| I can't say how accurate Hammerstein's attempt at indicating New England dialect is, but I think it's helpful to remember that regional dialects have become somewhat less extreme over time. You can definitely still hear people speaking with pretty extreme regional dialects, but radio and then movies and television have influenced how people speak. Hammerstein was writing in 1944-1945 when regional dialects were more extreme than they are now, and he was trying to evoke a time before even radio. I don't know how much time he had spent in New England or what research, if any, he did, but I wonder if his attempts to indicate New England pronunciations may have been more accurate than we can easily determine nowadays. |
