The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the American upper class and entertainment industry of the late 19th century to mid-20th century, that blended elements from both American and British English.

What is the weird accent in old movies?

Throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood, stars including Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, and Orson Welles employed what's known as a “Mid-Atlantic accent,” a sort of American-British hybrid of speaking that relies on tricks like dropping “R” sounds and softening vowels, in order to convey wealth and ...

Why do they talk like that in old movies?

Back in the day, movies and newsreels were fighting an uphill battle for attention. Sound quality was often lousy, and audiences were easily distracted. So, actors had to project, speak distinctly, and get their points across quickly.

What accent do they have in the 1950s movies?

The Transatlantic accent, with its unique blend of American and British English, was particularly prominent in movies from the 1930s to the 1950s. Katharine Hepburn: She is one of the most famous users of the Transatlantic accent.

What dialect did they speak in 1940s movies?

The Transatlantic accent is sometimes thought of as that “old-timey” way of speaking in 1930s and 1940s films; but its usage and impact extends far beyond American cinema. Sometimes referred to as a Mid-Atlantic accent, it is a carefully crafted dialect meant to imitate the upper-crust elite.

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Did the old English accent sound American?

There have been many accents that originated in Great Britain, and you can still hear several of them today. Some of them would have sounded similar to the relatively uniform US American accent, but that accent has evolved over the centuries, so it wouldn't have been the same.

What is the old timey accent called?

The Trans-Atlantic Accent (or the Mid-Atlantic Accent) was a style of speech taught in affluent schools along the East Coast and in Hollywood Film Studios from the late nineteen tens until the mid-forties.

Why do old movie actors have accents?

However in the 30s-40s many actors used a fake accent called Transatlantic. It was a mix of British and American. No one really spoke it naturally. It made actors seem more refined, but fell out of favor as movie styles changed.

What was the first American accent?

The “American English” we know and use today in an American accent first started out as an “England English” accent. According to a linguist at the Smithsonian, Americans began putting their own spin on English pronunciations just one generation after the colonists started arriving in the New World.

Why are Old movies always dubbed?

Use of dubbing meant that multi-national casts could be assembled and were able to use their preferred language for their performances, with appropriate post-production dubs being carried out before distributing versions of the film in the appropriate language for each territory.

Why do people in Old movies look Old?

While looking at images of people of the past, we often see them styled in ways that we would today view as outdated, from hairstyles to their choices of clothes and eyewear. As a result, we tend to see these people as having aged rapidly.

What happened to the American accent?

A string of recent studies shows that some iconic American accents are fading out. Georgians are speaking less “Southern,” Texans are sounding less “twangy,” and Bostonians are pronouncing their Rs. These changes likely occur due to migration.

What is the weird accent syndrome?

Foreign accent syndrome is a brain-related condition that affects your ability to make sounds correctly. Despite the name, it isn't an accent change at all. FAS is a legitimate medical condition, and while it's rare, experts have confirmed over 100 cases.

How do actors mimic accents?

It's mechanical. Thanks to instruction from a voice coach, actors actually deconstruct how to move their mouths differently to create different sounds (and therefore different accents). According to the article, it's just as much about learning the sounds of the accent as it is about the rhythm and pattern of speech.

What was the 1920s accent called?

Origins of the Transatlantic accent or a Mid-Atlantic accent

Between the 1920s and 1940s, World English became increasingly popular in oratory classes and theater programs. Its rise in popularity is attributed to voice coach and acting consultant Edith Skinner.

What is the hardest accent for actors to do?

The hardest US accent to impersonate is the US Midwestern Accent. The accent that actors struggle the most to impersonate is the Shetland accent of Scotland.

What kind of accent did Audrey Hepburn have?

Audrey Hepburn was pretty well consistent with non-rhotic. and spoke refined English. Her accent can be characterized as British with somewhat of Flemish or Dutch blend because of her Belgian and Dutch roots. Audrey was born in Brussels, Belgium.

What is the fake accent in Hollywood?

The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the American upper class and entertainment industry of the late 19th century to mid-20th century, that blended elements from both American and British English.

What is a burr accent?

If someone has a burr, they speak English with a regional accent in which 'r' sounds are pronounced more strongly than in the standard British way of speaking. ... a warm West Country burr.

Why did the old American accent change?

The first is isolation; early colonists had only sporadic contact with the mother country. The second is exposure to other languages, and the colonists came into contact with Native American languages, mariners' Indian English pidgin and other settlers, who spoke Dutch, Swedish, French and Spanish.

When did Americans lose their British accents?

sometime between the late 16th and early 19th centuries, but a more accurate answer is never. Colonial Americans didn't really lose their accent. They developed a new one. And incidentally, so did the British.

How did the English lose their accent when they came to America?

The American accent was thus a dialect leveling of a number of different British dialects. In addition to that, though, was the influence of people from all over the world. The Dutch, for example, had already settled in New York — or, before that, New Amsterdam — and so they too contributed to the new American sound.

When did the English accent stop in America?

They didn't. American English preserves many of the features of the accents common in South-West England in the 16th and 17th Century when the USA was being settled. Both British and American English have evolved in different directions since that time.