Broadcasters' accents
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From Ellen Fleming, a reporter for WWLP22 in Chicopee, Massachusetts:
Sometimes that Boston accent slips out when you least expect it pic.twitter.com/urXO2xrQ6E
— Ellen Fleming (@EllenFlem) January 12, 2023
The accents of news announcers across the U.S. are much less local — in region or ethnicity or class — than those of their listeners. Like Ellen Fleming, most broadcasters have learned to speak the broadcast standard, at least in their work context. For a discussion of what that "standard" actually is in the U.S., see Rosina Lippi-Green, "The Standard Language Myth", 2000 (reprint from English with an Accent, 1997). For some discussion of the U.K. version, see Magda Kowalska, "The accent of BBC radio presenters", Acta Universitatis Lodziensis 2018, and Kat Eschner, "How a New Accent Overturned BBC Tradition and Messed With the Nazis", Smithsonian Magazine 11/17/2017.
In my experience, discussion of sports — and especially sports talk radio — is the best place in the U.S. mass media to get past Broadcaster English. And not long ago, there was a minor fuss in the U.K. because Lord Digby Jones criticized a BBC sports reporter for g-dropping:
Enough! I can’t stand it anymore! Alex Scott spoils a good presentational job on the BBC Olympics Team with her very noticeable inability to pronounce her ‘g’s at the end of a word.Competitors are NOT taking part, Alex, in the fencin, rowin, boxin, kayakin, weightliftin & swimmin
— Lord Digby Jones (@Digbylj) July 30, 2021
For a review of the following controversy, see Miranda Bryant, "BBC’s Alex Scott ‘proud’ of working class accent after peer’s elocution jibe", The Guardian 7/11/2021. It's ironic that as a matter of historical fact, "g-dropping" is the conservative practice, once characteristic of the English upper classes, as discussed in our posts "'G-dropping' as 'non-G-adding'", 10/18/2008, and "The Internet Pilgrim's guide to G-dropping", 5/10/2004.
You can hear how Lord Jones talks (along with his interviewer's approximation of BBC English) here.
And for Alex Scott's presentational style:
Cervantes said,
January 14, 2023 @ 8:43 am
I live in rural Connecticut and some of the people out here still speak with the Bert and I accent. (It's impossible to spell Bert phonetically, best I can do is B[schwa]t.) Anyhow I stopped by the local auto repair shop, now overseen by the patriarch who doesn't wrench any more, and asked to talk to his son about my veehickle. He said "He's gone to Willimantic to get some pot." I said "to get some pot?" Russ said "Yah, some pot." Then I realized he was saying "parts."
David Marjanović said,
January 14, 2023 @ 9:34 am
All that retroflexion is hard work… :-)
It's possible to spell almost anything phonetically. The symbol used for the mainstream British NURSE vowel, if that's what you mean, is [ɜ].
Taylor, Philip said,
January 14, 2023 @ 9:37 am
In non-rhotic British English, "Bert" would be pronounced /bɜːt/, which therefore differs from unstressed "but" which would be /bɜt/ — is that close ?
Taylor, Philip said,
January 14, 2023 @ 10:10 am
Well, is it, David ? For me, the NURSE vowel is [ɜː], not [ɜ], and the LPD would seem to concur, transcribing "nurse" as /nɜːs/.
MarkB said,
January 14, 2023 @ 12:48 pm
She sounded fine to me (born in Boston). I've never understood why there was any call for uniform pronunciation when we can understand each other perfectly well. On a national level I get it, but do people in Georgia and Massachusetts need to hear Ohio speak?
Tom Dawkes said,
January 14, 2023 @ 1:07 pm
The former UK government minister Priti Patel was a regular 'g' dropper, as can be seen form most videos of her.
Of course, RP speakers ALL drop the 'g' because they say /ıŋ/ rather /ıŋg/ as many English northern and midland accents do. I dare say Digby Jones as a Birmingham man grew up say /sıŋg/ and /sıŋgıŋg/.
Rodger C said,
January 14, 2023 @ 1:23 pm
Well if "the g" means "the velar feature," then they drop it, I reckon.
J.W. Brewer said,
January 14, 2023 @ 5:10 pm
Where's the current isogloss in Massachusetts for rhoticism/non-rhoticism among regular folks who aren't trying to talk proper? Ms. Fleming may be a Boston native but she's apparently currently employed by a tv station in Chicopee, which is fairly far west in the state (immediately north of Springfield) and possibly at present a locale where everyone who isn't from somewhere else is rhotic?
mg said,
January 14, 2023 @ 5:18 pm
I'm with @MarkB on the issue of letting local broadcasters have local accents. However, my guess is that many local broadcasters have ambitions of eventually going national, in which case it makes sense for them to hide their accents from the beginning.
Chicopee probably has a mix of rhotic/non-rhotic since there will be people there who moved from Eastern MA. People there should certainly be capable of understanding a Boston accent, just like Bostonians are capable of understanding people from Chicopee.
Dennis Paul Himes said,
January 14, 2023 @ 8:21 pm
J.W. Brewer is right. Chicopee is in the rhotic part of the state.
Killer said,
January 14, 2023 @ 9:38 pm
Having lived in Boston at one point myself, I pick out the reporter's pronunciation of "already" as "AH-ready" (at :04) as sounding Bostonian, too.
Cervantes said,
January 15, 2023 @ 8:34 am
On reflection, I'd spell Bert Bt, with no vowel symbol at all, just whatever is left over from the voiced B that gets you to t.
Taylor, Philip said,
January 15, 2023 @ 10:58 am
In British English, that would be a possible transcription of unstressed "but" in rapid speech, but nothing like "Bert" (or "Burt") at all.
Martha said,
January 15, 2023 @ 11:45 am
I'm not from Boston, but I have been watching a lot of This Old House lately, and I heard what Killer heard and at that point thought that was what had slipped out, until I got to the end.
I also think it's fine for local broadcasters to have local accents, and I agree that many have ambitions of national work. But I also wonder how many local broadcasters are from the area where they are working. People might learn to speak with a more generic accent because they don't know where they'll end up. (Though I guess nothing would stop them from using their "real" accent if they found a job in their hometown.)
Brett said,
January 15, 2023 @ 2:31 pm
As Killer noted, Ellen Flemming already had an apparent Boston-area accent, even before she blurted out that pronunciation of "Hampshire." The change was just a matter of degree.
Taylor, Philip said,
January 16, 2023 @ 9:45 am
"I dare say Digby Jones as a Birmingham man grew up say /sıŋg/ and /sıŋgıŋg/" — to my ear, /sıŋgıŋg/ is very much the sign oF a speaker from the Black Country (including Birmingham) but I thought that in my own SE idiolect the /ŋg/ cluster was absent. I realised that I was wrong, however, while listening to the radio yesterday, when I heard someone say "dinghy" (/ˈdɪŋ |i/). I immediately realised that I invariably say /ˈdɪŋ gi/, even tho' I have spent only three years (of 75) in the Black Country. I therefore wonder why …