discussion but it is incredibly interesting (at least to me).
I think I watched the same video as you did...? https://youtu.be/bXjU60a8dmI. My first impression was actually that it wasn't very British-sounding, but I think part of the problem was that I was expecting it to be very strong. After listening for a bit, I definitely heard similarities in some of the words and sounds. More than that, however, I noticed the vocabulary and content of the dialogue. The two men are discussing literature and life in a way that makes it seem like they have their own culture. They are educated in a similar way and this is shown in the way they talk. There is a community-feel to their conversation, and I feel like an outsider listening in. It's interesting to think about!
ReplyDeleteI do personally think it sounds a lot like a British accent but I definitely see where you're coming from. There's definitely something else in there that isn't British. I sort of thought of it as British Lite. Even though the guys talking seem very pompous, the accent itself seems a little less refined and as a result seems like less of a high status thing than a normal British accent (which is funny because anyone can have a British accent and the brahmin accent has seemed to mainly survive in wealthy people...)
DeleteI do kind of catch the accent! I agree with Alice that it's pretty subtle, but it's definitely there. Do you have any idea where this British flavor comes from?
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of this activity I had to do for one of my classes this semester. We were each given a printed out, blank map of Pennsylvania. Using this, we had to draw out the rough boundaries of different dialectal areas in PA, then put a label in each section to describe that dialect. The class came up with "Pittsburghese," "Amish Country," "New York Ish," etc. It was interesting to see how many dialects exist, and how those dialects are perceived. I thought of that when you were talking about Texas's "hillbilly" image. It's neat to think about how closely our speaking patterns are linked with our identities.
In looking it up it seems that speakers of Boston Brahmin are likely just descendants of the first wave of rich British immigrants that came to Boston. One other thing I saw that was interesting is that there's actually Brahmin speakers in places like New York too.
DeleteYour mention of the maps is great because we actually went over those in class on Wednesday and they were certainly interesting to look at. Many of them were super general, often making half of the state not part of the state with labels like "New Jersey" or "New York". This generalization makes the map I show in the post a little more strange to me though because it really isn't general. It focuses in on a pretty small area and singles out a very specific accent, assuming that they were talking about Boston Brahmin of course. Either way it's interesting none the less.
Kate, what class was THAT in? Sounds the the PA perceptual dialectology study I did in this class years ago!
DeleteWow you were not wrong. I watched a few videos on how Boston Brahmin was pronounced and it sure does sound like a British accent, to the common ear. It's kinda interesting as I looked up the accent, I found out it was mostly spoken by the upper-class of Boston. Almost like a socioeconomic status, very interesting to think that a certain accent could be associated with class. I could see how Bostonians could be deceived as a British foreigner.
ReplyDeleteYeah I definitely agree. It certainly sounds pompous, but there's something else in there that makes it sound a little less "high status" than a normal British accent which I think is really interesting. There's just a hint of American pronunciations that almost throws my brain off.
DeleteI can tell that there is a difference, but it does sound British, too. I thought Mary's comment was interesting about the upper-class Bostonian's speaking like that--it is just not what I expected.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Eli! The Brahmin dialect definitely has preserved a lot of British features, though overlaid with New England developments. I didn't know that the AMERICAN TONGUES people had released the full interviews of the people they featured in their film, so thanks for that link (or Alice, if that's a different link from what you were referring to). I've always been interested in those two old gentlemen in their library, talking books and sailing...
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the entire AMERICAN TONGUES video, which is a lot of fun. Since you haven't had my Intro to Ling class, you won't have watched it already...
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA5A8E4EA074CD3F3
P.S. They are NOT in order...