Saturday's Derision

We appreciate the ability to understand a Boston accent — how its idiosyncrasies and complexities affect the sound of our speech. But we muster only a chuckle when actors of questionable pedigree lend to their words an impression of our mother tongue. One man is trying the change this. He’s an expert on regional dialect. His name is Thom Jones and he lives in Florida. We’re skeptical. We’re curious. Click the image below to watch the video.

Say Huh?

From the Boston Globe:

Jones, 40, has been interested in the art of accents since he studied acting at Purchase College, where his teachers sought him out to help his classmates learn to use their voices appropriately and to master dialects. “I started teaching when I was a student,’’ he said. “I started teaching formally at 23.’’ Jones had a short acting career, but his priority was always helping other people sound better. In 2002, he was hired by Brown University, where he now serves as director of voice and speech for the graduate acting program at the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium.

Read the entire article.