Leeneia: "[T]here's always somewhere further north with more snow and less sophistication which is truly up north" -- We resemble that remark. Have you ever visited Brandon, Manitoba? Home of the Wheat Kings?

Katharine Hepburn spoke the dialect of the Broadway stage as it then was, designed not only to "cut the room" but also to convey an impression of languid superiority. The same dulcet tones can be heard in popular American films up to about 1945. Check out Myrna Loy and William Powell in any of the Nick and Nora Charles films, for example. The nasal element is more obvious in women's voices, perhaps to make their dialogue more audible.

It makes my ears squint.