HRC speaking at a commencement when she was 21

[just]

boingboing.net/2016/06/06/what-hillary-clinton-sounded-l.html


In 1969, Hillary Rodham, at age 21, was the first student ever to give a commencement speech at Wellesley College, and the college has just released excerpts of it. I would not have recognized her voice, which was higher-pitched and had a faster rhythm, but she had the same intensity and self-assuredness then as she does now.

[sfy]

How cool . It's funny how much the voice can change with age, even after adulthood. Her accent was stronger then, too.

[sessy]

I want to hear the entire thing.

[sfy]

Jun 6, 2016 20:55:21 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

I wish she spoke a little more like that now, instead of doing that Ted-Kennedy-yelling-at-us thing she does now. On the other hand, she sounds much more confident now, and less like she's reading from the page.

I have to disagree that her accent was stronger then, I think it's much, much stronger now and I don't detect any accent back then - but I guess that all depends on what your own accent is!

Mine - Mid-Atlantic
Hers then - Midwestern

[sfy]

Jun 7, 2016 0:34:02 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

Jun 6, 2016 22:38:32 GMT -5 sfy said:

Mine - Mid-Atlantic
Hers then - Midwestern

What is her accent now? I thought it was still Midwestern, but twangier.

I don't hear the Chicago anymore. I'm not sure what it is. I guess it sounds like what it is--someone who's lived in different regions. Mine has been dampened for the same reason, but it's still there, especially if I get angry or when I go home lol.

[thebulldog]

Chelsea looks a lot like her.

Sent from my SM-G900P using proboards

[FloFTW]

<3

It's her O's and A's. Her A's are very pronounced and her O's sound like "Ah".

[asdfjkl]

I can absolutely hear "Chicago" in that accent.  It's not the Sout' Syde Chicago.  It's North side Chicago. But yeah, it's interesting to hear her voice.  It sounds like her, but it doesn't.  

[StrawberryBlondie]

Yeah, that's a Chicago accent.

[sfy]

Jun 7, 2016 9:35:43 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

Jun 7, 2016 6:51:59 GMT -5 sfy said:

I don't hear the Chicago anymore. I'm not sure what it is. I guess it sounds like what it is--someone who's lived in different regions. Mine has been dampened for the same reason, but it's still there, especially if I get angry or when I go home lol.

Ah, I guess I don't know a midwestern accent then, because I thought that's what she had now, maybe with some southern thrown in.  Her college accent actually sounded like no accent to me, ie New Englandy but waspy, collegiate, central New England, not like my horrible RI accent. More like what our teachers sounded like when they told us we'd never get anywhere if we didn't lose our accents, LOL

This is an interesting perception for a few reasons.  One, because "no accent" or the "newscaster accent" is typically attributed to Midwesterners (although I think most people from Chicago actually have a very distinct accent, which is my point re Hillary).  But two, nothing about New England is accent-neutral lol.  At all.  It's actually very distinct.  Not touching the waspy thing.  But I suspect the Rhode Island accent is strong enough that the rest of NE might sound mild in comparison.  I can't say I'm familiar with the Rhode Island accent, however.

[FloFTW]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_English

It sounds to me like in the speech, she does the first 3 vowel shifts. Now, the only one I notice her doing is #3.

[jeaniebueller]

What is a Chicago accent? I live in Michigan and didn't know that was a thing.

[terpsfan]

Jun 7, 2016 20:48:20 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

Jun 7, 2016 9:46:46 GMT -5 sfy said:

This is an interesting perception for a few reasons.  One, because "no accent" or the "newscaster accent" is typically attributed to Midwesterners (although I think most people from Chicago actually have a very distinct accent, which is my point re Hillary).  But two, nothing about New England is accent-neutral lol.  At all.  It's actually very distinct.  Not touching the waspy thing.  But I suspect the Rhode Island accent is strong enough that the rest of NE might sound mild in comparison.  I can't say I'm familiar with the Rhode Island accent, however.

No, you misunderstood.  I didn't mean that a New England accent is no accent. I don't think there's any such thing as 'no accent'. I was riffing on the way people don't recognize their own accent, and think it's only other people who have an accent.    In other words, the  collegiate Hillary sounds more like what I'm used to hearing and less foreign than she sounds now to me.  Between Wellesley and Yale, Hillary's accent might have become more New England.  She sounds much more, I dunno, nasal and twangy to me now.

RI is a combination of Brooklyn and Boston.  We drop our r's like Bostonians(and add them elsewhere like 'idear' 'Africer')  but unlike Bostonians, we say cawfee instead of cahfee, Bahbby instead of Bawbby, Gahd instead of Gawd, dawg instead of 'dahg'. Kind of random!  And we call drinking fountains bubblers (bubblahs), cabinets = frappes and we don't call soda tonic or corner stores 'spas'.

But as a Bostonian once told me, that's what comes from living in the armpit of New England. 

So its kind of random.

I love the RI accent -- it's home to me. Born and raised in RI to Midwestern parents left me with zero accent, a few choice unique words in my vocabulary to puzzle Marylanders where I've lived now for 20 years. I feel wicked neutral ;-)

[LoveTrains]

Jun 7, 2016 9:46:46 GMT -5 sfy said:

Jun 7, 2016 9:35:43 GMT -5 sandsonik1 said:

Ah, I guess I don't know a midwestern accent then, because I thought that's what she had now, maybe with some southern thrown in.  Her college accent actually sounded like no accent to me, ie New Englandy but waspy, collegiate, central New England, not like my horrible RI accent. More like what our teachers sounded like when they told us we'd never get anywhere if we didn't lose our accents, LOL

This is an interesting perception for a few reasons.  One, because "no accent" or the "newscaster accent" is typically attributed to Midwesterners (although I think most people from Chicago actually have a very distinct accent, which is my point re Hillary).  But two, nothing about New England is accent-neutral lol.  At all.  It's actually very distinct.  Not touching the waspy thing.  But I suspect the Rhode Island accent is strong enough that the rest of NE might sound mild in comparison.  I can't say I'm familiar with the Rhode Island accent, however.

A Rhode Island accent is like a drunken Matt Damon in good will hunting. It makes my ears bleed routinely.

[LoveTrains]

Jun 7, 2016 21:11:47 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

What is a Chicago accent? I live in Michigan and didn't know that was a thing.

It's like a Midwest accent.

[cville]

Jun 7, 2016 21:11:47 GMT -5 jeaniebueller said:

What is a Chicago accent? I live in Michigan and didn't know that was a thing.

Lol. There was a whole SNL skit about Chicago accents. Da Bears!