I do not know how many of you here might have had relatives who spoke with this accent, but you will recognize it immediately in old shows with Katherine Hepburn, and you even hear a tiny bit of it from Princess Leia in A New Hope just before Alderon is destroyed from the Death Star. Endora from Bewitched spoke this exclusively on all 7 seasons of the show.
Sorta British sounding, but discernibly American, when you heard people speaking like this you were (allegedly) undoubtedly in the company of well-heeled citizens.
Hard to believe, but schools actually taught people to affect this speech in international company or society circles. It is not a regional dialect, it is an intentional construct of a dialect meant to convey a layer of refinement to one's persona. I found this interesting!
The motivation for this thread came from watching old Bewitched episodes (particularly Season 3). Endora and Maurice and many of Samantha's relatives spoke in this fashion exclusively.
Sorta British sounding, but discernibly American, when you heard people speaking like this you were (allegedly) undoubtedly in the company of well-heeled citizens.
Hard to believe, but schools actually taught people to affect this speech in international company or society circles. It is not a regional dialect, it is an intentional construct of a dialect meant to convey a layer of refinement to one's persona. I found this interesting!
The motivation for this thread came from watching old Bewitched episodes (particularly Season 3). Endora and Maurice and many of Samantha's relatives spoke in this fashion exclusively.
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