Mid-Atlantic Accent

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Mid-Atlantic Accent is one of the known and upper-class accents adopted by the mixture of British and European English. It is not categorized as a regional accent but more of a cultivated adopted language that has been highly popular in the early 20th century especially in the Hollywood industry.

ORIGIN OF THE DIALECT:

Language is the pillar of a geography’s culture and tradition. It expresses the beliefs, customs, values and notions. So as the accent is the identity of where you belong. They are adopted from cultural and custom expression. As society evolves, the dialects and accents also evolve simultaneously.

MIGRATION OF EUROPEANS IN AMERICA:

Pondering into the origin of Mid-Atlantic Accent, it has a rich history which can be indicated in England, Delaware Valley, Southeastern Pennsylvania, Eastern coasts and Southern parts of Central Jersey. According to the sources, when the Europeans settled in America in order to practice their religion freely, they brought their native language with them and the accent of British style. Residing here with Native Americans, it was difficult to communicate. So, rather than adopting the native language, they blend both the accents, retaining the proper aristocratic speech under the influence of King James Bible and William Shakespeare in the 17th century.

As more British colonists start to reside on East American coasts especially in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, so from here specifically, the inauguration of the Mid-Atlantic accent occurs.

In the 18th century, a movement was passed known to be the elocution movement which brought the importance of enhancing pronunciation and articulation skills. So, the plethora of private schools and public institutions started to teach students oratory skills through speaking classes and presentations which also contributed to inculcating the accent of Mid-Atlantic speech.

ADOPTION BY ELITE CLASS AND HOLLYWOOD INDUSTRY:

As the importance of pronunciation increases, it was highly adopted by the elite class especially politicians, lawyers and high caliber careers. The adoption of high-level stratification dragged it further into the Hollywood industry in the 1960s which is known to be the Golden Period of Cinemas and Theater. Impeccable actors such as Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley and Kelsey Grammer, etc were the pioneers of flourishing the accent. It became so popular that it became mandatory in the movies to speak in that accent and the actors were taught to speak like that. Though it looked funny at some pronouncing words but overall it weighs how much wealthy class you belong to.

FALL OF THE ACCENT:

According to historical facts, the Mid-Atlantic language diminished after World War II as the importance of teaching pronunciation was ignored in the institution and eventually Elite classes started to dissociate themselves from that accent.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MID ATLANTIC ACCENT:

The common and useful characteristics of Mid Atlantic Accents are as follows:

  1. The dropping of the “r” alphabet in words especially when it doesn’t precede with a vowel. For example, dropping r in “winner” or “eager”,
  2. Use soft pronunciation in vowels such as calling “dance” as “dahnce” or saying “just” as “juhst”.
  3. Alphabet like “a” in “father” or “Salmon” would more sound like “fawther” and “sawlmon”.
  4. Polysyllable words ending with these schwas (suffixes such as -ary, -ery, -ative, -mony, -ory and -erry etc) are pronoun as "eri , etiv, moni, ori and eri"
  5. It has quasi or twak British elements into that.
  6. Usually, the alphabet “T” is pronoun as “D”. For instance, the word “soft” is pronounce as “sofd”,
  7. A touch of vague British-y accent was prominent.
  8. Speakers prefer flowing out a breath through the mouth rather than both mouth and nose.
  9. Pronouncing “t” sharply so it clearly sounds like “t”. For instance, pronouncing "Butter", not as “Budder”.
  10. According to Edith Skinner, each vowel has a pure sound so the change in the pronunciation or speech can diminish its purity and causing the vowels to be Diphthongization.
  11. Actors usually preferred using words starting with “wh” in the throaty and gruff way.
  12. The speakers avoid using glottal stops to make them more attractive.
  13. "U" needs to be pronounced as “YOU”, not as “O”. For example, “Tune” will sound like “TYOUN” or saying "Super" as “SYOUPERR”.

FAMOUS MID-ATLANTIC ACCENT MOVIES:

The famous Mid-Atlantic Accent movies that you can practice are as follows:

  1. Citizen Kane (1941)
  2. Ladies of Washington (1943)
  3. Duchess of Idaho (1950)
  4. The Major and the Minor (1942)
  5. The Harvey Girls (1942)
  6. The Palm Beach Story (1942)
  7. Romance on the High seas (1948)
  8. Easy to wed (1946)
  9. Boeing Boeing (1965)
  10. It happened on 5th Avenue (1947)

IS IT STILL USE TODAY?

To be honest, it doesn’t use by people anymore. If it does, it is being used in theatre performances of the 60s era in a humorous way.
Mid-Atlantic Accent was never close to reality. It was highly expressed in films but not in real-life due to the funny accent it creates. It means that the accent was made-up and taught, not naturally adopted. So, if you speak with this Accent, people would probably make fun of you.

Looking into modern movies, we can still find some Mid-Atlantic vibes in the antagonist characters especially in animated Disney movies and Science Fictions.

CONCLUSION:

Mid-Atlantic Accent is an impeccable skill to learn and develop. Though it is not preferable to speak in ■■■■■ or everyday life but would be great in theater films and cinemas.

WW II has been a game-changer for the world so as for the societies, cultures and traditions. It causes a great shift in them which loses the Golden Period of the European world as well as taking away the richness of the old era and the language respectively. Although it was the fall of the 60s era but the rise of the new generation has brought more realism and relatability.