Accent in Doubt

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:10 PM -0500 6/8/05, Matthew Gordon wrote:
>Larry's posts about positive anymore in Maine reminded me of a question I
>had about the accent of one of the main characters in the play Doubt.
>
>The play is set in the Bronx but the lead actress, the one playing Sister
>Aloysius, uses a Northern Cities Shifted accent. Most striking to me was the
>raising of /ae/ before voiceless consonants (e.g. happy) which does not
>normally happen in NYC. I haven't seen or read the play - I've only seen
>clips on, e.g., the NewsHour - so I don't know if the character is supposed
>to be a native New Yorker or not. Does anyone know if she's supposed to be a
>transplant from Chicago or some other northern city?

ah, the Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) syndrome, to a vowel.  With
Detective (later Sergeant) Sipowicz, as discussed here, there's no
question that he was supposed to be a New Yorker born and bred, so
his Northern Cities vowels (esp <a> as in happy) were a perfect
example of...whatever we decide to call it.

L

>
>The actress, Cherry Jones, is a Tennessee native. Many of the reviews talk
>about the authentic Bronx accent that the male lead, who's Irish, had to
>acquire, but I haven't seen any comments on Jones' accent.