Mid-Atlantic English
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For the region within the United States, see: Mid-Atlantic States. For the English language as it is spoken in that region, see New York-New Jersey English, Philadelphia accent, and Baltimorese.
Mid-Atlantic English describes a version of the English language which is neither predominantly American or British in usage. It is also used to describe various forms of North American speech that have assimilated some British pronunciations. These pronunciations once had some currency in theatre and film, and were also found among members of the upper classes of society.
Features
"Mid-Atlantic" attempts to use no deliberate Britishisms nor any deliberate Americanisms, so that it can be equally understandable and acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Canadian English in some ways approaches this ideal, as was demonstrated by the well-known news anchor Peter Jennings.Spelling also provides a considerable obstacle given the differences between British and American orthography; Canada, which goes predominantly with the British system, is of little guidance here. An emerging trend seems to be the use of a mixture, such as "colour" and "labor"; this appears to satisfy almost no one.
Along with the written word, there is an attempt to develop a Mid-Atlantic accent, or perhaps rather a non-accent. Here once again Canadian pronunciation, less a few well-known and distinctive Canadianisms, would seem to prove something of a guide. International media are tending to reduce the number of mutually unintelligible versions of English to some extent; this issue, if pressed too hard, will undoubtedly bring up issues of national, regional, and local pride that many feel are best left undisturbed.
On the stage
Mid-Atlantic English is also a name that has been given to a pronunciation of English that was formerly cultivated by actors for use in theatre, and by news announcers. This dialect was formerly used by American actors who adopted some features of British English pronunciation; it was used on stage generally—and especially in productions of Shakespeare and other pieces from the British Isles—and frequently in film until the post-World War II era. This sort of stage-British is now used much less than it formerly was; the recorded speech of Vincent Price in his more formal roles may contain an echo of its sounds, since Price was an American actor trained in England. The British expatriate Cary Grant, actress Katherine Hepburn, and Canadians Christopher Plummer and Lorne Greene have also exemplified the accent.Use of this accent declined rapidly after World War II. Actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Henry Fonda, and John Wayne portrayed serious roles in various dialects of American speech, and the export of American cinema familiarized the rest of the world with its features.
Other public figures
Similar speech has historically been used by certain Americans not in the theatre; it was cultivated by the upper classes in some areas of the northeastern United States. The recorded speech of U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came from a privileged family and who was educated at Groton, a private American prep school, had a number of features that are now exclusive to British English. Prior to World War II, these institutions cultivated a norm influenced by the Received Pronunciation of southern England as an international norm of English pronunciation. According to William Labov, the teaching of this pronunciation declined sharply after the end of World War II. [link]
Roosevelt's speech is non-rhotic; one of Roosevelt's most frequently heard speeches has a falling diphthong in the word fear, which distinguishes it from other forms of surviving non-rhotic speech in the United States. Linking R appears in Roosevelt's delivery of the words "The only thing we have to fear || is fear itself"; compare also Roosevelt's delivery of the words naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. This American version of a "posh" accent is now obsolescent, if not wholly obsolete, even among the American upper classes, but an example of a Mid-Atlantic accent can be found on the television sitcom Frasier as used by both Frasier Crane and his brother Niles Crane. More recent Groton alumni, even those with careers on the stage such as Sam Waterston, no longer use such an accent.
Reference
- Robert MacNeil and William Cran, Do You Speak American? (Talese, 2004). ISBN 0385511981
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