Accent in Doubt

[Joel S. Berson]

FWIW, Cherry Jones appeared in Cambridge, Mass., with the American
Repertory Theater (affiliated with Harvard) for a few years before she
moved to Broadway (and was acclaimed, in I think first "The
Heiress).  Also, she is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

In passing, her performance in Doubt just won the Tony for Best Actress.

Joel

At 6/8/2005 01:10 PM, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Matthew Gordon <gordonmj at MISSOURI.EDU>
>Subject:      Accent in Doubt
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>
>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?
>
>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.