# Young people with Connecticut Lockjaw/Boston Brahmin/Upper East Side accents **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 3, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905 "2008-03-03T03:26:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/1 "2008-03-03T03:26:39Z")
With the death of William Buckley, I recalled how the upper-class “Connecticut Lockjaw” accent used to be more common than it is now. Granted, it was still rare, but still encountered in the media on a daily basis. Now, except for caricatures of wealthy Upper East Siders on _Sex in the CIty_ episodes from a half decade back, the accent seems to be fading away. Are there still pockets of people that speak with the affected onnecticut Lockjaw/Boston Brahmin/Manhattan Upper East Side accent? Are they mostly elderly, or are there actually young uppercrusters that sound like the kiddie versions of William Buckley? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/2 "2008-03-03T03:29:20Z")
I have no idea what the accent you are describing sounds like. Can you link to examples? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/3 "2008-03-03T03:45:27Z")
Buckley’s accent wasn’t of this type - indeed, it wasn’t of any type. It came from an interesting combination of an upbringing by a Swiss mother in a household that also spoke Spanish conversationally, plus the interesting fact that, though American, he was educated at English boarding schools. That accent died with him. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/4 "2008-03-03T03:56:28Z")
For more information on Buckley’s accent, see [this Slate.com article](http://www.slate.com/id/2185368/). (At 13, he attended Beaumont College in England and then later Millbrook School in upstate New York. Also, his parents were Southerners, so there’s some influence from that. And the article notes that his siblings don’t talk like him.) ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/5 "2008-03-03T13:37:12Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I have no idea what the accent you are describing sounds like. Can you link to examples? [/QUOTE] Think Thurston Howell from Gilligan’s Island ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/6 "2008-03-03T18:19:04Z")
When I was in college, there were some twins down the hall with this accent. We called them the “Greenwich Snobs.” ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/7 "2008-03-03T18:27:37Z")
I live in the Boston area and I have never met one. I worked with a lady once who had a roughly Kennedy accent but she is in her late 60’s at least now. The rich Boston suburbs tend to have kids that speak close to American neutral. The poorer suburbs like Revere generate a strong accent but that isn’t related to the one you are referring to. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/8 "2008-03-03T19:20:04Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I have no idea what the accent you are describing sounds like. Can you link to examples? [/QUOTE] Didn’t Katharine Hepburn talk like that? ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/9 "2008-03-03T19:31:49Z")
[QUOTE=Bootis] Think Thurston Howell from Gilligan’s Island [/QUOTE] There’s also a (I think recurring) character on Family Guy. He’s in the episode where Brian goes back to college after getting fired from _The New Yorker_. It appears his name might be Wellsley Sheperdson. I have a feeling he’s in another episode, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, he’s the first guy I thought of when I read the OP. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/10 "2008-03-03T19:52:07Z")
Another example isthe guy in Futurama. The rich Guy at the Party where in the $300 tax refund episode. Bender blows smoke from the super cigar in his face. ---
**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:** [March 3, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/11 "2008-03-03T19:54:25Z")
Is this accent in the 1980’s film _Trading Places_? [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXdie\_gifI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAXdie_gifI) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/12 "2008-03-03T19:54:41Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] I have no idea what the accent you are describing sounds like. Can you link to examples? [/QUOTE] Buckley v. Vidal: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYymnxoQnf8) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/13 "2008-03-04T00:09:46Z")
[QUOTE=wolfman] Another example isthe guy in Futurama. The rich Guy at the Party where in the $300 tax refund episode. Bender blows smoke from the super cigar in his face. [/QUOTE] Judge Whitey. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/young-people-with-connecticut-lockjaw-boston-brahmin-upper-east-side-accents/439905/14 "2008-03-04T00:21:06Z")
Or, from M_A_S\*H, Major Charles Emerson Winchester III.