Re: Clenched jaw?

Posted by Lotg on September 24, 2004

In Reply to: Clenched jaw? posted by Brian from Shawnee on September 24, 2004

: : : : : The accent of one who has been through the elite school system in the UK is distinctive. The question is -- how can this accent replace the original accent of boys from all over the country who presumably have developed their speech patterns when they get to school?

: : : : Do we really want to replace the colourful accents that are the spices of any language? I was noting the previous discussion on the Irish accent, yet there are so many different Irish accents as there are English accents as there probably are in any country. I grew up in east Cork in Ireland and just a few miles away, across the Blackwater River in Waterford, the accents were entirely different. I have always marveled at how one language can be spoken, written and perpetuated in so many different colourful ways. Homogenized milk and language anyone?

: : :
: : : I have to declare an interest here, in that I am the product of Eton College and am Irish. My accent (which I do not regard as stereotypically 'upper crust' - I think it is rather neutral) was acquired long before I went to school. I think you will find that most people who attend British public schools will come from families who themselves have been to public schools, and thus will speak 'RP'. I think we gather our accents from our parents/siblings/friends long before we ever get to school.

: : : DFG

: : Is the U.S. equivalent a "lock-jawed accent"? From a review of the movie, "Mona Lisa Smile":

: : Joan (Stiles, employing a perfectly lock-jawed Groton accent) is mixed about marriage; she might want to go to law school, and Katherine might want to help.

: I know it as a "clenched jaw" way of speaking, as Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus) spoke on Gilligan's Island. I never thought of that as an accent!

I think it can be an accent. I have a friend here who for years I assumed came from somewhere in England. He has a 'terribly upper-crust British accent' and definitely the whole 'clenched jaw' routine. I was astounded when he told me he was a Kiwi. However, he was raised by 'terribly upper-crust' English parents who clearly influenced his accent. I don't believe it's affected - maybe once in his life it might have been, but I think it's long since become an actual part of him.