Philadelphia in the spotlight as a broken US searches for hope
- The often-overshadowed birthplace of America, and its distinctive accent, are back in the limelight thanks to British actress Kate Winslet
- After four tumultuous years under Donald Trump, the United States is a battered nation looking for hope in damaged characters trying to make things right
I can’t do a Philly accent any more because of the years I spent in Asia. It made a big difference to use the standard North American broadcast accent when conversing with people for whom English is not their mother tongue.
If they had put in enough work to be able to use the language, I should at least be able to say “Monday” instead of “Mundy” and “I’m sorry?” or “I beg your pardon?” instead of “whawuzzat?”, or “wuzzat?”
So I found it interesting to see, starting a few years ago, the media begin to make the Philly brogue a subject of cultural scrutiny both because it is slowly dying out and is such a challenge for even the most accomplished of actors. The film Silver Linings Playbook with Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper was set in the area, and Lawrence took some hits for not getting the accent right. Cooper passed, but he is from the Philly suburbs, so no special praise there.
A 2014 opinion piece in The New York Times, for example, explained that, “If you forget to listen closely, the Philadelphia, or Filelfia, accent may sound like mumbled Mandarin without the tonal shifts”.