For context, George Edward Gouraud was a Union American Civil War Medal of Honor Recipient who moved to England expand the Edison Telegraph system, and later on to expand the availability of the Edison Phonograph. This recording was to show off what the phonograph could do for the British Post (hence the Postmaster General in attendance), and consequently made him famous.
This is really interesting. Honestly, listening to it without reading your comment, I would never have guessed he was American. He speaks English with an accent that reminds me of Indian people who have gone through British education. Same kind of accent as the recreations of Swamiji Vivekananda. Do you have any idea if that was an affectation because of his relocation to the UK, or if that’s a lost American accent?
Both, I would think, but I’m not a linguist haha. Overall, American accents were different when he grew up and lived as opposed to now, like you mentioned. He was also given a “gentleman’s education” after being orphaned as a kid, so I’m sure that helped curate how he spoke (especially drunk and during his first public speech lol). But when this was recorded, he had already lived in England for 15 years - so he naturally picked up some of the accent.
Source: I’m a sucker for Wikipedia, also https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/1888LondonCylinderRecordings.pdf 😁
You and me both! I was homeschooled as a kid, which for me meant I got to self direct my schooling to a degree. One of my favorite things was my mom would let me just read wiki articles that I liked, but then I had to go do real research to confirm everything. Fucking loved that. Lol.
Here is an alternative Invidious link: https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=ebDdwcsrB4U
Much appreciated!
Interesting accent. Much flatter than what we expect today, more rolling “r’s” though.
