Northeastern elite accent

[1][2][3][4] The late 19th century first produced audio recordings of and general commentary about such accents used by affluent East Coast and Northern Americans, particularly New Yorkers and New Englanders, sometimes directly associated with their education at private preparatory schools.

[5] On one hand, scholars traditionally describe these accents as prescribed or affected ways of speaking consciously acquired in elite schools of that era.

[12] Since as late as the mid-19th century, upper-class Americans, particularly of the Northern and Eastern United States, are noted as adopting several phonetic qualities of Received Pronunciation[2][4][6][13]—the standard accent of the British upper class—as evidenced in recorded public speeches of the time.

Sociolinguists like William Labov and his colleagues note that non-rhoticity, "as a characteristic of British Received Pronunciation, was also taught as a model of correct, international English by schools of speech, acting, and elocution in the United States up to the end of World War II.

[6] Early recordings of prominent Americans born in the middle of the 19th century provide some insight into their adoption, or not, of a carefully employed non-rhotic elite speaking style.

[18][19][20] For instance, The Guardian wrote that Williamson "speaks in a beguiling mid-Atlantic accent that makes her sound as if she has walked straight off the set of a Cary Grant movie".

[21] Wealthy or highly educated Americans known as lifelong speakers of a Northeastern elite accent include William F. Buckley Jr.,[3][22] Gore Vidal,[23] H. P. Lovecraft,[24] Sara,[25] Franklin D., and Eleanor Roosevelt, Alice Roosevelt Longworth,[26] Averell Harriman,[27][28] Dean Acheson,[29] George Plimpton,[30][17] John F. Kennedy,[31] Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who began affecting it permanently while at Miss Porter's School),[32][33] Louis Auchincloss,[34] Norman Mailer,[35] Diana Vreeland (though her accent is somewhat unique),[36] C. Z.