In the television show Frasier, the protagonist's brother, Niles Crane, is a haughty, snobby, obsessive-compulsive psychiatrist who frequently obsesses about knowing the right people and climbing the social ladder. Unique to him is his accent, which serves to complement his upper-class persona.
People often call the stereotypical "upper-class" accent the Mid- or Trans-Atlantic accent, but this certainly doesn't describe the accent in question. While the Transatlantic accent includes clipping "r" sounds in words like "butter," Niles's accent is abounding in rhoticity (c.f. 0:09 in the video: "I'm afraid what the humidity will do to these loafers. Does calfskin pucker?"). Furthermore, he doesn't have the Transatlantic accent's characteristic sharp "t" in words like "getting" and "better" (c.f. 2:25 and 3:31, respectively, where he substitutes "d" for "tt".).
I was wondering what this accent is called, the regions it existed (or exists) in, and the story behind its apparent rarity/decline, as I've never heard it before.
Best Answer
Nile Crane's accent is an educated, refined Broadcast American, but quite distant from the so-called mid-Atlantic accent of Kate Hepburn or the early Bette Davis. An example roughly contemporary to Frazier would be the TV/radio host Dick Cavett. Crane adds a few features, however: a slight overarticulation of stops, an unflapped medial t here and there, a full pronunciation of words like conditionally. It isn't full-on stage diction, but just enough to convey a certain punctiliousness.
The permanent pout along with other characteristics of his speech is affect, not accent, and one could argue that the overly careful diction is more affect than accent as well.