Masaryk University

Faculty of Education Department of English Language and Literature

Comparative Analysis of an NYC Accent as Performed by Non-native NYC Actors

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2020

Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D. Pavla Spalová

Bibliographical record Spalová, Pavla. Comparative Analysis of an NYC Accent as Performed by Non- native NYC Actors: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, Department of English Language and Literature, 2020. 48 pages. The supervisor of the bachelor thesis: Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D.

Bibliografický záznam Spalová, Pavla. Comparative Analysis of an NYC Accent as Performed by Non- native NYC Actors: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Pedagogická fakulta, Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury, 2020. 48 stran. Vedoucí bakalářské práce: Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D.

Abstract The title of this thesis is “Comparative Analysis of an NYC Accent as Performed by Non-native NYC Actors”. This accent is one of the most easily recognizable accents of American English, so it is interesting to see what it is about and how it is possible that some actors can imitate an accent that is not natural to them and yet sound natural. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part provides basic information about the differences in pronunciation of standard American English and the specifics of the New York accent. There is also information about accent coaching or mentoring and basic information on how such coaching works. The second part then presents the results of data analysis from pre-selected movie scenes, clearly comparing the selected samples in graphs and tables.

Anotace Název této práce je Srovnávací analýza newyorského přízvuku herců nepocházejících z New Yorku. Tento přízvuk je jeden z nejsnadněji rozpoznatelných přízvuků americké angličtiny, a tak je zajímavé podívat se, co tento přízvuk tvoří a jak je možné, že někteří herci dokáží napodobit přízvuk, který pro ně není přirozený, a přitom znít přirozeně. Práce se skládá ze dvou částí. V první části jsou základní informace o rozdílech výslovnosti standardní americké angličtiny a specifikách přízvuku angličtiny v New Yorku. Dále jsou zmíněné informace týkající se koučování či mentoringu přízvuků u herců a základní informace, jak takový koučink funguje. Druhá část následně předkládá výstupy analýzy dat z vybraných filmových scén, přehledně v grafech a tabulkách následně porovnává vybrané vzorky.

Keywords Accent, New York City, actors, movies, phonology, phonetics, analysis, comparison, dialect coaching, American English.

Klíčová slova Přízvuk, město New York, herci, filmy, fonologie, fonetika, analýza, porovnání, poradenství v oblasti dialektů, americká angličtina.

Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mgr. Irena Headlandová Kalischová, Ph.D. for her helpful advice and for supervising my bachelor thesis with patience.

Declaration I hereby declare that I have worked on this bachelor thesis on my own and that the information I used has been fully acknowledged in the text and included in the reference list.

Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů a zdrojů uvedených v seznamu literatury v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

In Brno, 20.4.2020 Pavla Spalová

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...... 9

2. THEORETICAL PART ...... 11

2.1. Definition of key terms ...... 11

2.1.1. Accents vs. dialects ...... 11

2.2. The New York City Accent ...... 11

2.2.1. Brief history of NYC Dialects ...... 12

2.2.2. Contemporary NYC Dialects ...... 14

2.2.3. NYC Dialect Speakers ...... 15

2.3. English phonology ...... 15

2.3.1. SAA vowels ...... 16

2.3.2. SAA consonants ...... 19

2.3.3. NYC accent features ...... 19

2.3.3.1. NYC accent vowel features ...... 19

2.3.3.2. NYC accent consonant features ...... 23

2.4. Dialect coaching ...... 24

2.4.1. Dialect coaching and accent modification in motion picture industry ...... 25

2.4.2. Notable NYC accents in movies and TV shows ...... 26

3. PRACTICAL PART ...... 28

3.1. Sample 1 – Margot Robbie as Naomi Lapaglia ...... 28

3.2. Sample 2 – Richard Gere as Clifford Irving ...... 29

3.3. The method ...... 29

3.3.1. Non-rhoticity...... 30

3.3.2. Intrusive ‘r’ and linking ‘r’ ...... 32

3.3.3. That - [ð] vs. [d̪ ] / [dð] and This - [θ] vs. [t̪] / [tθ] ...... 33

3.3.4. Tense [ɛə] ...... 35

3.3.5. Palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ] ...... 36

3.3.6. Now - /aʊ/ to [æʊ] ...... 38

3.3.7. Friday - /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ] ...... 39

3.4. Conclusion ...... 41

4. Sources ...... 45

1. Introduction

The motion picture industry has been a source of entertainment for many generations. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on creating new movies, television series or internet shows bringing in more money for future productions. Directors, producers and actors push their boundaries to deliver something never seen before. One of the ways to go about that is making sure that the experience is authentic and the audience credits the movie as believable. To ensure that, actors put hours, days and sometimes months into training different skills that are required for their characters. Drastic weight changes, hard physical training, martial arts, shooting, dancing classes – those are just some of the most typical things actors do to prepare for a new role. Often, the training is not only physical but it goes beyond what most people would ever have to learn to land a new job. To be convincing on the screens, actors prepare emotionally or by studying the characters’ past, their motives, and other aspects which could influence the perception of the character. Connecting the dots often means paying attention to such details as movements and speech. And speech, or the way a character speaks, their intonation, accent and dialect is one of the significant qualities people easily notice because they leave a strong first impression. There are dialect coaches, accent experts, and speech therapists or other professionals who are able to equip actors with the set of skills they will need to master accents which are completely new to them. It is not always easy, and certainly not always is it a success, but with enough time and direction, it is possible to create a character who speaks with a completely different accent than the actor who portrays them. This thesis aims to analyze the New York City (NYC) accents spoken by actors who are non-natives of NYC and compare them against the distinctive features of the NYC accent and each other. In order to do that, the theoretical part deals with establishing what the author refers to by the NYC accent as there are different dialects with distinctive phonemic features. The theoretical part also includes a brief history of the accent and the changes it has undergone in recent years. In no way does this thesis aim to lay out the complete history of all the changes and influences that have shaped the way people of NYC sound nor does it aim to provide an exhaustive overview of all the features of the accent. It simply points out

9 the most distinctive, widespread, and widely recognizable phonemes and patterns that have been recognized by professionals in the field of linguistic, phonetics and phonology to compare those properties of various systems of speech sounds to the accents used by actors. The practical part of the thesis then comprises and summarizes an analysis of the actors’ performances based on scenes from movies available to the public. The movies and actors were chosen after research of available movies in which actors changed their accents for their role. All the data that were analyzed are included in Appendix D of this work and all outcomes of the analysis are detailed in chapters dedicated to the particular features. The thesis is accompanied by a transcript of the material used as well as audio versions of the movie scenes that were analyzed. The transcript is included in Appendix B and the recordings comprise Appendix E.

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2. THEORETICAL PART 2.1. Definition of key terms

This work deals merely with the accent and it is therefore important to draw attention to the frequent misunderstanding of national language variants. From a linguistic point of view, it is important to distinguish between the concepts of accent and dialect, since dialect analysis would be too comprehensive, this work is devoted only to pronunciation.

2.1.1. Accents vs. dialects

The difference between a dialect and an accent is often misunderstood and the word accent is sometimes used to mean dialect. An accent is defined as a variety of a language with respect only to phonetic and phonological properties of that variety while a dialect in addition differs in word-stock as well as syntax, and Carr (2008) further gives examples of the differences between accents and dialects:

An example of an accent of English is Standard Scottish English (SSE), which differs in its vowel and consonant systems from the accent known as Received Pronunciation (also known as Standard Southern British English). For example, there is no /u:/ vs /υ/ contrast in SSE. An example of a dialect is Lowland Scots, whose syntax and vocabulary differ from the dialect known as Standard English. For example, ‘ear’ in Lowland Scots is ‘lug’, and ‘chimney’ is ‘lum’. American linguists tend not to adopt the accent/dialect distinction. (pp. 8-9)

2.2. The New York City Accent

These following subchapters lay out a rather brief and simplified overview of the NYC dialects’ history, point out the distinctive features which help to recognize and identify the dialects and accents among many other North American accents, and finally, give an insight into who typically the speakers of such accents are in today’s world. For the sake of brevity and clarity in this thesis, the term ‘NYC accent’ further refers to the features as described in detail in the chapter 2.3.3. NYC Accent Features. Many linguists devoted a more or less substantial part of their careers to studying, analyzing, and understanding accents in North America. New York City

11 seems to be particularly popular for its diversity among linguists. Many linguists have extensively written about the NYC accent trying to explain that the accent is not regionally bound. Instead, they all agreed that the accent changes based on the context, the social class, and other sociolinguistic aspects (Becker and Newlin-Lukowicz, 2018; Labov, 2006; Newman, 2014). Becker and Newlin-Lukowicz explain, “A common language ideology in the United States is that New York City English displays reliable geographic variation across the city’s five boroughs” (2018, p. 8). This theory assumed that the different parts of the city had their own pronunciation rules according to which their speakers could be distinguished and it was later disproved in their paper (Becker and Newlin-Lukowicz, 2018). The neighborhoods are separate administrative divisions that are also separate counties.

Figure 1

New York City boroughs map (Wikipedia, 2020)

Labov on the other hand focused on pointing out, developing and describing the idea of social stratification and the accent, which is a differentiation of accents based on people’s income, class or other social or economic aspects (2006).

2.2.1. Brief history of NYC Dialects

The history of NYC dialects is as complicated as the history of humankind. No wonder, as one of the most popular nicknames used for this city is the Melting Pot 12 which is related to the diversity of the city from the perspective of the immigrants who established and built the place. The city can be historically associated with its first settlers in the port of Nieuw Amsterdam in the late 1600s, but let us not forget the Irish, German, Italian, Hispanic or Chinese diaspora, which gradually emerged in NYC. Thanks to this diversity of nationalities and their linguistic influences, a unique dialect has developed in the city with very distinctive features. Most prevalent regional influence on the language was British and Irish, followed by German and Dutch. According to some linguists, the Dutch influence, which lasted until the mid-1800s, is most obvious in minimal pairs such as bed and bad. This influence on pronunciation is felt mainly in Brooklyn. (Viereck et al., 2005, p. 157). Sometimes, however, it is stigmatized and labeled quite pejoratively as Brooklyneese (Labov, 2006, p. 18), which later Labov mentioned is now a term used widely to label the NYC working class regardless of the borough they live in (2012, p. 38). However, some believe that it is almost impossible to capture Dutch or German influence in local dialects and that there is in fact no compelling evidence other than local place names. (Newman, 2014, p. 133). New York accents are most known for being one of the non-rhotic variants of the US dialects. This is a reminder of the British influence that spread in later times. Not pronouncing /r/ was a sign of prestige in the then British Kingdom, and so people under this influence began to favor this non-rhotic variant. Later, however, with the expansion of the country's settlement, this variant of pronunciation soon ceased to be used by the upper-class of society, and it was introduced in the language of middle- and lower-class (Labov, 2006, p. 19). The New York accent is one of the most stigmatized and stereotypically depicted accents because of its uniqueness. Many linguists and other professionals agree that some of its typical features are gradually disappearing as the younger generations growing up in this big city deliberately change their accent because of this negative perception. In their everyday speech they avoid the features which are considered the main bearers of the accent. For many New Yorkers, their accent, by which they are quickly identified whenever they travel outside of the city, is the source of pride, for others the source of ridicule (Labov, 2006, p. 18). One of the first linguists to try to describe some elements of the NYC dialects was Babbitt, who in the late 19th century mentions in his work that some pronunciation

13 characteristics are tied to the lower or middle class of the population (1896, p. 23). He talks about the stereotypical pronunciation patterns being connected to mainly lower and working classes due to the fact that the upper classes in the past would educate their children in private schools in which the teachers were not New Yorkers by origin. The lower and middle classes according to Babbitt comprised, however, the majority of the NYC population, which resulted in maintaining pronunciation for generations (1896, p. 25).

2.2.2. Contemporary NYC Dialects

Currently, the New York dialects are one of the best recognizable dialects of perhaps the entire North American continent. They contain elements and patterns of pronunciation that, when combined, create a one-of-a-kind combination of pronunciation that is hardly interchangeable with any other US accent. One of the prevalent recent features of the accents throughout the city and its neighbors is its inconsistency in some of its defining features, for example in rhoticity, as some words might be pronounced on one occasion differently than on another. According to Labov at his lecture at the Language and Linguistic Science, University of York (2013), dialects throughout the city and its neighborhoods have been almost unchanged since 2010, with the constant spill-over of people from New York to other parts of the country and vice versa, it cannot be said with such certainty that this migration does not affect the language and its pronunciation. Recent evidence suggests that the approach of new generations is also changing the overall approach to pronunciation. Labov (2012, p. 57) explains everything giving examples of a few cases, such as pronouncing the -ing suffix as /ɪn/. According to the data collected and analyzed, people tend to pronounce /ɪŋ/ if they speak slower and have time to watch their pronunciation regardless of how they were taught to pronounce the words. According to linguist Dan Kaufman, the iconic ways of speaking, which distinguish New York from other metropolitan areas are becoming rarer, especially on the island of Manhattan due to many outsiders moving into Manhattan (Wang, 2015).

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Kara Becker of Reed College recently commented on the changes that are taking place and which are likely to have a major impact on the pronunciation change in the east of the United States as follows:

This kind of change is termed a change from above, because it’s both a conscious change (New Yorkers will tell you they should pronounce their r’s) and one in reaction to an outside, broadly American, notion of what’s correct. In short, pronouncing r’s appears to be a direct reaction to the stigma attached to sounding like a New Yorker. Today, many speakers are still variable (sometimes they say cah, sometimes car), but the expectation is that this change will complete at some point in the future (2015, para. 8).

2.2.3. NYC Dialect Speakers

As mentioned earlier, many factors influence the pronunciation of the inhabitants of a certain city. By way of illustration, the factors may be, for example, ethnicity, national origin, socio-economic status or idiolectic preference and NYC has it all. There are many celebrities known from TV screens, feature films or radios who speak and represent the NYC accent.1 According to Labov et al. (2006), NYC English may be small from the geographic point of view, but quite significant from the population point of view. The dialect and accent are confined to the city limits and a few neighboring cities in New Jersey, an area of 530 square miles, with a population of 8,500,000 (p. 233). Some notable speakers of the NYC dialect include Bernie Sanders, Andrew Cuomo, Fran Drescher, Woody Allen, Alan Alda, Tony Danza, Robert De Niro, Alan Dershowitz, Rudolph Giuliani, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Pacino, Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Joe Pesci, Nelson Rockefeller, Ray Romano, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adam Sandler, Howard Stern, Barbra Streisand, Donald Trump, or Denzel Washington.

2.3. English phonology

General phonology is a term that describes a linguistic discipline dealing with the study of language patterns. In practice, phonology uses special symbols to distinguish and record individual sounds, phonemes. One such way of writing sounds

1 More about them in chapter 2.4.2. Notable NYC Accents in Movies and TV Shows. 15 is the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA – see Appendix A), which is used as a reference point for talking about phonemes throughout this thesis. To record the sounds and the details of their realization, square brackets [] are used throughout this work. The following subchapters deal with the classification of individual sounds typical of the NYC accent into comprehensible units and their comparison with the Standard American Accent (SAA).

2.3.1. SAA vowels

The SAA vowels are either monophthongs (consisting of one sound) or diphthongs (consisting of two sounds). The monophthongal SAA vowels are either tense, which suggests that the articulation organs are in a tense position, or lax, which means when pronounced, the articulation organs are relaxed.

The lax vowels are: ➢ /ɪ/ as in sit, ship, rich, kid, fish, bid ➢ /ɜ/ or /ɜ˞/ as in stir, her, firm, learn, girl ➢ /æ/ as in cat, trap, laugh, had, bad ➢ /ʊ/ as in book, foot, look, took, push, pull ➢ /ʌ/ as in cup, country, love, butter, money, company ➢ /ə/ as in about, comma, holiday, around ➢ /ɛ/ as in red, head, said, bed ➢ /ɑ/ as in father, honest, coffee, office

The tense vowels are: ➢ /i/ as in sheep, she, we, see, seat, bead ➢ /u/ as in you, two, room, food, rude ➢ /ɔ/ as in daughter, law, tall, walk, fall

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The diphthongs are: ➢ /aɪ/ as in I, my, life, wife ➢ /ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy, noise, coin ➢ /aʊ/ or /æʊ/ as in now, crown, sound, brown ➢ /oʊ/ as in go, show, know ➢ /eɪ/ as in day, sale, fail

Figure 2 below combines the previous representation of cardinal vowels in square brackets and the monophthongal vowels in SAA placed in a diagram showing the placement of the tongue (front to back from left to right) and the position of the mouth or jaw (close to open from top to bottom) (Shemesh, 2019). Figure 3 then shows the placement of SAA diphthongs and depicts how one vowel within a diphthong glides towards the other while the tongue and mouth change position to accommodate for the second sound.

Figure 2

Cardinal vowels vs. SAA monophthongs adapted from Accent’s Way website (Shemesh, n.d.)

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Figure 3

Cardinal vowels vs. SAA diphthongs adapted from Accent’s Way website (Shemesh, n.d.)

Notice the way diphthongs are made up of two vowels next to each other. One of the vowels is dominant and pronounced strongly and for a longer period of time. The other (in the case of SAA, the second vowel) is pronounced shortly and tends to be weaker, hence the symbol above the second vowel in each of the diphthongs, which is explained in the IPA chart online (International Phonetic Association, n.d.). Of course, English vowels have many other characteristics and can be distinguished in much more detail, for example, depending on their position in the word and how they are influenced by neighboring sounds. However, for a basic overview and understanding of the differences between SAA and the NYC accent, this distribution is sufficient.

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2.3.2. SAA consonants

The following table shows the place and manner of articulation of the SAA consonants.

Table 1

Consonant articulation distribution for SAA (Wikipedia, “General American English,” 2020).

Labial Dental Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal alveolar

Nasal M n ŋ

Plosive p b t d k g

Affricate tʃ dʒ

Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h

Approximant l ɹ j w

2.3.3. NYC accent features

Generally, the NYC accent sounds more nasal in comparison to the SAA and it is placed more forward and lower in the mouth than the SAA. Tracy Goodwin mentions the general placement of the accent is right in front of the bottom teeth or the bottom jaw, as if almost leaping from the lips (2008). The pitch variety is far greater than in the standard SAA and often it has more melody going up and down. Most utterances end on a down note, however, in case the speaker wants to emphasize something, there is the occasional ending on the up note. In terms of volume, this accent is among the louder ones. The stress falls on nouns, main verbs and other words that bear the meaning in the sentence, just like in SAA or most other US dialects (LACHSA, n.d.).

2.3.3.1. NYC accent vowel features

The vowel system in the NYC accent is very complicated and it would be impossible to present all its variants and nuances here. For simplicity, this work focuses

19 only on a simple comparison of NYC accent and SAA. Only the most typical and most widespread phonemes will be examined for subsequent analysis. For the most part, the following descriptions of vowel and consonant systems in the NYC area are based on Newman’s New York City English book unless other specific references are given.

Short-A split – from [æ] to [ɛə] This, according to Labov (2006) and Newman is the most common vowel feature of the NYC accent (p. 146). Certainly not every speaker of the accent possesses this unique feature but it is widely recognized throughout the United States as well as elsewhere around the globe. What happened was the original phoneme /æ/ has in some words split into two phonemes (or a diphthong) causing a difference in pronunciation of words such as trap and bath. In that case, the pronunciation changes from [æ] to [ɛə]. Newman supports this by pointing to the difference in pronunciation being linked to different meaning as well. Consider the following:

➢ can /æ/ = to be able to, as in Yes, we can. vs. can [ɛə] = a tin can ➢ banner /æ/ = a flag vs. banner [ɛə] = a person who bans (p. 53)

Goodwin (2008b) implies that this rule applies if the short-A is tense before the following consonants, /d/, /f/, /g/, /dʒ/, /m/, /n/, /s/, /ʃ/, /θ/, /ð/, and /z/. Newman (2011), however, lists some other consonants (see Figure 4 below) and explains that the vowel “is tense before the consonants inside the polygon and lax before those outside it; the dotted lines enclose sounds with inherent variability” (p. 55).

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Figure 4

NYC accent short-A split conditioning

Additionally, Goodwin (2008b) makes it clear that more rules apply in the short-A split system, such as when the /æ/ and the consonant after that is followed by a vowel, the schwa, or /l/, then it is realized as the lax [æ]. Newman goes as far as pointing to additional constraints on the previous conditioning some of which are in line with Goodwin’s simplification of the rules. For the purpose of this work, Goodwin’s simplified rules should be sufficient for the accent analysis in the practical part of the thesis. Some examples of words affected by the split are tense mad, pass, bag, grab, cash, cab, ham, plan, fast, brass, after, ant, or ash and lax paddle, raffle, animal, savage, hammer, gavel or cabbage.

Lower back vowel subsystem This feature is common not only for the NYC accent but also a large part of the Mid-Atlantic region as far as Baltimore. The NYC accent preserves a different vowel pronunciation for the word groups of:

➢ palm with the [ɑ] pronunciation in words like park, car, father, calm, and yard ➢ thought with the raised [ʊǝ] sound – in words like paw, talk, coffee, and caught ➢ lot with the [ɑ] (which is usually a lax, stable, more open elongated vowel sound) in words like despondent, odd, or Don. 21

Labov et al. (2006) report that when the morphemes in the lot group end in voiced sounds they often become tense and join palm group (p. 235). Another observation has been made proving that the latter two (i.e., thought and lot) are gradually merging in some cases, or in others, the merge happens for palm and lot. It seems that there are more variations within the city (Newman, 2011; Labov et al. 2006). Despite that, thought in most contexts remains distinct from lot for most NYC accent speakers. It appears in words such as caught, all, bought, taught, saw, daughter, thought, dog, loss, cloth, or coffee. As for patterns, it is necessary to look at the surroundings of the vowel sound. Both Labov (as cited by Newman, 2011) and Newman (2011) suggest that the shift in the palm word group increases before /r/ and leads to the vowel sound being pronounced as [ɑ] (p. 66; p. 77). These are words such as orange, historic, moral, minority, Florida, Oregon, authority or guard, car, and army in their non-rhotic variants. Kaye (as cited by Newman, 2011, p. 67) suggests that such a pattern appears to be when placed before voiced sounds in closed syllables such as god, bob, bomb, or doll.

The /aʊ/ and /aɪ/ shifts In both diphthongs, the vowel sound starts with the same [a] sound but then glides towards either [ʊ] or [ɪ] in SAA. However, in NYC accent the change is significant. In words which in SAA contain the diphthong /aʊ/, the NYC accent speakers tend to shift the pronunciation to [æʊ] in which the mouth is more open and the corners of the mouth are pulled back (Shemesh, 2019). This is true for all words with the SAA diphthong /aʊ/ such as sound, mouth, how, out or down. A change, which occurs in the diphthong /aɪ/ changes its realization to [ɑɪ], which starts with the tongue further in the mouth than the SAA /aɪ/, the lips are more rounded. It occurs in words such as Friday, cry, pry, pie, despise, and prize. Newman in his work refers to Labov and Kaye describing the change in a complex way, but for the purpose of this thesis, it will be enough to follow the explanation offered by Goodwin. Goodwin (2008c) says, this change does not occur before voiceless consonants such as in mice, price, right, light, fight, sight, or exciting.

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Therefore, all other words change, including those in which the /aɪ/ appears before a voiced consonant. Some examples are fine, pride, prize, pie, crime, cry, time, or dine. Notice that the rule applies only to consonants which are pronounced, not silent.

2.3.3.2. NYC accent consonant features

Non-rhoticity Non-rhoticity refers to the dropping of /r/ at the end of words or syllables. In other words, the drop may appear anywhere except before vowels in the same word. Some example words in which the /r/ drop appears are cure, near, power, lawyer, hear, letter, square, and there. For the NYC accent, according to Labov et al. (2006), the accent is variably rhotic, which means that in some words the /r/ is pronounced while in others it is not. Also, the same words, in the same form, may in one utterance be used in their rhotic form and next time in the non-rhotic form. That is what Labov et al. meant by the variability of rhoticity. Moreover, Labov et al. (2006) mentions that the r-lessness is generally most prominent in accents of people of a lower socio-economic status.

Intrusive ‘r’ and linking ‘r’ The linking ‘r’ occurs when the word-final ‘r’ is realized when it occupies the otherwise empty onset of a following word (e.g. far away is pronounced as /fɑ:rəweɪ/). In other words, it refers to the use of a rhotic /r/ between vowels in words that would on their own be non-rhotic, such as there are, here is, fear itself, over it, and others. The intrusive ‘r,’ on the other hand, occurs between words where there is no ‘r’ in spelling and it is inserted between two vowels. For example, the expression the idea of would become / ði aɪˈdiərʌv/ (Carr, 2008, p. 112).

Change of [ð] to [d̪ ] and [θ] to [t̪ ] This change is from a dental fricative to a dental stop where the air flow, instead of passing between the teeth and the tongue, is stopped by the tongue and then released suddenly. Words such as them, then, and father then often change the ‘th’ sound to [d̪ ] while words thin, throw, nothing, thanks, and think change their ‘th’ sound to [t̪]. In the manual for actors by LACHSA (n.d.), those sounds are not clear cut /t/ and /d/

23 as we might know from other words but they are slightly toned down. This is one of the specifics of the accents which has been disappearing in the recent years. Sometimes the realization of the two sounds comes out as [tθ] and [dð], which are in fact affricates. However, the difference is so small that most people would not even notice it. As if that was not enough, countless other variations might emerge for the ‘th,’ but those are mostly ethnically diverse and this thesis does not focus on those, therefore other variants are not mentioned here.

2.4. Dialect coaching

In movies, TV shows, or theater performances, we often see actors putting on an accent different from the one they speak in their private lives. Dialect Coaches Worldwide (DCW) dedicated a part of their manifesto to emphasizing that accents and dialect in the entertainment industry matter too (“About,” n.d.):

Accent is a layer of storytelling. It's there every time any person or character speaks a single syllable. Accents tell as much about a character as the way they dress, move and even what they say. When performances matter, accents matter. But without professional help, finding the right dialect coach to be on your creative team can be confusing, time consuming and difficult.

When it comes to dialect coaching and accent modification, there is science behind it. There are associations of professionals studying dialects, researching emerging techniques of teaching and learning constantly, coaching actors, helping them imitate or acquire the desired dialect. These associations of professionals offer their services to the motion picture industry or to the entertainment business, in general. A dialect coach is then a specifically trained and certified professional who helps actors with the modification of their voices to fit the assignment. According to the Anderson (1997) from the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), the areas for study and personal development of a professional in their association are as follow, experiential education and training, voice and speech science, performance, teacher training and education, vocal direction for the theater and additional training for teachers of a miscellaneous character. Education

24 is considered ongoing, and a professional coach should continue long after beginning a teaching career.

2.4.1. Dialect coaching and accent modification in motion picture industry

DCW expresses the opinion that for an actor to land the accent correctly about four to six weeks of preparation are needed given that the actor has previously worked on their accent skills (“Should Accents Come First?,” n.d.). There are many educational institutions that offer courses for actors, such as the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Apart from coaching support, there are books with CDs for actors who desire to learn a different accent to enhance their portfolio, their range and the chances of getting casted for the next role they are about to audition for. Such books are for example Actor’s Encyclopedia of Dialects (Molin, 1984) or Accents: A Manual for Actors (Blumenfeld, 2002). The success rate of studying different accents only from books is questionable. Siegel (2010) points out that such materials often portray a very stereotypical, inauthentic or even theatrical depiction of the accent (p. 193). These days, actors, directors, and writers cooperate with dialect coaches from the very early stages of movie-making. They look for coaches online and get recommendations from others in the industry. An important aspect of choosing the right person for the job is not only their skill set to perform a specific dialect but also the experience to do so without intruding the actor's creative process, as mentions Pamela Vanderway (2015), a dialect coach and the founder of DWC. She goes on to point out that a good dialect coach is a combination of education and experience. The focus of dialect coaching and accent modification is primarily on getting the vocal tract used to the new and unknown and to adopt the new posture. As Singer (2016) says, a crucial part of accent acquisition is getting comfortable with the new basis of articulation2 or how to use the correct hesitation sounds, which are a valuable source for learning where the general placement of the accent is. Furthermore, the pronunciation of specific sounds is not the only thing a dialect coach focuses

2 This is the denomination for the set of expression habits which do not affect one or various sounds but the whole articulatory mechanism, and which establishes a primary basic condition within which the whole system is shaped (Gaya, n.d.). 25 on when working with an actor. Consider for example the holistic approach to the preparation for a persuasive performance Fereday (2018) takes with her coachees:

Moreover, exploring accents also involves whole body engagement including breath, posture, and gesture. While every person makes sound using breath and vibration, I submit that the most vital part of accent acquisition is that an actor is able to change the shape of the mouth in order to produce various articulations and vocal productions. . . . When working with actors, I often ask the student to feel what happens to the lips, cheeks, or tongue when making a specific vowel or consonant sound. . . . In addition to the need for linguistic detail in accent training, ultimately, I believe that the body and the voice are connected, and accent training should be similarly connected to the body.

Other Dialect coaches, such as Patsy Rodenburg (1997), agree that for an accent to sound natural and the performance to be believable, actors must work with their attitude and their whole body when practicing the accent. Menon (2007) agrees that body language plays an important part in accent management and in conveying the meaning of any message. However, he goes on to say that it is often neglected in language instruction and frequently misunderstood as merely a reflection of cultural differences (p. 235).

2.4.2. Notable NYC accents in movies and TV shows

Just as there are good and bad actors, there are good and bad attempts at the NYC accents. In 2014, Vanity Fair (VF) shared a list of some notable performances of actors doing the NYC accent. VF consulted a dialect coach, Bob Corff, who had helped them sort through the performances and had divided them into the good, the unconvincing and fuhgeddaboutit categories. In the article, Corff explains that not only is the right pronunciation and word stress important, but so is attitude, energy, and consistency crucial for the right delivery (Liebman, 2014). Among the praised ones is Margot Robbie’s performance in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), which is one of the picks for the comparison in this thesis. Another one is Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York (2002). From the other end of the spectrum,

26 there is Steven Seagal in Out for Justice (1991) or Anna Paquin in True Blood (2008-2014), one of the worst attempts at NYC accent, according to Corff. As far as TV shows are concerned, it is more the case that, for example, the actor with an NYC accent is more prominent in the series. Such a series or actor is, for example, the infamous TV series The Nanny (1993-1999) with the star Fran Drescher, who comes from New York. Surprisingly, the other main characters in the series had a British accent. Another series is Seinfeld (1989-1998), starring Jerry Seinfeld, a Brooklyn native. The last example is the sitcom The King of Queens (1998-2007), starring Leah Remini, another Brooklyn native. One of the most famous television series that took place in New York City is the Friends (1994-2004) series. However, none of the actors is a typical representative of the NYC accent. This is mainly because none of them, except David Schwimmer, comes from New York. The same is in the next series, which takes place in NYC, Sex in the City (1998-2004). None of the actresses speak the NYC accent because they do not come from New York, says Cristina (n.d.). Corff and Liebman (2014) also believe that the following films that many people associate with the city and this iconic accent, but which rely on dialect stereotypes, deserve mention. For example, Saturday Night Fever (1977), Moonstruck (1987), A Bronx Tale (1993) or Deliver Us from Evil (2014).

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3. PRACTICAL PART

This practical part aims to describe the methods, present the results of the analysis, and summarize everything in conclusion. The analysis aimed to compare data from two pre-selected NYC accent samples. The samples are scenes from movies in which actors attempted the NYC accent. The movies were selected after careful consideration of their suitability and therefore had to meet certain criteria to ensure that the analysis would have meaningful outcomes. One of the criteria was that the actors about to be analyzed must have been non-New York natives. Consequently, the plot must have taken place within roughly the same period as it would not be possible to compare the NYC accent of the 1920s and the current accent. Lastly, it was necessary to consider which features of the NYC accent would be analyzed. Because of the time and scope of this work, it was not possible to go too deep, so the list of features on which the analysis focused is given in chapter 2.3.3. NYC accent features.

3.1. Sample 1 – Margot Robbie as Naomi Lapaglia

The first analyzed accent is Margot Robbie’s Naomi Lapaglia in The Wolf of Wall Street, which is a movie based on real people and a true story. The plot of the movie is set between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. The character comes from Brooklyn and possesses a unique accent unlike everyone else in the movie. Robbie is an Australian actress and producer who started her acting career in Melbourne, Australia in her late teens (International Movie Database, n.d.) She was recognized in the Vanity Fair article as one of the good NYC accents in movies by Croff (Liebman, 2014) but she is overall known to do other accents, such as when playing the role of Harley Quinn in the Suicide Squad (2016) movie for which she put on another Brooklyn accent with a twist (Agar, 2015). In a TV interview, Robbie mentioned the following about the NYC accent she did for the Wolf of Wall Street, “It's a really fun accent to do. And it’s actually easier to do coming from an Australian accent than doing a Standard American Accent because there are no Rs.” (ABC News, 2013) In the movie Terminal (2018), Robbie must have done an English accent. In an interview for HeyUGuys, she says words such

28 as go and home usually give away her Australian origin when she does the English accent (2018). Robbie systematically prepares for every role she gets by studying the motivation of the character, the situations, thoughts and everything she can. In addition, she prepares vocally by studying other people’s speeches and accents and imitating them (Mink, 2020). She also openly talked about having worked with dialect coaches in the past. For example, early on in her acting career when she was asked to tone down her natural Australian accent for her TV debut Neighbours because it was “too strong even for Neighbours” in Australia (This Morning, 2018).

3.2. Sample 2 – Richard Gere as Clifford Irving

The second movie chosen to be included in the analysis is The Hoax with Richard Gere staring as Clifford Irving. The plot of the movie is set in the 1970s and it is also based on a true story. Irving was a writer who was born and lived in NYC. In the movie, Gere does a Jewish NYC accent (Goldberg, 2007). There is very little information about the way Gere approaches his acting, and more specifically, the dialects he changes for his roles. Nonetheless, since the accent of the character is based on a real person who was from NYC, it qualifies for the analysis. Gere did various accents in other movies in the past, but his work has not always been praised. Specifically, his attempt of the Irish accent was met with a lot of criticism and listed as one the worst Hollywood Irish accents ever by different media outlets (Al’s Action English, 2019; Corrigan, 2017; TodayFM, 2016).

3.3. The method

For both samples, scenes in which the characters were engaged in dialogs were selected to provide enough material for the analysis. To ensure even distribution the same number of scenes were initially selected. Later on, one more scene was added to Sample 2 because Sample 1 contained slightly longer dialogs. For Sample 2, in which the dialogs are shorter, five scenes were selected for the analysis. That makes nine scenes in total. Each scene was then transcribed (see Appendix B) and for each of the scenes, words usually carrying the distinctive NYC accent features

29 were identified according to the list of such previously mentioned in chapter 2.3.3. NYC accent features. Then, the scenes from the movies were turned into audio recordings and the lists of words were analyzed as they occurred in the audio recordings. They were marked as wither carrying the NYC feature or the SAA feature (or rhotic/non-rhotic). The following subchapters present the data. Each subchapter focuses on a different feature of the accent and presents additional information relevant to the interpretation of the results of the analysis. Each subchapter shows diagrams with the analyzed data for both samples. The diagrams provided are all structured in the same way. The y-coordinate represents the number of samples (always 1) while the x-coordinate indicates the number of occurrences of the given feature and the color-coding under the x-coordinate help distinguishing between NYC features, SAA features or Neither (inaudible, or a weak form containing neither of the forms. The features analyzed from the recording and the overview of the decision- making tree are detailed in the Analysis diagram in Appendix C. All the analyzed data organized in tables are then included in Appendix D. Again, the tables are all structured in the same way, i.e. all words from the recordings bearing the given feature are listed in alphabetical order. For each of the words, the numerical values in the adjoining cells are numbers of times the word appeared with the feature described in the heading of the column (i.e. non-rhotic/rhotic or NYC/SAA). Further details referring to the specific features are given in each chapter separately. In some cases, some words were either unintelligible/inaudible or could not be analyzed because the person speaking was in the background and overlapping sounds were making it difficult to identify the phoneme realization. In that case, the word in the following tables is marked with a quotation mark.

3.3.1. Non-rhoticity

The non-rhoticity was analyzed based on the assumption that NYC primarily differs from the SAA by being a non-rhotic accent even though it was previously mentioned to be variably rhotic. There is no way to determine in which specific words the ‘r’ should have or should not have been pronounced as rhotic. Therefore, the following is just an overview of how many words in the samples were used in their rhotic and non-rhotic variants.

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First, in Sample 1, 79 occurrences (42 unique words or word contractions) in total were identified (see Figure 5) out of which 54 were pronounced in their non-rohtic variants, and 25 were rhotic.3 There was a clear preference for the use of your and you’re in their non-rhotic variants when 8 out of 10 times, the non-rhotic version was used only because the other 2 cases were linking ‘r’s. It comes as a surprise though, that the name of the character’s husband in the movie in the selected samples was preferred in its rhotic variant (6 : 4).

Figure 5

Sample 1 Rhoticity diagram

Then, in Sample 2, a total of 67 occurrences (43 unique words or word contractions) were identified out of which 42 were non-rhotic and 24 were rhotic (see Figure 6). One word was not pronounced clearly and could not be classified. Again, just like in Sample 1, the preference of your/you’re is present, although this time less with 5 non-rhotic, 2 rhotic and 1 unidentifiable pronunciation due to noises in the background. However, what another preference among the data is clear and that is the name of the person the main character is writing a book about Howard (as in Howard Hughes). Out of the 7 occurrences, none was pronounced in the rhotic variant, which shows dedication to authenticity by Gere. In fact,

3 More information linked to rhoticity and the linking/intrusive ‘r’ in the following chapter. 31 there are many interviews with the real Clifford Irving, in which he talks about Hughes, so it is easy to get an idea of his accent.

Figure 6

Sample 2 Rhoticity diagram

3.3.2. Intrusive ‘r’ and linking ‘r’

Intrusive ‘r’ as well as linking ‘r’ are always rhotic due to their nature. In the previous chapter, the analyzed words were looked at from the point of rhoticity but intrusive and linking ‘r’s should also be addressed. In both samples, in the selected scenes, there were no examples of intrusive ‘r’s used throughout the dialogues, however, linking ‘r’s were used mostly in Sample 1. Sample 2 contained none. If we look at the data, they were all present only in Scene 2 of Sample 1 and Scene 5 of Sample 2, however, there should have been another one in Scene 3 (Sample 1), which was substituted by a non-rhotic variant instead.

Linking ‘r’ used in the dialogues: Sample 1: ➢ You were investing in Italy? ➢ You’re a lying piece of shit.

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➢ You’re a father now, Jordan. Sample 2: ➢ I would have given anything to get this call a year ago.

Linking ‘r’ should have been used, but was not: Sample 1: ➢ Daddy doesn’t even get to touch mommy for a very, very, very long time.

Additionally, there were 2 words, which could also have contained the linking ‘r’ but due to the pauses made between the words, they are not listed above. They are from Sample 1, Scene 2:

➢ Who was the one who flew in here – at 3 in the morning on their stupid helicopter – and woke up Skylar?

3.3.3. That - [ð] vs. [d̪ ] / [dð] and This - [θ] vs. [t̪ ] / [tθ]

The change of the ‘th’ sound to a dental stop is sometimes hard to identify because preceding or following sounds may influence the pronunciation. Also, the speed of speech seemed to interfere in the analysis in this case, especially in scenes where the actors were in a fight scene or in emotional or tense scenes. In Sample 1, 46 occurrences (16 unique words or word contractions) were identified in the scenes. Out of the total, 24 ‘th’ sounds were dental stops and 21 sounds were dental fricatives. Only one occurrence could not be classified.

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Figure 7

Sample 1 – ‘th’

In Sample 2, a total of 64 occurrences (18 unique words or word contractions) were identified in the scenes. Out of those, only 22 ‘th’ sounds were dental stops and the remaining 42 were dental fricatives, which is a disproportionate distribution.

Figure 8

Sample 2 – ‘th’

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3.3.4. Tense [ɛə]

The tense /æ/ change to [ɛə] only happens in front of specific consonants mentioned in one of the previous chapters. After omitting those that did not fit the criteria, in Sample 1, 31 words were analyzed and in Sample 2, 24 words were further analyzed from the recordings. In Sample 1, there were 31 occurrences (14 unique words or word contractions) were analyzed, out of which 15 had been found to have changed to [ɛə], 11 kept their SAA realization of [æ], 4 were pronounced in their weak forms (with a schwa) and 1 could not be analyzed because of overlapping sounds.

Figure 9

Sample 1 - [ɛə]

In Sample 2, 24 occurences in total (12 unique words or word contractions) were analyzed, out of which 12 kept the SAA realization, 5 changed their realization to [ɛə], 5 were used in their weak form pronounced with a schwa, and the remaining 2 could not be analyzed.

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Figure 10

Sample 2 - [ɛə]

3.3.5. Palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ]

The palm/thought/lot analysis outcomes are presented in the diagrams below along with their reference word groups. The detailed data with the individual words for each group as they were used in the samples are in Appendix D. In Sample 1, there were in total 68 occurrences (31 unique words or word contractions). Out of those, 1 from the palm group, 30 from the thought group and 36 from the lot group. Out of the 68 occurrences, 45 of them carried the NYC accent features, 17 did not, 1 word was pronounced in its weak form, 2 could not be analyzed and 3 were pronounced as if belonging to a different group.

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Figure 11

Sample 1 - Palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ]

In Sample 2, there were 61 occurrences (32 unique words or their derivation) in total. Out of those, only 1 from the palm group, 19 from the thought group and 41 from the lot group. Out of the 61 occurrences, 24 carried the NYC accent features, 32 did not and remaining 5 were either in their weak form pronounced with a schwa, or unintelligible (see Figure 12).

Figure 12

Sample 2 - - Palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ]

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3.3.6. Now - /aʊ/ to [æʊ]

The /aʊ/ diphthong realization in the NYC accent changes to [æʊ] in all words, therefore, all words containing the phonemes in the selected samples were used. It seemed particularly difficult for both actors. In Sample 1, it was 13 occurrences in total (6 unique words) out of which 7 words followed the most common SAA pronunciation of [aʊ] the remaining 6 were pronounced with the changed realization of [æʊ].

Figure 13

Sample 1 - [æʊ]

In Sample 2, it was a total of 23 occurrences (11 unique words or word contractions) out of which only 3 were pronounced with the realization of [æʊ] and the remaining 20 occurrences were unchanged.

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Figure 14

Sample 2 - [æʊ]

3.3.7. Friday - /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ]

To correctly analyze the data, all words containing the /aɪ/ diphthong were selected and then assessed based on whether they occur in the samples before a voiced or voiceless consonant as the sound only changes before voiced consonants (or vowels). Out of the 113 /aɪ/ words originally (Sample 1 - 58, Sample 2 – 55), only 82 occur before a voiced consonant or vowel and could be therefore included in the analysis. In Sample 1, out of the 43 occurrences (15 unique words or word contractions), only 3 changes to [ɑɪ] were present, 5 occurrences could not be classified and the remaining 35 occurrences have not changed their realization.

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Figure 15

Sample 1 - /aɪ/

In Sample 2, out of the 40 occurrences (18 unique words or word contractions), there were only 2 changes to [ɑɪ], 4 words were not classified because of background noise or other factors preventing intelligibility, and the remaining 34 sounds did not change .

Figure 16

Sample 2 - /aɪ/

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3.4. Conclusion

To conclude, the analysis results are presented despite the work’s very limitations of its scope and not an exhaustive consideration of all aspects of the NYC accent. Each feature was considered. The rhoticity feature was slightly preferred by Robbie in Sample 1, however, the difference was not in any way extreme. Given that rhoticity is probably one of the easiest and most distinctive features, many people know that the NYC accent is the one in which people do not pronounce their ‘r’s. Gere in Sample 2, therefore paid attention to also include the non-rhotic feature in his work on the character. But it was probably more difficult for him to do than for Robbie who is Australian and therefore her natural accent is non-rhotic too. The ‘th’ sound is also another very distinctive feature. The assumption was that there would be more dentalized stops in both samples, however, that is not true. Robbie did her homework and knew that it was important to get the ‘th’ sounds right. Even so, only a little over half of her attempts in the selected scenes were successful. There were no significant preferences, quite the opposite, everything seems to be balanced. Gere, on the other hand, shows a clear preference for the SAA with a ratio of 44:22. The difference is not as subtle as it was in Robbie’s case and therefore it is possible to assume that Gere did not succeed in landing the ‘th’ sounds in the manner of NYC accent even though he tried and did well in one-third of the cases in the selected scenes. There was not much data for the analysis of the bath/trap, to begin with. The data from Robbie show that she had a strong preference for the lax pronunciation in the word daddy. In the scene, she is talking quite slowly enunciating carefully most of her words (unlike in fight scenes in the movies). The word daddy, however, was in the selected scenes pronounced with a lax /æ/ 5 times instead of the tense variant, which should have been used (and was only used twice). In the case of Gere, the preferences are once again clear. Even though the data set is smaller than for Robbie, the preference is visible in the word (contraction) can/can’t. Moreover, Gere seems to use more weak forms in comparison to Robbie (5:4) on unevenly big data sets. A great example of the tense variant from Gere is the word cash which is even stressed out in the sentence and therefore may be easier for him to get it right. Robbie’s best examples would be family, aunt, classy, and panties. 41

In the palm/lot/thought section, the differences between the actors are the biggest. While Robbie knows what she is doing, especially with the thought vowels, Gere is trying to find footing among the vowels, although he might want to be consistently inconsistent. Gere does a good job in the word dollars but then fails to pronounce what or not with the NYC accent features. Some great examples of Robbie’s thought vowels are in words all, short, Jordan, divorce, and long. Although Robbie seems to know exactly how to pronounce the thought vowel, there were three instances in which the vowel should have been pronounced with the lot vowel instead. They were across and off. The last analyzed features were diphthongs /aʊ/ to [æʊ] and /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ], which seemed to prove quite challenging for both actors. In the analyzed samples, Gere only managed to use the NYC [æʊ] variant three times. All those three successful attempts were in the word Howard, which appeared four more times in the SAA. Robbie’s best words in this category were owl, allow, and now, which all appeared in a fight scene (Scene 2). For the other diphthong then, there were minimal differences between the actors as most of their utterances showed no sign of this NYC accent feature. The numbers are almost identical and even the most uttered word (I) was treated the same way by both actors. But while Gere in the scenes does not offer any particularly memorable examples of this shift, Robbie on at least two occasioned gave clear examples of the NYS accent pronunciation in words entire and Skylar. Overall, Robbie compared to Gere showed a strong preference for the analyzed NYC accent features in her performance. The main features which were very prominent in her performance, and are supported by the data, are non-rhoticity and the lower back vowels realization. Those are preferred in more than two-thirds of the occurrences of the given features. Gere, on the other hand, shows a strong preference in only the non-rhotic feature and even that is not as strong as in Robbie’s case. Gere further in five out of the six analyzed features shows preference for the the SAA over the NYC accent. Gere additionally almost completely ignores two of the features. His lower back vowels occasionally (in specific words) bear the NYC accent realization, however, he is not as consistent as Robbie. See Figure 17 and Figure 18 to compare.

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Firgure 17

Sample 1 - Overview of all features

Firgure 18

Sample 2 - Overview of all features

Last, the total number of all analyzed features for each sample were lowered by the number of weak forms and inaudible features which could not be clearly classified as NYC or SAA. The result was then accounted for as the total number of occurences with a clear preference of features. The following two diagrams show the percentage in use of the features in all analyzes scenes for each sample.

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The difference might not seem significant, but it is a difference of about 18.5%, which makes a difference.

Figure 19

Sample 1 – The total ratio of NYC accent features to SAA features.

Figure 20

Sample 2 – The total ratio of NYC accent features to SAA features.

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Goodwin, T. (2008c, August 20). How to Speak in a New York Dialect : New York Dialect: Long I [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKKbgxTGszk Hallström, L. (Director). (2006). The Hoax [Film]. Miramax. HeyUGuys. (2018, August 1). Margot Robbie on English accents and Harley Quinn similarities in Terminal [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLPHyQjD_2Q&t=153s International Movie Database. (n.d.). Margot Robbie Biography. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3053338/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm International Phonetic Association. (2018) International Phonetic Alphabet. Retrieved April 5, 2020, from: https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/IPA_Kiel_2018_full_1200. png LACHSA - LA County High School for the Arts. (n.d.) New York: IPA Notes. Retrieved January 26, 2020, from https://www.lachsa.net/ourpages/auto/2015/9/9/31678945/New%20York%20Notes%20 LACHSA.pdf Language and Linguistic Science, University of York. (2013, November 19). William Labov - at the University of York 2013 [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJh8nFXBUE&t=818s Liebman, L. (2014, July 2) The Best, and Worst, New York Accents on Film. Vanity Fair. Retrieved April 3, 2020 from https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/07/best-new-york-accents-movies Mink, C. (2020, January 3). Margot Robbie Nailed Her ‘Bombshell’ Accent By Studying ‘Legally Blonde’. Backstage. Retrieved April 13, 2020, from https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/margot-robbie-bombshell-accent-legally- blonde-69769/ Newman, M. (2014). New York City English. De Gruyter Mouton. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,uid&db=nleb k&AN=887003&lang=cs&site=eds-live&scope=site Scorsese, M. (Director). (2013). The Wolf of Wall Street [Film]. Red Granite Pictures.

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Shemesh, H. (n.d.) Accent’s Way: Free Know How To Pronounce ANYTHING Chart. Retreived, April 5, 2020, from: https://theaccentsway.com/freebie-chart-150/ Shemesh, H. (2019, June 25). Understanding American English Vowels | Pronunciation Masterclass | FREE IPA vowel chart DOWNLOAD [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6F57s-V7U Singer, E. (2016, October 1). Pint Sized Accent Teachers. Erik Singer Dialect Coach and Master Teacher. Retrieved March 26, 2020 from https://www.eriksinger.com/blog/2016/9/6/pint-sized-accent-teachers This Morning. (2018, July 4). Margot Robbie Had a Dialect Coach on Neighbours Because Her Accent Was Too Strong! | This Morning [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uYvFLpic3c TodayFM. (2016, March 16). Top 5 Worst Irish Accents...EVER! Retrieved April 15, 2020, from https://www.todayfm.com/best-bits/top-5-worst-irish-accentsever- 367528 Vanderway, P. (2015, September 3). Readers’ Choice L.A.: Pamela Vanderway on How Not to Choose a Dialect Coach. Backstage. Retrieved March 20, 2020 from https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/readers-choice-la-pamela-vanderway- choose-dialect-coach-9754/ Wang, H. L. (2015, February 2) Fuhgeddaboudit: New York Accent On Its Way Out, Linguists Say. National Public Radio. Retrieved March 16, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2015/02/02/383289958/fuhgeddaboudit-new-york-accent-on-its- way-out-linguists-say?t=1578741890182&t=1586080766475 Wikipedia. (January 18, 2020) Boroughs of New York City. Retrieved January 26, 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:5_Boroughs_Labels_New_York_City_Map.s vg Wikipedia. (April 11, 2020). General American English: Phonology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American_English#Consonants

48

APPENDIX A

(International Phonetic Association, 2018, from https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/IPA_charts_2018.html) 49

APPENDIX B

Transcripts of scenes for analysis.

Sample 1 - Margot Robbie (as Naomi Lapaglia) – The Wolf of Wall Street (Scorsese, 2013) N = Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) J = Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) SB = Swiss Banker (Frank van Putten) H = Hildy Azoff (MacKenzie Meehan)

Scene 1 (The Wolf of Wall Street - Naomi, the Duchess of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e77- dDzcVgM

J: So Bay Ridge, that’s near Staten Island, right? N: Brooklyn, across the Verrazano bridge. J: Saturday Night Fever territory. N: That’s right. Guinea Gulch, we call the Verrazano bridge the Guinea gangplank. J: Right. So I presume you’re Italian? N: On my dad’s side. I’m also Dutch, German, English. I’m a mutt. J: You’re a mutt. N: Yeah, I still have family over there, though in London, my aunt Emma. She’s the best. Very British, you know. She’s a classy lady. J: That explains it then. N: Explains what? J: Explains you. I mean, you’re a duchess, right? The duchess of Bay Ridge. N: (to a waiter) Excuse me, can I get a straw please? Thank you. So I was, um, a little surprised you asked Christie for my number. J: Why is that? N: Aren’t you married? J: Yeah, but what, married people can’t have friends? N: We’re gonna be friends? J: Yeah. You wanna be my friend? N: We’re not gonna be friends. (change of scene) N: …and at night I work on my designs. I have an entire line of lingerie, you know, camisoles, bustiers, panties. J: (to himself) She designs women’s panties too? Oh my god. Come on, Jordan, think of a way to get up to her apartment. N: You wanna come up for some tea or something? 50

APPENDIX B

J: Tea. Yeah. Like hot tea? N: Yeah. J: Yeah, that sounds nice, yeah. Scene 2 (Wolf of Wallstreet [water fight scene FUL]) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ACOGUG6PGg

J: It was heaven on Earth. N: Wake up you piece of shit. J: Oh! N: Who’s Venice? Huh? J: Who? Who? Who? N: Who? Who? What are you, a fuckin’ owl? Who is she? J: I don’t know her. N: Some other hooker you were fucking last night? J: What the fuck are you talking about? No way, baby, no. N: You were calling her name in your sleep. J: Are you outta your fucking mind? I don’t even know what Venice is…. XXX J: That’s right. That’s right, I forgot. I forgot babe that Donnie and I, we’re investing in a condominium complex in Venice. That’s why, that’s why all this confusion. N: Oh, you were investing in Italy. J: Not Italy, California, babe. N: Oh, California? J: Yeah. N: You’re a lying piece of shit. J: Duchess baby, come on. N: Don’t you fucking duchess me. Don’t you duchess me. Do you really think that I don’t know what you’re up to? You are father now, Jordan. You are father now and you’re still acting like an infant. (throws water in his face) J: Fuck! Goddamn it! Baby, you know, you got real anger issues. N: Who was the one who flew in here at 3 in the morning on their stupid helicopter and woke up Skylar? That was you. J: Skylar, Skylar, fucking bullshit. N: Does it even matter to you that I just had that driving range sided with Bermuda grass, Jordan and now you fuckin’ wrecked it. No, you didn’t research the whole thing and deal with the fucking golf course people.

51

APPENDIX B

J: Oh my god, you had to deal with the golf course people too. What a great tragedy, honey! Oh my god, you probably had to pay them in cash with your hands, what a fucking burden, and actually do some work besides swiping my credit card all day. Huh? ‘Cause I can’t keep track of your professions, honey. ‘Cause last month you’re a wine connoisseur, now you’re an aspiring landscape architect, let me get that right. No. N: Fuck you! J: Don’t fucking dare throw that fucking water at me. Don’t you fucking dare. All right, honey? We can talk this out, all right? Just use our words, you know, communicate, okay? Come on sweetheart. Talk to me. Talk to me. N: Stop flexing your muscles, Jordan, you look like a fucking imbecile. J: Babe, come on, you should feel happy you got a husband who’s in such great shape like this, huh? Come here. Come on, give me a kiss. You look so beautiful right now, come on. N: Kiss you? J: You look so beautiful right now. N: kiss you? J: Yeah… (N throws water in his face) J: Fuck you! XXX (change of scene) N: (holding a baby) Good morning daddy. Where’s my kiss? J: Hey, sweetheart (kisses the baby) Does daddy get a kiss from both of his little girls? Huh? N: Oh no, no daddy doesn’t even get to touch mommy for a very, very, very long time. J: Daddy’s really sorry about what he said in the other room. He didn’t mean any of it. N: Daddy shouldn’t waste his time. And from now on, it’s gonna be nothing but short, short skirts around the house. And you know something else, daddy? Mommy is just so sick and tired of wearing panties. J: Yeah? N: Yeah. In fact, she’s decided to throw them all away. So take a good look daddy. You’re gonna be seeing an awful lot of this around the house. J: Oh baby, yeah mommy. N: But no touching. J: Oh gosh. Ow. N: What’s wrong, daddy?

52

APPENDIX B

Scene 3 (The Wolf Of Wall Street - Jordan and Naomi fight scene [1080p HD]) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlvAY5ZsKvw

J: …so fucking great. Oh god. N: That was the last time. J: What do you mean, baby? N: I mean that was the last time we ever have sex. I.. J: What are you talking about? N: I want a divorce. J: What do you mean you want a divorce? What’s that supposed to mean you want a divorce? N: Get off me I want a divorce. Get off me. J: You just made love to me. What the fuck is wrong with you? N: I don’t love you anymore Jordan. J: Oh, you, you don’t love me? You don’t love me anymore, huh? Well isn’t that just fucking convenient for you now that I’m under federal indictment, with electronic bracelet around my ankle, now you decide you don’t fucking love me anymore. Is that right? N: No, no. J: What kind of person are you? Tell me. N: You married me. J: The fuck is that supposed to mean now? N: Jordan, this is how it’s gonna go. I’m gonna take custody of the kids. If you agree to the divorce right now, I will allow visitation, okay? Don’t you try to fight it. You’ll save us both a lot of money and I got a feeling you’re gonna need it. J: Oh god. You’re not taking my kids, sweetheart. You hear me? N: I’ve already talked to the lawyer. He said even if you don’t get convicted, I’ve got a good chance of getting them. J: I got news for you, you’re not fucking taking my children you vicious fucking cunt you… (gets slapped from Naomi and slaps her right back). (N: Yes, I am, Jordan.) J: Fuck you, you fucking bitch. You’re not fucking taking my fucking goddamn kids, you hear me? Fuck you! Not fucking taking my fucking kids. (J leaves the room to look for his stashed drugs) N: Look at yourself, Jordan. Sick. You’re a sick man. J: Fuck you I told you not taking my fucking kids you fucking… N: You think I will let my kids near you? Look at yourself. You know what my lawyer said? My lawyer said that you’re going to prison for twenty years, Jordan. Twenty fucking years. You’re never gonna see the kids again. 53

APPENDIX B

J: You don’t think I’m gonna see my fucking kids…. N: No, I’m not fucking letting you near my kids. J: You don’t know if I’m gonna see my kids again. (punches N in the stomach) Don’t you fucking touch me. (picks his sleeping daughter from the bed and carries her away) Sweetheart, you’re going on a trip with daddy, all right? N: Don’t you fucking touch her, Jordan. I swear to god I will fucking kill you.

Scene 4 – The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) clip — "Aunt Emma is dead!" from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiQS6PBGSy4

J: What’s going on? Why are you crying? N: She’s dead. J: Who? N: I just got a call from my cousin Betty. Aunt Emma is dead. J: Are you fucking kidding me? N: No. J: You serious? Oh my god, baby, that’s … oh fuck, oh sweetheart, that’s just fucking.. (narration: A fucking heartattack. Boom! Snap! Gone. Shuffled off her mortal coil and twenty million dollars stuck in a Swiss bank account.) N: …talked to her she was fine. You know, she’s not that old. J: God, that’s so fucking terrible, oh fuck baby. XXX SB: It’s terrible. Your aunt was such an elegant attractive woman. Condolences to you. J: Yeah, we’re absolutely devastated, thank you. Thank you so much for your condolences. Now, where does that leave us in redgard to her account exactly? Does it go into probate or what..? SB: No, no, no, not to worry, Jordan, not to worry. Your aunt before she died signed a document naming you as her successor. J: She did! Oh, well, that’s good news. SB: Well, not as of yet. J: What does it mean not as of yet? SB: Speaking French J: I can’t hear you. I must have bad reception. Are you speaking English? SB: …now, fast, now, very fast. J: I have to get to Switzerland now. SB: Speaking French 54

APPENDIX B

J: Speak English! Fucking speak English. SB: Hey, quiet, ok? Take your suit, take your dick, ok, and move your ass, please. Speaking French. J: Move my ass, yes. (narration: I must say these Swiss were some sneaky motherfuckers. Within minutes, he had me set up with a forger who could fake aunt Emma’s signature.) SB: You American shit. (narration: I just had to get there by tomorrow or lose twenty million dollars.) J: We’re going to Monaco! N: Monaco? Now? J: Yes, babe. We’re going to Monaco so then we can go to Switzerland, OK? H: But her aunt just died. J: I realize that but I have business in Switzerland and I need to go to Switzerland right now, bottom line. Sorry. N: We gotta get to London. J: Why? Why? N: The funeral? J: Babe, babe, look. I loved your aunt more than anyone in the entire world, I really did. But she’s dead now sweety, she’s dead and she’s not going anywhere. She’ll still be dead by the time we get to London, OK?

Sample 2 - Richard Gere (as Clifford Irving) – The Hoax (Hallström, 2006) C = Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) D = Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina) S = Sergeant Daniels (Myk Watford) SH = Shelton Fisher (Stanley Tucci) X = character not visible on the camera N = Nina Van Pallandt (Julie Delpy) A = Andrea Tate (Hope Davis)

Scene 1 – (The Hoax | 'The Power This Gives Us' (HD) - Richard Gere, Alfred Molina | MIRAMAX) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z0bC1Fslo4

C: Dick. 55

APPENDIX B

D: What? C: Dick, we got it. We got it. D: Got what? C: I couldn’t believe this. OK, listen. Rebozo. Rebozo accepted a hundred thousand dollars in cash to redecorate Nixon’s home. The acceptance was understood to mean that a TWA appeal and the Air West matter would be of highest priority. And also 1956 Hughes gave Nixon’s brother two hundred and five thousand dollars to secure Pentagon contracts. This is money laundering. It’s bribery. It’s the end. This is.. We publish this, Nixon, Nixon the President is impeached. Do you understand the power this gives us? D: Cliff, I’m not sure I want the power this gives us. C: Yeah, well what do I do. D: Cliff, you publish this, you will have a storm of shit rain down on you. And there are people now, god knows who, the Nixon’s political enemies, Hughes’s advisors. They know where you live. C: Yes? D: I say you forget you ever saw this. C: Get it. This is like a Torah sent down from god to make us part of history. You wanna forget it? Dick, come here, let me show you something, come here. Postmark from Nevada, that’s Hughes’s country. What do you say? He wants us to help him bust Nixon. He’s with us, Dick. Howard is with us.

Scene 2 – (The Hoax | 'Buoyant' (HD) - Richard Gere, Alfred Molina | MIRAMAX) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbFkaBGdEX4

D: Look at all the security personnel. This is the secure facility. C: We need the information in portable form. Just stay comfortable. Buoyant. D: You know, they could let anybody in here. What if I’m a Russian. C: Be a buoyant Russian. S: Record? What for? You don’t know what the hell is going on with your own company? C: Well, to be honest with you sergeant, no actually we don’t. Mr. Hughes doesn’t like to share information that’s pretty frustrating for us. S: You want frustration? Call Hughes Aircrafts and try to find out when your plane is gonna be ready. I’ve seen decorated individuals sobbing like six-year-old girls after dealing with you people. C: Could my associate use your facilities, sergeant, could he? Thank you for that. S: To your left. C: I’ll level with you. We’ve had some problems. Everyone has told us stories about delays. S: Well, I can’t get anybody on the phone for one thing. 56

APPENDIX B

C: I had no idea it was that serious. S: It’s very serious. Frustrating. C: If you go to any more detail.. S: Well, only details I can tell you is I’ve been on the phone three times today to one girl who doesn’t know what she’s talking about, can’t tell me when I will get my airplane. C: Which office did you talk, can I, would you mind if I write something down? S: Sure. C: This was a complaint department or was it acquisitions? S: Nah, it was acquisitions, as far as I know. My people have been dealing with her or somebody down there for the last three months trying to get aircraft. C: This is an outrage. An outrage….

Scene 3 – (The Hoax | 'Deeper and Deeper' (HD) - Richard Gere, Alfred Molina | MIRAMAX) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs6DkmHnlEM

D: She said, she said, they would sue us both? C: Yeah. D: Both of us? I mean, she mentioned me by name? C: Yes. Can’t believe the son of a bitch had the same idea. D: But I, I spent the money. C: I told you we might have to give it back, jeez Dick. D: Well, it wasn’t exactly a huge percentage to begin with. Look, just pay them money, tell them that Hughes changed his mind and I’ll owe you the difference. C: Can’t. I’m down most of it myself. D: Yeah, well, borrow it. This isn’t a prank anymore. Cliff, if they go to the press with this, we’re gonna have Howard fucking Hughes chasing us. And Intel. Remember about that Intertel (unintelligible) with sodium pentothal who will kill us or tie us up or something C: Howard won’t be coming after us. His advisors maybe, but he won’t. D: Ah, really? C: Yeah. D: Why, he told you that over breakfast? C: Yeah. D: And what about that other book? What if that’s the real thing? You thought about that? C: All right, the question is. What would Howard do in a situation like this? 57

APPENDIX B

D: I don’t’ know, buy a fucking airline. C: Diversion and run. Surprise. D: Who are you now, General Patton? C: Dick, I think you should take a little holiday. You got everything here, got the passport, you got the letter okay.. great, fine. You’re gonna be fine.

Scene 4 – (The Hoax | 'The Check' (HD) - Richard Gere, Alfred Molina | MIRAMAX) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5QJdSqGhXE

C: Now, if you want to you can change this around in court meanwhile we’re gonna look for another publisher. SH: No, Cliff, Clifford, Mr. Irving, we have a contract with you, which means that our company owns the property. C: Wrong. Through all of my pleading hours of it believe me, it could be yours Shelton, it could. You could make a public announcement within a week, you know. And he’s all right actually with Ralph still being involved with this thing provided you increase his advance to one million dollars and not a penny less. SH: What? A million dollars? C: Yes. SH: A million dollars? X: I think we should try to maintain an atmosphere of goodwill and trust here. SH: Trust? The man’s a Texan Comprehend. C: Good. Thank you. SH: Where are you going? Where are you going? Wait a minute. Let me tell ya something. That book is mine. Signed and sealed and I’m not paying any goddamn million dollars for it. You understand that? You listen to me Mr. Clifford fucking Irving, you go and tell… C: I’m not Clifford Irving. I’m Howard Hughes. Howard’s mouth, Howard’s words. One million dollars or we walk across the street to Doubleday it’s your choice. All right. You know, Shelton, I just want share this with you, you know, one of Howard’s alternate ideas he said “why don’t I just buy a controlling interest in McGraw-Hill. I’ll just keep the printing presses and get rid of the idiots” that’s an exact quote. Bye.

Scene 5 – (The Hoax | 'The Call' (HD) - Richard Gere, Alfred Molina | MIRAMAX) from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC-_vGArAdw

C: What is it? Look, you told me not to call ya (unintelligible) so I didn’t. N: I say a lot of stupid things, you know? 58

APPENDIX B

C: Yeah. N: It was funny seeing you the other night. C: I would have given anything to get this call a year ago. It’s too late, I… N: Clifford… C: You ran out of time, sorry. N: Clifford, wait. I need to see you. C: Bye. XXX D: Oh, Cliff, listen to this. This is from the Dietrich manuscript. There’s a full transcription here of a conversation between Howard Hughes and Frank McCullum from Time Magazine. They mention the Intertel, the Mormon guy George Gordon Holmes, it’s fantastic. C: Stop, listen to me. Nina called from New York last night. D: Ah, here we go. C: Dick, it took me a year to make things right with Edith, keep an eye on me, will you? D: Keep an eye on you? It’s my second profession. C: Thanks. D: Cliff, I’ve been talking to Barbara and she’s.. she’s found some kind of a publishing contract. And I was wondering if maybe we could talk about, you know, some kind of credit deal? Or just some more money for me? C: You’re not happy with what we talked about? D: No, no, no, no…It’s not that. It’s not that. C: Well, what is it? D: Well, it’s just like, I sort of feel.. (telephone rings) C: No, don’t answer that. No, don’t, don’t. D: Hello. A: Hello darling, it’s Miss Tate calling having a bit of a problem. D: Oh, hi Andrea.. A: Who is this? C: You can’t say your name. D: Uh, this is Dick. Dick Suskin. A: Dick, how do you know my name? D: Cliff mentioned you. A: What are you doing out there with Clifford? D: I..I…I…I I’m the coauthor of Project Octavio. 59

APPENDIX B

A: Excuse me? Is Cliff there? D: Yeah, certainly, he’s right here. A: Put him on the phone please. D: I didn’t know what else to say.. C: I know what you’re doing. I know what you’re doing. I know what you’re doing. Hi Andrea! A: Who the hell was that, Clifford? C: That is my associate. I was intending to talk to you about him, he’s working with me on this. A: All right, you need to be in New York at nine o’clock on Monday morning. You are meeting with Ralph Grease, he’s the Editor in chief of Life Magazine. C: Yeah, I know who he is. A: You need to go over all your contacts on Octavio. Life knows a lot about him so get your memory clear and be specific. I don’t wanna lose the deal over (unintelligible) suspicions. C: What do you.. Wait, wait, wait, what do you mean lose the deal? What suspicions?

60

APPENDIX C

Analysis diagram

61

APPENDIX D

Details of analyzed data from Samples 1 and 2 divided according to the decision tree diagram in Appendix C. Sample 1 - Rhoticity Non- Non- Non- Words rhotic Rhotic Words rhotic Rhotic Words rhotic Rhotic anymore 1 Jordan 4 6 swear 1 are 3 lawyer 3 their 1 aren’t 1 matter 1 there 1 Bermuda 1 morning 2 there 1 California 1 near 2 tired 1 divorce 2 1 never 1 we’re 2 entire 1 number 1 were 2 1 ever 1 or 1 where’s 1 father 2 other 1 Work 1 for 2 1 over 1 Years 1 1 You’re / German 1 research 1 your 8 2 helicopter 1 short 1 1 Yourself 1 her 3 1 skirts 1 here 1 Skylar 1 hooker 1 surprised 1 TOTAL: 79 54 25 Sample 2 - Rhoticity Non- Non- Non- Words rhotic Rhotic Words rhotic Rhotic Words rhotic Rhotic Notes advisors 1 hours 1 sergeant 2 after 1 Howard('s) 7 share 2 air 1 information 2 surprise 1 another 1 Irving 1 understand 1 answer 1 letter 1 understood 1 Clifford 1 matter 1 we’re 1 comfortable 1 more 1 words 1 court 1 or 1 1 working 1 department 1 part 1 year 1 1 diversion 1 passport 1 York 1 dollars 3 1 portable 1 Your’re/your 5 2 1 ? for 2 1 postmark 1 yours 1 forget 1 power 1 form 1 publisher 1 here 2 1 secure 1 TOTAL: 67 42 24 1 ?

62

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – the ‘th’ sound (dental fricatives to dental stops)

Word NYC SAA Word NYC SAA Notes both 1 them 1 1 ? father 2 thing 1 nothing 1 think 1 1 something 2 this 1 1 thank 1 though 1 that/that's 5 4 three 1 the 10 7 throw 1 their 1 with 2 TOTAL: 46 24 21 1 ?

Sample 2 – the ‘th’ sound (dental fricatives to dental stops)

Words NYC SAA Words NYC SAA another 1 the 6 9 anything 1 thing 1 brother 1 things 1 Edith 1 think 1 everything 1 this 5 9 something 1 1 thousand 1 1 thank 2 through 1 Thanks 1 with 3 7 that/that's 3 5 within 1 TOTAL: 64 22 42

63

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – bath/trap (lax [æ] vs. tense [ɛə])

Words NYC SAA Notes Words NYC SAA Notes am 1 ? family 1 and 5 1 3 schwa father 2 asked 1 grass 1 aunt 2 had 1 can 1 schwa man 1 chance 1 panties 2 classy 1 dad's/daddy 2 5 TOTAL: 31 15 11 4 schwa, 1 ?

Sample 2 – bath/trap (lax [æ] vs. tense [ɛə])

Words NYC SAA Notes advance 1 after 1 and 1 1 4 sschwa, 1 ? answer 1 any 1 can/can't 1 3 1 ? cash 1 had 2 1 schwa has 1 passport 1 ran 1 understand 1 TOTAL: 24 5 12 7

64

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ]

Words Group NYC SAA Notes across LOT 1 THOUGHT instead of LOT from LOT 1 1 schwa god LOT 1 golf LOT 1 gonna LOT 8 got/gotta LOT 2 2 helicopter LOT 1 lot LOT 2 not LOT 2 1 ? off LOT 2 THOUGHT instead of LOT on LOT 2 2 stop LOT 1 want LOT 1 what('s) LOT 5 father PALM 2 all THOUGHT 1 already THOUGHT 1 also THOUGHT 1 awful THOUGHT 1 call THOUGHT 1 1 calling THOUGHT 1 course THOUGHT 1 lawyer THOUGHT 3 long THOUGHT 1 morning THOUGHT 2 short THOUGHT 2 straw THOUGHT 1 talked THOUGHT 1 divorce THOUGHT 2 Jordan THOUGHT 9 TOTAL: 68 P - 2; TH - 29; L - 36 45 17 4

65

APPENDIX D

Sample 2 - palm, lot, thought [ɑ], [ʊǝ]

Word Group NYC SAA Notes across LOT 1 contracts LOT 1 dollars LOT 4 from LOT 2 1 schwa god LOT 1 gonna LOT 1 1 got LOT 3 3 x /t/ realization as a flap t; 1 ? holiday LOT 1 honest LOT 1 involved LOT 1 not LOT 4 on LOT 1 1 priority LOT 1 problems LOT 1 sorry LOT 1 Stop LOT 1 want LOT 1 2 What LOT 2 6 1 ? Part PALM 1 all THOUGHT 1 2 also THOUGHT 1 alternate THOUGHT 1 buoyan THOUGHT 1 call(ed) THOUGHT 1 2 court THOUGHT 1 for THOUGHT 1 schwa laundering THOUGHT 1 MacGraw-Hill THOUGHT 1 stories THOUGHT 1 talk THOUGHT 2 1 ? walk THOUGHT 1 wrong THOUGHT 1 TOTAL: 61 L - 41, TH - 19; P - 1 24 32 3 schwa, 2 ?

66

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – Diphthong /aʊ/ to [æʊ]

Word NYC SAA allow 1 around 2 house 2 how 1 now 4 2 owl 1 TOTAL: 13 6 7

Sample 2 - Diphthong /aʊ/ to [æʊ]

Word NYC SAA about 3 announcement 1 around 1 down 3 Howard('s) 3 4 mouth 1 now 1 out 1 outrage 2 power 1 thousand 2 TOTAL: 23 3 20

67

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – Diphthong /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ]

Word NYC SAA Notes decided 1 designs 1 driving 1 entire 1 fine 1 I/I'm/I've 1 16 4 ? line 1 lying 1 my 6 side 1 sided 1 Skylar 1 surprised 1 time 3 1 ? tired 1 TOTAL: 43 3 35 5 ?

Sample 2 – Diphthong /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ]

words NYC SAA Notes bribery 1 buy 1 ? bye 2 eye 1 fine 2 five 1 Hi 1 ? highest 1 I/I'll/I'm 2 14 2 ? idea(s) 3 meanwhile 1 mind 1 my 2 priority 1 provided 1 surprise 1 time 1 why 1 TOTAL: 40 2 34 4 ?

68

APPENDIX D

Sample 1 – Overview of all features

Sample 1 NYC SAA TOTAL Rhoticity 54 25 79 % 68.4 31.6 100.0 th' 24 21 45 % 53.3 46.7 100.0 Short-A 15 11 26 % 57.7 42.3 100.0 Lower back vowels 45 17 62 % 72.6 27.4 100.0 /aʊ/ to [æʊ] 6.0 7.0 13.0 % 46.2 53.8 100.0 /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ] 3.0 35.0 38.0 % 7.9 92.1 100.0

Sample 2 – Overview of all features

Sample 2 NYC SAA TOTAL Rhoticity 42 24 66 % 63.6 36.4 100.0 th' 22 42 64 % 34.4 65.6 100.0 Short-A 5 12 17 % 29.4 70.6 100.0 Lower back vowels 24 32 56 % 42.9 57.1 100.0 /aʊ/ to [æʊ] 3 20 23 % 13.0 87.0 100.0 /aɪ/ to [ɑɪ] 2 34 36 % 5.6 94.4 100.0

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APPENDIX E

Audio recordings of Sample 1 and Sample 2 selected scenes (Samples_audio)

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