Are regional American accents disappearing?

[raccoon]

Seems to me many under-30's don't have much of a regional accent.

Anybody else notice this?

[cloudbase]

1. Sho' nuf! n/t

[tmlanders]

2. People are often confused when they find out I am from Eastern Mass.

They think that everyone here talks like the Kennedy's or like the guys (tried to) in The Departed. I have been told my accent sounds like I am from Upstate New York or even LA. Most people in Mass. speak like everyone else in the Northeast.

By the way, why do actors even TRY to speak "Bostonian"? I can speak with a Boston accent when I want to. You can't do it right unless you grew up here. I was watching "Big Love" on HBO last night, and they tried to have this ATF agent speak with a Boston accent. IT WAS HORRIBLE! Most of us in Mass. DO NOT speak like that! And to hear it done badly is like the nails on the chalkboard thing.

My kids, who grew up 25 miles from Boston, can't speak Boston, either.

[raccoon]

3. I love the way the Kennedys talk. nt

[Marrah_G]

5. OMG that was horrid

She sounded like an idiot, not a Bostonian.

I speak with a Boston accent, my kids have closer to a Providence accent.

[skygazer]

7. Diane Lane in The Perfect Storm

One of the worst attempts at a Massachusetts accent I ever heard. Yeah, if you're not from there, don't even bother trying. Makes me cringe.

[Writer]

9. Actually she was supposed to be a Maine-ah.

I think that was the Downeast accent.

[skygazer]

10. Gloucester, Massachusetts

edited to add - and if that was supposed to be Maine, it makes it even worse. :P


(I know my New England accents)

[Writer]

15. Fuck - Gloucester?

Maybe I guessed Maine. I spent my early childhood days there.

If that's the case ewwwww.

[skygazer]

16. Yeah. I actually remember that storm

I lived in Vermont at the time. I don't remember hearing about the Andrea Gail particularly but the storm was something else. So when the book came out, I read it. :hi:

[Gormy Cuss]

12. It shouldn't have been.

The Perfect Storm was about Gloucester (Massachusetts) fishermen. Whatever accent she thought she was doing, it wasn't like any coastal New England one that I've ever heard.

Laura Linney in "Mystic River" was another painful example of someone who tried to evoke a Boston accent and failed miserably.

[Rambis]

13. So you like spatz?

I said yeah I am a cub fan and you have been waiting almost as long as I have eh being a sox
(Bass-Ton) fan?
The guy says "howdjew know I was a saux fan"
I said "just a hunch".
This was in the KC airport a few years ago before Boston won the series. My wife almost needed me to interpret for her. Being an Iowa boy I have to accent except when I go overseas I guess I have one according to the Irish.

[Marrah_G]

4. I haven't noticed that

My kids, especially my daughter (16) have a very distinct se mass/ri accent and I still sound like a Kennedy, especially when angry.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

6. I'm from Ohio. I don't have an accent

:P although I do say water funny. . .

[skygazer]

8. I would say yes

When I was a kid growing up in Vermont there were a lot of older people who spoke with a thick Yankee accent. Not so much anymore - what little there is has smoothed out a lot. I imagine television has a lot to do with it.

[cobalt1999]

11. I blame television too.

Fewer locally produced programming also. Too bad actually. Hearing the different accents was one of the joys of traveling in this country.

[LostinVA]

14. No -- even in the under 30 crowd