WSJ: The Election Past, President's Message Gets a New Accent

The Election Past, President's Message Gets a New Accent

His Speech Gains Precision, Even French References; Trying to 'Turn the Page'

By JOHN D. MCKINNON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 21, 2005; Page A1

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Linguists and longtime watchers of Mr. Bush say it is evidence of a subtle but unmistakable change the 43rd president has undergone in speaking style. He is enunciating more clearly and dotting his remarks with more literary references. Gone is much of the verbal swagger, which produced such memorable first-term phrases as "bring 'em on" (said of Iraqi insurgents) and "dead or alive" (said of catching Osama bin Laden). Some linguists even say they detect a dialing-down of Mr. Bush's Texas accent, at least in his formal speeches.

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In his 2004 and 2005 State of the Union addresses, Mr. Bush reported, as presidents pretty much always do, that the "state of our union is confident and strong." But in 2004, the word "our" sounded like "are," a typical pronunciation for Mr. Bush, who speaks in what linguists describe generally as an Inland Southern accent. In this year's address, "our" sounded more like "hour." And in a word like "my," which Mr. Bush often pronounced somewhat like "mah" in the past, he partly reformed this "non-gliding vowel," as linguists call it. In his 2005 speech, Mr. Bush also generally pronounced the words ending in "ing" without dropping the "g," unlike in 2004. He largely overcame his tendency to say "hunnerd" for "hundred," and started pronouncing the word "government" more precisely. Still proliferating, though, are pronunciations of "nuclear" as "nu-kyoo-lar."

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The Texas strut and drawl may have worked well to win votes and given Mr. Bush a regular-Joe appeal in his first four years when he still faced re-election. Now that he is trying to sell an ambitious second-term agenda -- overhauling Social Security and the tax system, in addition to helping bring democracy to the Middle East -- his remarks are often more conciliatory and appear to be targeted more at congressional critics and European leaders. Playing to that crowd means Mr. Bush portrays himself a bit less as a Texas Ranger and more as an Ivy League-educated chief executive -- which of course he is.

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In addition to linguistic tweaks, some presidential scholars claim to detect a dash of what Mr. Bush himself might once have dismissed as highfalutin talk. For a president who was mocked by some abroad and in the intelligentsia for not reading newspapers, Mr. Bush now seems to emphasize his reading habits. "I'm downing quite a few books," he told C-SPAN in an interview in January.. In recent speeches, Mr. Bush often has dropped in references to the 19th-century French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, in a move some Bush watchers interpret as another subtle overture to France. The makeover is far from extreme. In his less-formal appearances, Mr. Bush certainly still invokes colloquialisms. The baby-boom generation, he often reminds audiences in talking about Social Security, "is fixin' to retire." But in a speech Tuesday night, he said "getting ready to retire."


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Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111136902785984801,00.html

Rove (over the wire and into the earpiece).

"Remember, George, less swagger and more Ivy League (you remember New Haven, don't you???)"

hun-DRED

under-linG

(h)OUR (like a pirate you arrrrr)........

one hunerdan three.

time to see if the changes have been gradual or sudden.

It's unlikely he'd lose his accent by attrition, but it happens: I have some words that I pronounce like Oregonians do, not at all like I did growing up in Baltimore; I have some syntactic constructions I picked up from a coworker who grew up in Pennsylvania ("the baby's diaper needs changed"), and I can't seem to lose the "the" in front of freeway numbers ("the 10", "the 45").

Hell, that Texas drawl thing is just a pose - he's puttin' on the dog. He's a yankee from the Northeast (no offense to yankees from the northeast - I know you're not like him). I really don't know how you grow up in the Northeast and have a Texas accent. I grew up in the southern midwest and moved to the upper midwest as an adult. I don't sound anything like people here, and probably never will.

Tx for a long time, he's probably actually picked up the local accent. It happens. You accommodate your speech to the local norms, if you have any solidarity the the locals (if you think your speech is far superior, you're unlikely to feel any solidarity and unlikely to make significant changes).

Like I said, I've moved from southern midwest to upper midwest. I don't sound anything like the natively born, and I don't expect that I ever will. However, it's not because I think I'm superior - it's just that I'm used to the way I talk. I think that's more common. Most British ex-pats living in the US never lose their accent, and they can't all think they are superior to the new locals.

Perhaps Bush does think he is superior, but I think it's just a bunch of bullshit he shovels to present an image. There's a part in "Bush's Brain" where someone recounted a story that shows how much of a Texan Bush really is. Bush stopped to ask directions to somewhere and as part of the directions Bush was told to drive past a cattle guard. Bush asked "What color uniform will that cattle guard be wearing?"

If not fake, then way over-exaggerated. The fact that he's losing it (the accent not the other stuff) just goes to prove it.

George W. Bush is THE Flim-Flam Man.

I was born and raised in Texas, and it pisses me off that this phony redneck is the global spokesman for our state. He's the ultimate carpetbagger.

Why couldn't we just have elected Willie?

is that Bush is not from the South, therefore there's NO REASON FOR HIM TO HAVE A SOUTHERN ACCENT IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I was a military brat growing up and lived in Memphis for 13 years before I moved to Idaho for 9 years. I'm now back in Memphis, but when I lived in Idaho everyone I knew was stunned to find out that I moved there from Tennessee, as I have no discernible regional accent.

His "Texas accent," like almost everything else about him, is just another bullshit lie cooked up by ShrubCo to make him seem more like the "average Joe."

He largely overcame his tendency to say "hunnerd" for "hundred," and started pronouncing the word "government" more precisely. Still proliferating, though, are pronunciations of "nuclear" as "nu-kyoo-lar."

And he still says "Yurp" instead of "Europe."

He doesn't take unscripted questions. Those who ask them are immediately ejected. EVERYTHING IS SCRIPTED.

Downing a few books, my ass. The fucker is an IDIOT.

Bake

red white or blue?

The pretzeldent said he's been "downing quite a few books...". What he was really thinking of, is all those drugs he's forced to down in order to try to stay conscious, appear even remotely intelligent, have a "news conference," etc. :evilgrin:

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"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.