What kind of accent is posh among young people in the US?

Wintereis   Tue May 06, 2008 7:06 pm GMT
The yankees are not the ones who owned slaves. It was the south.
Skippy   Tue May 06, 2008 7:28 pm GMT
The Yankees actually DID own slaves up until the outbreak of the Civil War; Northerners were notorious for having high death rates.

Also, the slave trade was basically run by the north, based out of New York and Rhode Island, especially. The slave trade was only able to continue during the Civil War because only northerners could get through the naval blockades.

Slavery was deplorable, but it drives me nuts when northerners seem to think they had nothing to do with it.
Ed   Tue May 06, 2008 7:50 pm GMT
"Yankees are people north of the Mason-Dixon line. I'm not a yankee."

Same thing, different thread. Same here.
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 10:34 pm GMT
<<The Yankees actually DID own slaves up until the outbreak of the Civil War;>>

Slavery was perfectly legal in New York (for example) up until 1799, and took quite a few years after that to phase it out completely (up to 1823 or 1827, IIRC). Before independence, slavery was of course legal all over the future US.
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 10:44 pm GMT
It's sad that the Southern way of living no longer exists since the Confederation lost the war. Cotton fields, white people enjoying a relaxed life while the slaves work hard, a society where productivity and money are not as important like they are for the yankees, etc... It's a true pity.
Guest   Tue May 06, 2008 11:20 pm GMT
''botton fields, white people enjoying a relaxed life while the slaves work hard, a society where productivity and money are not as important like they are for the yankees''

now white girls in the south do the hard work (street walking) while
black girls are relaxing, being r&b singers or rappers.
Skippy   Tue May 06, 2008 11:30 pm GMT
The "Southern way of living?" White people work hard while black people work the fields? Only 25% of Southerners owned slaves at all, less than 1% had more than two or three. White Southerners were never lazy plantation owners, that was a very small percentage of the population. The majority of Southerners worked their own (small) farms with their families.

I'll never understand this Yankee high horse that they always end up on.
brad_stedman   Wed May 14, 2008 2:51 am GMT
There's a breathy, NPR type accent that's probably the closest to being considered "posh". You won't encounter it unless you encounter those people, though ... or listen to NPR type programming. (for non-USers, NPR = National Public Radio, stereotypically geared towards the upper middle class).

I was in some classics class years ago and a girl was speaking with that breathy "posh" accent ... then she accidentally slipped into her nasally Long Island accent! She looked so embarrassed. That accent comes from nowhere but forced upbringing, so you'll probably only hear it spoken in an art gallery in NYC or San Francisco.

Years ago, though, there was an oldschool upper class Mid-Atlantic accent (NJ, NY, CT, etc.), but nobody speaks like that anymore. Those people have pretty much all died out.
Jose Barigan   Thu May 15, 2008 7:32 pm GMT
Where is the Mason-Dixon line?
What is Dreich? (awful rainy/Scottish-style weather?)
Are the Falkland Islands a British Protectorate?
Does Jon Stewart from the Daily Show Global edition have a typical New York accent? (He sounds nice to me)
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu May 15, 2008 9:44 pm GMT
Dreich: Scots - meaning bleak, depressing, dismal, drab, dreary, boring, wearisome, dull, godforsaken, monotonous, tedious.

Sounds like the Falkland Islands by all accounts. Stop dissing the Scottish weather! It's not always dreich - it can be really lovely more times than you would ever realise, and the east coast is quite dry relatively speaking - Edinburgh has an annual rainfall similar to that of San Francisco, so there! :-)

In parts of the Western Highlands the inhabitants do have webbed feet though and are quackers most of the time.
Guesssst   Fri May 16, 2008 1:24 am GMT
Jon Stewart has a typical New Jersey accent ... he was raised there, and that's what people actually sound like in the Northern/Middle part.
Guest   Fri May 16, 2008 1:31 am GMT
<<The Yankees actually DID own slaves up until the outbreak of the Civil War>>

No. It had been illegal in the north long before the civil war broke out.
Guest   Fri May 16, 2008 2:33 am GMT
<<Where is the Mason-Dixon line?>>

Between Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Guest   Fri May 16, 2008 2:44 am GMT
<<No. It had been illegal in the north long before the civil war broke out. >>

I don't suppose slavery being illegal stopped anyone from owning slaves in the North. In fact, I think there was a case of slaves being sold out on Long Island a year or two ago. The slaver owners were caught, and were astonished to find that slavery was not legal in the US anymore, and weren't too happy to find out that tahy might actually have to go to jail.

Slave trade ("importation of such persons that the states choose to admit") was also illegal starting in 1808, but, according to Skippy's post, there was plenty of slave trade even during the Civil War.
Warnow   Mon May 19, 2008 12:49 am GMT
The so-called RP, even though no native American speaks like that naturally.