Is This The Perfect Demonstration of a Maine Downeast Accent?

Those of us who were born in Maine and still live here either have a Maine accent or trained themselves to not have one. When I first started in college radio, I had a pretty good Maine accent. I didn't sound like an old man, but I did pronounce any word with an R as "ahhhh," like, "What's for suppah mah?"

It seems that if you grew up in rural areas of Maine, you'd have a pretty good Maine accent by default. But do you have a true, Downeast Maine accent?

There's a woman on TikTok who is a language teacher somewhere here in Maine. Her TikTok username is That_LanguageTeacher. Appropriate for someone who teaches French, Spanish, and English as a second language. I took Spanish and Latin when I was in high school and have nothing to show for it, so I admire those who can not only speak but can teach foreign languages.

There are plenty of videos on her TikTok page with several featuring her husband. One video, in particular, shows her asking her husband what a guy who came up to them to check the conditions of the ice at whatever lake or pond they were at, sounded like.

Her husband immediately gets into his on-point Downeast accent.

That's pretty spot on and he instantly sounds like a pipe-smoking 60+ year-old Mainer.

Maine accents aren't as prevalent in the southern areas of Maine, but if you get out into the woods in rural Maine, you're bound to come across someone who sounds just like this.