Mid-Atlantic accent

This article is about the cultivated accent blending American and British English. For the native dialect of the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, see Philadelphia English.

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A Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent,[1][2][3] is any of various accents of English that are perceived as blending features from both American and British English. Most commonly, the informal label refers to accents of the late 19th century to mid-20th century spoken by the Northeastern American upper class, as well as related accents in the early half of the 20th century taught in American schools of acting.[4][5] Both types of accents incorporated notable features from Received Pronunciation,[3] the most prestigious accent of British English. This speaking style also became associated with certain Hollywood actors of that era.[6][3][7][8]

A Mid-Atlantic accent was never the widespread or typical accent of any region; rather, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so".[9] The late 19th century first produced recordings of and commentary about such accents associated with the Northeastern elite and their private preparatory-school education.[10] With their (limited) high prestige, such accents were also then used by some stage and film actors in the early 20th century, particularly in their performances of classical plays. The prestige of Mid-Atlantic speech largely ended by 1950, presumably as a result of cultural and demographic changes in the United States following the Second World War.[11]

A similar accent that resulted from different historical processes, Canadian dainty, was also known in Canada, existing for a century before waning in the 1950s.[12] More generally, "mid-Atlantic accent" may refer to any accent, including more recent ones, with a perceived mixture of American and British characteristics.[13][14][15]

  1. ^ Drum, Kevin (2011). "Oh, That Old-Timey Movie Accent!". Mother Jones.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Queen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c LaBouff, Kathryn (2007). Singing and communicating in English: a singer's guide to English diction. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 241–42. ISBN 978-0-19-531138-9.
  4. ^ Skinner, Monich & Mansell (1990:334)
  5. ^ Fallows, James (7 June 2015). "That Weirdo Announcer-Voice Accent: Where It Came From and Why It Went Away. Is your language rhotic? How to find out, and whether you should care". The Atlantic. Washington DC.
  6. ^ Boberg, Charles (2020). "Diva diction: Hollywood’s leading ladies and the rise of General American English". American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage, 95(4), 441-484: "Kelly was from Philadelphia. Rogers, from Independence, Missouri, and Shearer, from Montreal, are about half R-less. Adoption of /r/ vocalization by these actresses from r-ful regions presumably reflects both formal dramatic training and the generally high prestige of this feature in the early twentieth century" (455); "Rogers, Kelly, and Shearer produce an [a:] quality in BATH words out of respect for the British or Boston standard" (465).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tham was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Tsai was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Knight, Dudley. "Standard Speech". In: Hampton, Marian E. & Barbara Acker (eds.) (1997). The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 174–77.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Safire was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Knight, 1997, p. 171.
  12. ^ "Some Canadians used to speak with a quasi-British accent called Canadian Dainty". CBC News, 1 July 2017.
  13. ^ "Mid-Atlantic definition and meaning – Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com.
  14. ^ "mid-Atlantic (adjective) definition and synonyms – Macmillan Dictionary". www.macmillandictionary.com.
  15. ^ "mid-Atlantic accent – meaning of mid-Atlantic accent in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English – LDOCE". www.ldoceonline.com.