What accent was used in old movies?
Mid-Atlantic AccentThe 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 did people have accents in old movies?
This was an artificial style of speech that was popular among the upper classes in the early 20th century. They were trying to sound a little like Londoners. Actors adopted this same accent in the theater and in films. This practice largely disappeared after WWII; it had actually started going away before that.
What is the old American accent?
0:142:52Voice this type of pronunciation is called the transatlantic. Or mid-atlantic accent. And it isn'tMoreVoice this type of pronunciation is called the transatlantic. Or mid-atlantic accent. And it isn't like most other accents.
Why did old American movies have a strange British accent?
Transatlantic English began the dominant dialect used by the North-eastern American upper class throughout the first half of the 20th century. During this time, theatre was a central part of the elite culture in the region, so naturally their accent was adopted.
Why do people in old movies talk so weird?
A video from BrainStuff explains why the people in old movies might have an accent or dialect you just can't seem to place. BrainStuff explains that the plummy, upper-crust accent is reminiscent of British aristocracy and was actually the style of speaking taught to students in New England boarding schools.
Why did they talk like that in the 50s?
What you're likely thinking of is called the “Mid-Atlantic Accent.” It was popularized by an elocutionist (speech trainer, if you will) who wanted to help actors sound refined, educated, and well-traveled. It's a blend of the RP (Received Pronunciation, AKA fancy British Accent) and American accents.
When did Americans lose their English accent?
Most scholars have roughly located “split off” point between American and British English as the mid-18th-Century. There are some clear exceptions.
Why did people sound so different in the 50s?
I'd guess that the "50's accent" you hear had much to do with the technology of AM and shortwave radio. Precise diction and a somewhat clipped style for words and phrases helped to overcome the crackle and hiss of static in radio reception.
What was Audrey Hepburn's accent?
Her accent was mostly British, but was influenced by her upbringing in a non-English speaking country (the Netherlands). Her pronunciation of a few words, at times of the “th” sounds, gave her away as not 100 % British.
Why do old movies sound British?
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 ancient movies have British accents?
And it's not just because the British accent sounds grandiose and glorious. Well, a little bit. The real answer is rooted in the obsession with Empire—and how accents were actively cultivated by society elites as signifiers of global power and stature.
How did Americans get their accent?
During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing a process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in Britain.
Why do ancient movies have British accents?
And it's not just because the British accent sounds grandiose and glorious. Well, a little bit. The real answer is rooted in the obsession with Empire—and how accents were actively cultivated by society elites as signifiers of global power and stature.
Why do old movies sound dubbed?
Dubbing allows the filmmaker to obtain high-quality dialogue regardless of the actual conditions that existed during shooting. Dubbing is also used to add sound effects to the original sound track. It may also be used in musicals to substitute a more pleasing voice for that of an actor who performs a song on camera.
Why does everyone have an English accent in movies?
Thus, this explains that the reason why the film industry relies on the British accent is because it's most familiar to English speakers, which makes up the majority of viewers. “The idea of learning a bunch of different languages when we were very young [lets us] have the ability to understand what someone is saying.
Why do period dramas always have English accents?
As a result, Simpson theorized that Americans still subliminally consider British accents to be aristocratic, which may be why they are so often utilized in period dramas — "because we associate them with the past," she says.
How do actors get their accent?
All of it essentially boils down to education. Actors must train a certain way to master their craft. Speaking lines aloud in a believable way takes more than people might realize. But along the way, many in Hollywood learned a certain speech pattern that permeated old movies and gave them a sort of standard accent. For an example, see the video below of Katharine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story (1940).
What is the transatlantic accent?
What viewers hear is the Transatlantic accent. This accent became synonymous with the upper class and with theater productions. In fact, No Film School writes, affluent New England schools taught students this accent.
Why did actors talk fast in old movies?
Supply restrictions also shaped speech patterns in old movies and thus formed the accent as we hear it with our modern ears. Compared to actors today, actors from old movies seem to talk quickly. Well, that had utilitarian purposes. Film could get very expensive, eating away at a film’s budget that might not yield a profit if enough gets wasted. Fortunately, the Transatlantic accent favored so much by actors for its ties to aristocracy allowed for fast speech. Talking fast meant using less film. Clear, enunciated syllables already present, they could speak quickly and still be understood.
Why don't we hear the accent anymore?
So why don't we hear it anymore? BrainStuff says the accent fell out of favor after WWII, when there were fewer teachers available to teach it . Nowadays, you can probably only occasionally hear it on stage at the theatuhh.
What is the accent of a plummy?
BrainStuff explains that the plummy, upper-crust accent is reminiscent of British aristocracy and was actually the style of speaking taught to students in New England boarding schools.
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What is the Midatlantic accent?
The accent you are wondering about is the Transatlantic accent, also called the Midatlantic accent. This was not a regional accent. Rather, it’s an accent that was taught to actors and announcers. I learned about this accent from Amy Walker’s “21 Accents” video on YouTube.
Is the phrase "lah dee dah" faux British?
But you cannot imagine a present-day American using it with a straight face. It’s not faux-British, but it’s a particular kind of lah-dee-dah American diction that at one time was very familiar and now has vanished.
Which movie has a midatlantic accent?
Casablanca, another film where the Mid-Atlantic accent can be heard. Courtesy Warner Bros
Who is the actress who spoke with the accent in The Philadelphia Story?
Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in the film The Philadelphia Story. Sunset Boulevard/ Corbis/ Getty Images. If you’ve ever seen a movie made before 1950, you’re familiar with the accent used by actors like Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman: a sort of high-pitched, indistinctly-accented way of speaking that also pops up in ...
How did the Northeastern accent get ramped up?
But while parts of those accents are natural—some New Yorkers and many Bostonians still drop their “r” sounds today—the elite Northeastern accent was ramped up artificially by elocution teachers at boarding schools. Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut (where Jackie Onassis was educated), the Groton School in Massachusetts (FDR), St. Paul’s School (John Kerry), and others all decided to teach their well-heeled pupils to speak in a certain way, a vaguely British-y speech pattern meant to sound aristocratic, excessively proper, and, weirdly, not regionally specific. A similar impulse created the British Received Pronunciation, the literal Queen’s English, though RP’s roots arose a bit more gradually and naturally in Southeastern England.
What is Edith Skinner's accent?
So she forced her own “Good Speech” accent on stars, and other voice coaches, and soon her accent became the most popular accent in Hollywood.
Why is the Mid Atlantic accent called Mid Atlantic?
Because Skinner was so influential, and her “Good Speech” was so prominent in movies, it began to leak out into the drama world at large. Other teachers began teaching it. In fact, even up until just a few decades ago, this accent, now called “Mid-Atlantic,” was being taught in drama schools.
What is good speech?
Good Speech is a dialect of North American English that is free from regional characteristics; recognizably North American, yet suitable for classic texts; effortlessly articulated and easily understood in the last rows of a theater.”.
Who said "Good Speech is hard to define but easy to recognize when we hear it"?
Skinner was an elocutionist who decided, with what must have been balls the size of Mars, to call this accent “Good Speech.”. Here’s a quote from her 1942 book, Speak With Distinction: “Good Speech is hard to define but easy to recognize when we hear it.
What is the world accent?
World English, then, was a creation of speech teachers, and boldly labeled as a class-based accent: the speech of persons variously described as "educated," "cultivated," or "cultured"; the speech of persons who moved in rarefied social or intellectual circles and of those who might aspire to do so .
Who used a non-rhotic accent?
President William Howard Taft, who attended public school in Ohio, and inventor Thomas Edison, who grew up in Ohio and Michigan of modest means, both used natural rhotic accents. Yet presidents William McKinley of Ohio and Grover Cleveland of Central New York, who attended private schools, clearly employed a non-rhotic, upper-class, Mid-Atlantic quality in their speeches; both even use the distinctive and especially archaic affectation of a " trilled " or " flapped r " at times whenever r is pronounced. This trill is less consistently heard in recordings of Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's successor from an affluent district of New York City, who also used a cultivated non-rhotic accent but with the addition of the coil-curl merger once notably associated with New York accents, as did his non-trilling distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
What is the midatlantic accent?
The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is an accent of English, fashionably used by the early 20th-century American upper class and entertainment industry , which blended together features regarded as the most prestigious from both American and British English (specifically Received Pronunciation ).
What is Marianne Williamson's accent?
Self-help author and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has a unique accent that, following her participation in the first 2020 presidential debate in June 2019, was widely discussed and sometimes described as a Mid-Atlantic accent.
What episode of The Guiding Light is about the accent?
Early radio episodes of The Guiding Light featuring Mid-Atlantic English. "Puhfect Together", an episode of The Brian Lehrer Show in which William Labov is interviewed about the accent.
When did cinema start?
American cinema began in the early 1900s in New York City and Philadelphia before becoming largely transplanted to Los Angeles beginning in the mid-1910s. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, a voice was first heard in motion pictures.
Is the Mid Atlantic accent still taught?
It is still taught to actors for use in playing historical characters.
