# What kind of (American English) accent is this? Is it an accent or an affectation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2017, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358 "2017-12-13T03:27:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/61 "2018-07-09T19:09:51Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > An added argument against that is that would be extremely unusual for these White Supremacist groups to accept an Irish person anyway. They don’t consider us to be Aryan. The KKK is as much against Irish Catholics as they are against black folks and hispanic people. They are more active against brown-skinned folks, probably just because it’s easier to pick them out of a crowd, but they don’t accept us either. At one time, that was certainly true. The Second and Third Era Klans were well-known for tailoring their message to local prejudices, so they appealed to anti-Catholic sentiment in the Midwest (and weirdly, in Maine). Elsewhere, there were too many Catholics to do that sort of thing. The Third Era Klan actively recruited the Irish in Boston, at least after Prohibition, and by the 1960s anti-Catholic messaging all but disappeared from the Klan - to the point where it had [priests](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maryland-couple-can-t-forgive-former-kkk-member-turned-priest-n828086) among its members. So there’s no reason why an Irishman couldn’t be sympathetic to the Klan in the 1990s. Besides, he could well be a Protestant descended (or claiming to be descended) from English immigrants. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/62 "2018-07-09T19:12:43Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > It doesn’t sound anything like what I think of as an Irish accent See, to my ears, there’s clear Irish-sounding giveaways there that to me make Eamon Andrews in that clip sound Irish: the way he says “party,” “hear,” “commerce,” “publishing,” “off,” “elsewhere,” “certain.” I can’t quite describe exactly what I’m hearing, but in many vowels preceding an “r” in Irish English, it sounds to me like the vowel is shifted a bit, like it’s more open and fronted, I think. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/63 "2018-07-09T19:14:59Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > Are there a lot of Protestants in the Southern part of Ireland?? > > I’d still like to know the answer to this OP, if anyone’s still interested. Protestant Northern Irish. An accent that makes me grind me teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/64 "2018-07-09T19:26:49Z")
Well alright then, it seems like there’s still not a consensus here. I’m leaning towards “wherever Eamon Andrews is from” after seeing that clip. As to the above posts, I recently watched a documentary about Ulster Unionists and I did not once hear the kind of accent that we’re discussing here. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/65 "2018-07-09T19:27:56Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Protestant Northern Irish. An accent that makes me grind me teeth. Are you wealthy and from the mid-Atlantic or Michigan? > [@Lamoral](#): > > …These are upper-class, old-money accents. I find it unlikely, though not impossible, that anyone from that social stratum would find himself wearing a fake camouflage uniform and delivering a speech about the “fecundity” of the “other peoples of the world” to a crowd of morons inside a Quonset Hut in Bumfuck, Michigan… > > > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > > > Or else America’s vaunted fluidity of social status/affluence/geography has established Bumfuck Michigan [Lock Jaw.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent)… The Wiki [Lock Jaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_accent) article, BTW, defined there as “an acquired accent,” seems to cover much of what this thread has in general coalesced around. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/66 "2018-07-09T23:31:20Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > Well alright then, it seems like there’s still not a consensus here. I’m leaning towards “wherever Eamon Andrews is from” after seeing that clip. As to the above posts, I recently watched a documentary about Ulster Unionists and I did not once hear the kind of accent that we’re discussing here. If you’re waiting for a consensus here, you’ll be waiting for a very long time: especially if you give equal weight to every opinion offered. I’m puzzled why you seem so resistant to accepting that this is an Irish accent, despite the quite definite assurances of actual Irish posters, and your own judgement. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/67 "2018-07-10T00:17:24Z")
I accept it, I guess. I still wonder who this guy is, how he wound up in that group, and what he’s doing now. Did he stick with the “Aryan Nations”? Did he drift into some other weird group or cult? Is he in prison? Is there any chance he renounced his views and regained some sanity? It’s so odd that he’s uncredited in the cast of the documentary. And none of the people involved in making that documentary seem to have contact information to ask. ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/68 "2018-07-10T05:08:30Z")
I hear slight hints of German making me wonder if his first language is German but he learned British English as a child and has made a strong effort to speak some sort of (non-regional) educated British English. He also makes me wonder if his is from a South African English-speaking family and has made a strong effort to eliminate any trace of any Afrikaans or South African English accent. In any case, I doubt that he, or anyone else, ever grew up speaking with that accent. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/69 "2018-07-10T13:59:53Z")
After hearing the linked clips of Eamon Andrews and his interesting Irish accent, what makes you think this is an affectation and not his real accent? I don’t hear any German in it at all. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/70 "2018-07-10T15:18:47Z")
South African would be my guess. Maybe mixed with a little German. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/71 "2018-07-10T15:36:21Z")
I’m not hearing Irish or English. I get a vague taste of South African, like maybe he hasn’t lived there in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/72 "2018-07-10T16:45:59Z")
Do the various Irish posters have something to say to these people who are hearing German or South African (which I understand is a Dutch dialect called Boer or Afrikaner that sounds somewhat similar to German) - because I don’t hear that at all, and I have heard South African before, I watched a documentary with many people from there (Boer-speaking) and did not hear anything similar to that guy. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/73 "2018-07-10T16:49:45Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > The Second and Third Era Klans were well-known for tailoring their message to local prejudices, so they appealed to anti-Catholic sentiment in the Midwest (and weirdly, in Maine). It’s not that weird since actually Maine has more Acadians than any part of America and there has always been discrimination against the Acadians who practice Catholicism traditionally. They are a long-persecuted people but left a tremendous legacy in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes (you will find lots of Benoits, Boudreaus and Melansons in Cape Breton.) ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/74 "2018-07-10T22:23:54Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > After hearing the linked clips of Eamon Andrews and his interesting Irish accent, what makes you think this is an affectation and not his real accent? Well, just to be clear, that’s not Eamonn Andrews’ native accent. It’s not anyone’s native accent. Eamonn Andrews was a working-class Dubliner. His native accent sounds like [this](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Nk0wxt149cQ). Having said that, neither is it an affectation. It’s a learned accent, but it’s his real accent. I wonder how many of the people commenting in this thread would recognise my accent as an Irish accent? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/75 "2018-07-10T22:33:12Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Well, just to be clear, that’s not Eamonn Andrews’ native accent… It’s a learned accent, … I was just going to post this as a possibility, but figured every poster till you knew what they were talking about. Or else, to return to My Theory: Eamonn Andrews can be identified as a member of an American supremacist movement. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/76 "2018-07-10T22:42:57Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > Having said that, neither is it an affectation. It’s a learned accent, but it’s his real accent. This is all pretty damn interesting. Is this accent _always_ a learned accent (i.e. are there any people who grow up speaking with that inflection, without any kind of deliberate studying?) ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358/77 "2018-07-10T23:35:19Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > This is all pretty damn interesting. Is this accent _always_ a learned accent (i.e. are there any people who grow up speaking with that inflection, without any kind of deliberate studying?) Not that particular accent, which is basically extinct. But I’m sure there are lots of middle-class couples who speak with a deregionalised Irish accent who are rearing children and sending them to schools where the other children speak like that too. Speaking for myself, I was explicitly taught how to speak “properly” (meaning in effect, not to have a Dublin accent). For example, I learned at the age of 5 to pronounce the “th” sounds in English - in my native variety of English “theme” and “team” sound identical, so I had to be taught to put my tongue between my teeth to say “theme”. I was encouraged to open my mouth to pronounce “bus” as /bʌs/ instead of /bʊs/, etc. The resulting neutralised accent is not native to any locality but nor is it an affectation; it’s just how I speak. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-american-english-accent-is-this-is-it-an-accent-or-an-affectation/804358.md?page=3)