Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,616
edits
Mid-Atlantic Accent: Difference between revisions
added title drop, spelling, markup, replace disambiguation link
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (→Film: added Vincent Price) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (added title drop, spelling, markup, replace disambiguation link) |
||
| (10 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
<div style="float:right; margin-left:5px; margin-bottom:3px; padding:0px; border:1px solid #ffffff; font-size:100%; line-height:120%; padding:0.4em; background-color:#eeeeee; border-bottom:1px solid #ffffff"><youtube width="450">Gpv_IkO_ZBU</youtube></div>
Also called "Transatlantic", this is an easily-recognized accent used in the first half of the 20th Century by the American upper class, movie stars and stage actors. Its distinctive sound is part of what defines the style of the [[Golden Age of Hollywood]]. Effectively the American counterpart to the [[British Accents#Received Pronunciation (Posh/Educated/BBC/Queen's English/RP/Oxford)|British "Received Pronunciation"]],
# Lack of rhoticity, aka dropped "r"s ("mother", for instance, becomes "mothah")
Line 8 ⟶ 9:
The resulting sound is a slightly-nasal, clipped way of speaking that is neither completely British nor completely American.
Interestingly enough, "Mid-Atlantic" is not a "natural" accent; that is to say, it did not evolve among a common group of English speakers, who passed it on from generation to generation by exposure. Instead, it was
It spread in several ways -- it was taught in American boarding schools up until the 1950s, and even in many public school districts (it was a requirement for [[New York City]] teachers in the 1930s, for instance). But the most prominent avenue by which it was passed on was acting classes -- the book ''Speak With Distinction'' by Edith Skinner codified a particular version of "Mid-Atlantic" explicitly for use by stage actors, called [[wikipedia:American Theater Standard|"American Theater Standard"]]. It became the default style of speaking for [[Theater|stage performers]] thanks to such instruction, and from there moved to radio and motion pictures. Some phonologists suggest it found a foothold in radio for some of the same reasons that it became common on the stage -- it carries well and clearly with only treble tones and no bass. It moved on into movies when talkies arrived simply because most new stars at the start of the era of talking pictures were recruited from the stage, and vocal coaches teaching the Skinner method or its close relatives were hired ''en masse'' to instruct existing [[Silent Age of Hollywood|Silent-era]] stars.
Line 17 ⟶ 18:
{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==
* [[Cary Grant]] is perhaps ''the'' classic example in film.
* [[Katherine Hepburn]]
* [[Vincent Price]] was one of the last major stars to use the accent; then again, he was theatrically-trained.
* [[William Daniels]] -- it's particularly [[A Worldwide Punomenon|pronounced]] in his performance as John Adams in ''[[1776 (musical)|1776]]''.
* [[Carrie Fisher]] [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping|slips in and out]] of Mid-Atlantic in ''[[Star Wars]]'':
{{quote|''Daahth Vadah. Ohnly you could be soh bohld.''}}
:Fisher herself described it as a deliberate, if not successful, attempt to sound ''British'', but the result, when she managed it, was distinctly Mid-Atlantic. Fortunately, she chose to drop it entirely by the time filming started on ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''.
* Danny Kaye uses an exaggerated American Theater Standard accent to say "The theatah, the theatah, what's hahppened to the theatah?" at the start of the
* ''[[Singin' in the Rain]]'' includes several scenes where Lena Lamont and Don Lockwood are receiving instruction in American Theater Standard (the latter somewhat more successfully than the former) once their studio has switched to making talking pictures.
== [[Live-Action
* Jon Lovitz as "Master Thespian" on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''.
* Niles and Frasier on ''[[Frasier]]''.
== [[Music]] ==
* Comic/musician Neal Gladstone uses a Mid-Atlantic Accent in his 1988 novelty song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzuT-VYUAVs "Sleep Neat"].
==
* The ushers and usherettes in the first act of ''[[A Day in Hollywood, A Night in the Ukraine]]'' slip in and out of the accent as appropriate as they take on various characters, character types, and performers from the [[Golden Age of Hollywood]]. One noteworthy instance is the song "Nelson", sung entirely in Mid-Atlantic by (allegedly) [[Nelson Eddy]]'s long-time co-star Jeannette MacDonald.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Rarity in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]''
* A triple play in ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'': [[Harry Shearer]] as Mr. Burns, [[Kelsey Grammer]] as Sideshow Bob, and [[Dan Castellaneta]] as Sideshow Mel ''all'' use Mid-Atlantic.
* [[Mark Hamill]] as [[The Joker]] in the various animated and video game versions of ''[[Batman]]''.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
▲== Real Life ==
* [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] is probably the most familiar historical figure (to modern audiences) who spoke in Mid-Atlantic.
* The American upper class in general during the late 19th and early 20th century.
Line 46 ⟶ 51:
[[Category:{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Theatre]]▼
[[Category:Golden Age of Hollywood]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:Theater Tropes]]
[[Category:Pages Original to All The Tropes]]
[[Category:English language]]
| |||