Accent in Doubt

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:09 PM -0400 6/8/05, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>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

Ah, but she obviously won't win the Raven for the most
dialectologically convincing performance by an actor in a Broadway
drama or musical.

Larry

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