Linguistic Carpetbagger?

The Times investigates whether Hizzoner has been affecting a more New Yorkish accent:

Linguists enlisted by The New York Times to compare recordings of the mayor’s first and second inaugural addresses detected several telltale signs of the change, suggesting that four years spent commanding the corridors of City Hall and navigating the five boroughs had taken its toll on Mr. Bloomberg’s once-pronounced New England accent.

. . .

William Labov, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of “The Atlas of North American English,” said: “He’s been interacting more closely with New Yorkers and has unconsciously shifted. He is not becoming a linguistic carpetbagger, but he’s becoming a little bit more a New Yorker as time goes on.”

The linguists said Mr. Bloomberg’s pronunciation of several words — “father,” “last,” “because” and “our,” for example — gave him away. He has been dropping his “r’s” less than he once did, Professor Labov added. Dr. Labov said that while the mayor is “very careful to pronounce his ‘r’ all the time in New York,” — in other words, no “Noo Yawk” — his “aw” instead of “ah” in words like “because” or “lost” was the most obvious cue to his distinctly New York shift.

A Bostonian’s fathah might have lahst an election becahse of how he said something. In New York, his father would have lawst becawse of what he said.

. . .

For his part, the mayor was silent about his change in inflections. But Stu Loeser, the mayor’s press secretary, said that any change in accent was because of his immersion in the city, not the result of cold political calculation or a vocal coach. “Four years ago the mayor was new to politics and new to public speaking, and since then he’s had a lot of practice,” Mr. Loeser said.