Accent in Doubt

[Matthew Gordon]

Yes, except that Dennis Franz was presumably just using his native Chicago
accent. What we appear to have here is a Tennesseean putting on the wrong
Northern accent, assuming, as I said, that the character is supposed to be a
New Yorker.


On 6/8/05 12:45 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:

> 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.