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There’s a special note of aggressive contempt that can be layered into the diphthongs and glottal stops of what linguists call Inland North American English, and Carone used it lavishly.

Even the big diphthongs that my grandfather’s years in the States had tamped down swelled back to their former glory in this company.

He erodes consonants, turns simple vowels into unpredictable diphthongs, and takes each new sentence as an opportunity for rococo improvisation.

I begin by pronouncing words with vowels of the long and short variety, then diphthongs, before moving on to consonants, including plosives and fricatives.

Some aspects of the pronunciation, such as the diphthong in words like "fight", are becoming more marked.