Accents

I grew up outside of Boston (Lowell, MA, to be exact). Until around junior year of high school when I became heavily immersed in theater and acting, I had the thickest of Boston Accents* and sounded frighteningly like a mini (and female) Ted Kennedy.

At the tender age of 16, upon hearing my own voice caught on tape, I decided I needed to eliminate my accent (or at least learn to control it). I voraciously watched the news and over-enunciated every 'R' I could get my teeth on. I had an inkling that I wanted to go to school for theater and wondered just what I would get cast as if I didn't change my Bostonian sound.

Today, most people I know are shocked to learn that I once had an accent. I'm occasionally asked to "do it", like "it" is some sort of party trick. It's not an easy one to do properly, so I'm grateful I've got it in my back pocket should I ever need it.

Yesterday I got a Voiceover audition that called for a Mid-Atlantic accent. In researching an audio clip for that, I came across this quiz (and you know I love a quiz!):

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far) Northeast New England The kind of accent they have in Boston. There is more to it than just r's. Like, you say "don" and "dawn" the same while the people down in NYC don`t.

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

Who knew? Apparently you can take the girl out of the accent, but never the accent out of the girl. "Don" and "Dawn". Those sound the same, no?

Click on the link above to find out for yourself.

Will found this video accent research. She does the Mid-Atlantic and the very end, in case you're dying for an example. (think Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant)

*this could quite possibly be the best thing I've ever linked to on the Internet.