This is the page for learning the accent used in the Glasgow Orpheus Club's recent production of Carousel. If you ever want to get into a show with a Maine accent, this is where you should be. And you can also hear samples from members of the Orpheus Club cast.

Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel is set in a remote fishing community in Maine, New England, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The name of this show in a Maine accent is KA-ruh-ssel, with the stress on the first syllable and a hard s. The Maine accent is quite unlike most American accents, and a bit of a joke to American ears. Joel Goldes, the American dialect coach, has helped me with this description:

• It's non-rhotic. Accents of English the world over fall into two classes: those where r is pronounced before a consonant (Marrs barrs) and those where it is not (Mahs bahs). Accents in the first group are called rhotic ("using r"), those in the second group are non-rhotic. Scotland, Ireland and the United States mostly have rhotic accents; England and Australia are non-rhotic. (In the West Indies, rhoticity changes from one island to the next.) Maine, unusually for the USA, is non-rhotic.
  
  
• Speakers make huge variations of rhythm and volume. They drawl-and-shout the important syllables, and more or less gabble the rest. This makes them sound like half-crazed rustics.
  
  
• Many of the vowel-sounds are not characteristically American at all. Wife, where the tongue is lifted for the first part of the igh-sound, is like its Canadian equivalent; way, with the lower jaw wide open and wobbly, sounds Australian; sparks, with the tongue thrust forward and spread, and compression of the oesophagus (the part of the throat behind the tongue-root, about where you swallow) sounds Australian too.
  
  
• Some of the diphthongs break in the middle almost into two syllables. Listen to there ("theh-ah") and "boy" (boh-wee).
  
  
• The intonation is quite different from most other accents of English, often rising at the end.

Here you can find:

• Tips on learning a new accent.
  
  
• Audio file of a sketch by the Maine comedian Tim Sample. This was our standard demonstration clip for this production of Carousel.
  
  
• Link to download the Real Audio player (you need this to listen to Tim Sample's sketch).
  
  
• Vowel-chart and phonetic transcription for the Maine accent. I used this when doing accent work with members of the cast.
  
  
• Audio file of demonstration words.
  
  
• Text of Tim Sample's sketch.
  
  
• Offline request - contact me if you'd like some of this material sent by post instead of downloading it.