# What IS that accent?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384 "2007-10-11T20:45:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/1 "2007-10-11T20:45:17Z")
(I’m sticking this in **CS** because, well, they’re both actors.) Both [John O’Hurley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Hurley) (most famous as the voice of Elaine’s boss, the fictitious J. Peterman, on Seinfeld) and [John Lithgow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lithgow) have it. It sounds almost British, but both of them are, as far as I know, American born and bred. Is it a regional accent? Is it something they picked up doing too much Shakespeare in their college drama classes? Is it pure affectation? Both of them use the same accent in everyday speech as they do in their roles. I’ve just never been anyplace where people spoke like that: not New York (where Lithgow is from), not downeast (O’Hurley is from Maine), and certainly nowhere in the West or deep South. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/2 "2007-10-11T21:26:29Z")
I don’t really hear any type of accent when they talk. They just seem to have an overly dramatic way of speaking. Kind of like some of the Jon Lovitz characters. “I’m a thespian!” “Subway! Eat fresh!” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/3 "2007-10-11T21:30:00Z")
In a similar vein, what about Frasier and Niles on “Frasier”? Frasier in particular–Kelsey Grammar’s regular accent is nothing like that. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/4 "2007-10-11T21:30:28Z")
The one I wonder about that’s maybe similar is Kelsey Grammer’s accent. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/5 "2007-10-11T22:07:56Z")
How about this? > **[Eastern New England English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Brahmin_accent)** > > Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an even larger dialect area of New England, for example, including the eastern halves of Vermont and Connecticut for those born as late as the early twentieth century. Studies vary as to whether the unique dialect of Rhode Island technically fal Eastern New En... ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/6 "2007-10-11T22:10:58Z")
[QUOTE=cher3] How about this? > **[Northeastern elite accent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Brahmin_accent)** > > A Northeastern elite accent is any of the related American English accents used by members of the wealthy Northeastern elite born in the 19th century and early 20th century, which share significant features with Eastern New England English and Received Pronunciation (RP), the standard British accent. The late 19th century first produced audio recordings of and general commentary about such accents used by affluent East Coast and Northern Americans, particularly those in New York and N Some schola... [/QUOTE] That must be it…Thurston J. Howell III indeed. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/7 "2007-10-11T22:16:41Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] I don’t really hear any type of accent when they talk. [/QUOTE] Of course they have an accent. _Everyone_ has an accent. As an English person, I do think they sound kind of posh English (_not_ British - British accents are wildly different from each other). The Bostonian gourmand Lloyd Grossman, who is a TV presenter over here, sounds kind of like the examples given, but weirder. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/8 "2007-10-11T22:20:07Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Of course they have an accent. _Everyone_ has an accent. [/QUOTE] People without accents are dumb. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/9 "2007-10-11T22:25:19Z")
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable] People without accents are dumb. [/QUOTE] Goodness only knows how enlightening your post was before you edited it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/10 "2007-10-11T22:27:29Z")
Just to fix broken quote coding, I’m afraid… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/11 "2007-10-11T22:32:07Z")
[QUOTE=Indistinguishable] Just to fix broken quote coding, I’m afraid… [/QUOTE] Good grief, I only just got it. :smack: Nice one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/12 "2007-10-11T22:35:34Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] The Bostonian gourmand Lloyd Grossman, who is a TV presenter over here, sounds kind of like the examples given, but weirder. [/QUOTE] Lloyd Grossman has lived between London and the Eastern US long enough that his accent has changed a fair bit. I can still hear a touch of the elongated Bostonian vowels, a hint of his time in Toronto, and London. In any case here is Lloyd: [Llloyd Grossman hosting Masterchef](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=towd9vZWDJg) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/13 "2007-10-11T22:48:32Z")
I watched a 1963 episode of “The Twilight Zone” last night starring Julie Newmar (as “Miss Devlin,” with sexy little horns glued to her head), who also seemed to speak with some odd pseudo-British inflections. Today I checked Wikipedia and IMDb to see where she was born and raised, thinking she must have at least attended some overseas school teaching British English in her childhood to have acquired that accent. (Hard to explain it exactly, but there was a distinct non-native pronunciation to some words.) It only says she was born in Los Angeles and I can’t find anything mentioning living or studying abroad, or her parents being immigrants. Maybe she was just trying to sound “upper crust.” At any rate, she was smokin’ hot in 1963. The guy in the episode sold his soul to go back in time to the town of his childhood—he \*must’ve \*been gay. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/14 "2007-10-11T23:02:46Z")
Is this the accent William F Buckley? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/15 "2007-10-11T23:22:18Z")
It irritates me slightly when people suggest that the Crane brothers in _Frasier_ sound British. They don’t. They sound affected, yes, but 100% American. On that show, the food critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert) is the most English-sounding (apart from the actually-English character Daphne, but let’s not go into her weird “Manchester” accent just now), and indeed that actor spent his formative years in Blighty, according to Wikipedia. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/16 "2007-10-11T23:49:48Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] It irritates me slightly when people suggest that the Crane brothers in _Frasier_ sound British. They don’t. They sound affected, yes, but 100% American. On that show, the food critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert) is the most English-sounding (apart from the actually-English character Daphne, but let’s not go into her weird “Manchester” accent just now), and indeed that actor spent his formative years in Blighty, according to Wikipedia. [/QUOTE] _Cheers_ and _Frasier_ are pretty much my favourite comedies. I have always reckoned that Wilde would have written for both shows. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/17 "2007-10-11T23:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=OneCentStamp] That must be it…Thurston J. Howell III indeed. [/QUOTE] The character of Gloria Upson in **Auntie Mame** did this accent wonderfully as well. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2007, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/18 "2007-10-11T23:55:12Z")
Of course they both got their accent the same place that Kathleen Turner got hers. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2007, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/19 "2007-10-12T00:55:25Z")
Is it a Harvard accent? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384/20 "2007-10-12T02:00:41Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] It irritates me slightly when people suggest that the Crane brothers in _Frasier_ sound British. They don’t. They sound affected, yes, but 100% American. On that show, the food critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert) is the most English-sounding (apart from the actually-English character Daphne, but let’s not go into her weird “Manchester” accent just now), and indeed that actor spent his formative years in Blighty, according to Wikipedia. [/QUOTE] Out of curiosity, how do you feel about the two actors mentioned in the OP? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-accent/422384.md?page=2)