Voices In My Head
Posted By Russ Emerson on August 18, 2004 at 12:52 pm
Maybe I’m obtuse, but I only now have noticed something. John Kerry seems to have almost entirely shed his Boston accent.
Having been a linguist, perhaps I have an ear for these things. Nonetheless, I never consciously noticed Kerry’s near-accentlessness until today. Maybe it’s because his other speaking habits are so ponderously annoying, or because what he says makes me want to tune him out completely. If you can bear to do so, listen to his voice recorded during his 1971 Senate testimony, and compare it to one of his speeches today. The difference is astonishing.
OK, granted, he’s lived in Washington DC for nigh unto 20 years. But I can think of a whole roster of politicians (past and present) who spent decades in Washington yet never lost their regional accents. Jesse Helms, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, Phil Graham… the list goes on and on.
One is tempted to think that maybe Kerry has actively cultivated a neutral accent. Perhaps it’s because he knows that “Boston liberal” is not an image of himself that he wants portrayed during his campaign.
Update, 8/19/04: Greyhawk noticed the same thing, and now has a link to a video of Kerry on the Dick Cavett show. Go. See.