The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent,
is a consciously learned
accent Accent may refer to:
Speech and language
* Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers
* Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase
** Pitch ac ...
of English, fashionably used by the late 19th-century and early 20th-century
American upper class
The American upper class is a social group within the United States consisting of people who have the highest social rank, primarily due to economic wealth. The American upper class is distinguished from the rest of the population due to the ...
and entertainment industry, which blended together features regarded as the most prestigious from both
American and
British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
(specifically
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
). It is not a native or regional accent; rather, according to voice and drama professor
Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so".
[Knight, Dudley. "Standard Speech". In: Hampton, Marian E. & Barbara Acker (eds.) (1997). ''The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice.'' ]Hal Leonard Corporation
Hal Leonard LLC (formerly Hal Leonard Corporation) is an American music publishing and distribution company founded in Winona, Minnesota, by Harold "Hal" Edstrom, his brother, Everett "Leonard" Edstrom, and fellow musician Roger Busdicker. Curr ...
. pp. 174–77. The accent was embraced in private independent
preparatory schools, especially by members of the
American Northeastern upper class, as well as in schools for film and stage acting,
with its overall use sharply declining after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
A similar accent that resulted from different historical processes,
Canadian dainty
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
, was also known in Canada, existing for a century before waning in the 1950s.
["Some Canadians used to speak with a quasi-British accent called Canadian Dainty"]
CBC News
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.c ...
, 1 July 2017. More recently, the term "mid-Atlantic accent" can also refer to any accent with a perceived mixture of American and British characteristics.
Elite use
History
In the 19th century and into the early 20th century, formal
public speaking
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech delive ...
in the United States focused primarily on song-like intonation, lengthily and tremulously uttered vowels (including overly articulated
weak vowels), and a booming resonance. Moreover, since at least the mid-19th century, upper-class communities on the
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the ...
increasingly adopted many of the phonetic qualities of
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
—the standard accent of the British upper class—as evidenced in recorded public speeches of the time, with some of these qualities, like
non-rhoticity (sometimes called "''r''-lessness"), also shared by the regional dialects of
Eastern New England and
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
Sociolinguist
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of ...
William Labov
William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...
et al. describe that such "''r''-less pronunciation, following Received Pronunciation, was taught as a model of correct, international English by schools of speech, acting, and elocution in the United States up to the end of World War II".
Early recordings of prominent Americans born in the middle of the 19th century provide some insight into their adoption or not of a carefully employed non-rhotic Mid-Atlantic speaking style.
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese f ...
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, who attended public school in Ohio, and inventor
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invent ...
, who grew up in Ohio and Michigan of modest means, both used natural rhotic accents. Yet presidents
William McKinley
William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in t ...
of Ohio and
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
of
Central New York
Central New York is the central region of New York State, including the following counties and cities:
With a population of about 773,606 (2009) and an area of , the region includes the Syracuse metropolitan area.
Definitions
The New Yor ...
, who attended private schools, clearly employed a non-rhotic, upper-class, Mid-Atlantic quality in their
public speeches
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...
that does not align to the rhotic accents normally documented in Ohio and Central New York at the time; both men even use the distinctive and especially archaic affectation of a "
tapped ''r''" at times when ''r'' is pronounced, often when between vowels.
[Metcalf, A. (2004). ''Presidential Voices. Speaking Styles from George Washington to George W. Bush''. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 144–148.] This tapped articulation is additionally sometimes heard in recordings of
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, McKinley's successor from an affluent district of New York City, who used a cultivated non-rhotic accent but with the addition of the
coil-curl merger once notably associated with
New York accent
The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio ...
s.
His distant cousin
Franklin D. Roosevelt also employed a non-rhotic Mid-Atlantic accent,
though without the tapped ''r''.
In and around
Boston, Massachusetts, a similar accent, in the late 19th century and early 20th century, was associated with the local urban elite: the
Boston Brahmins
The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonis ...
. In the
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...
, particularly including its affluent
Westchester County
Westchester County is located in the U.S. state of New York. It is the seventh most populous county in the State of New York and the most populous north of New York City. According to the 2020 United States Census, the county had a population ...
suburbs and the
North Shore North Shore or Northshore may refer to:
Geographic features Australia
*North Shore (Sydney), a suburban region of Sydney
**Electoral district of North Shore
**North Shore railway line, Sydney
*Noosa North Shore, Queensland
* North Shore, New So ...
of
Long Island, other terms for the local Transatlantic pronunciation and accompanying facial behavior include "
Locust Valley lockjaw" or "
Larchmont lockjaw", named for the stereotypical clenching of the speaker's jaw muscles to achieve an exaggerated enunciation quality.
The related term "boarding-school lockjaw" has also been used to describe the accent once considered a characteristic of elite New England boarding school culture.
Vocal coach and scholar
Dudley Knight describes how the Australian phonetician William Tilly (
né
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...
Tilley), teaching at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
from 1918 to around the time of his death in 1935, introduced a version of the Mid-Atlantic accent that, for the first time, was standardized with an extreme and conscious level of phonetic consistency.
Linguistic prescriptivists
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes ...
, Tilly and his adherents emphatically promoted their new Mid-Atlantic speech standard, which they called "World English". World English would eventually define the pronunciation of American classical actors for decades, though Tilly himself actually had no special interest in acting. Mostly attracting a following of
English-language learners and New York City public-school teachers, he was interested in popularizing his standard of a "proper" American pronunciation for teaching in public schools and using in one's public life:
World English as a phonetically consistent version of Mid-Atlantic pronunciation was advocated most strongly from the 1920s to the mid-1940s and was particularly embraced in this period within Northeastern independent
preparatory schools mostly accessible to and supported by aristocratic American families. However, following and presumably as a result of the Second World War and its accompanying cultural and demographic changes in the United States, the prestige of Mid-Atlantic accents largely ended by 1950.
[Knight, 1997, p. 171.]
Example speakers
Wealthy or highly educated Americans known for being lifelong speakers of a Mid-Atlantic accent include
William F. Buckley Jr.
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
,
Gore Vidal
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...
,
H. P. Lovecraft,
Franklin D. and
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
,
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (February 12, 1884 – February 20, 1980) was an American writer and socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his only child with his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. L ...
,
Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...
,
Dean Acheson
Dean Gooderham Acheson (pronounced ; April 11, 1893October 12, 1971) was an American statesman and lawyer. As the 51st U.S. Secretary of State, he set the foreign policy of the Harry S. Truman administration from 1949 to 1953. He was also Truma ...
,
George Plimpton,
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...
(who began affecting it permanently while at
Miss Porter's School),
Louis Auchincloss
Louis Stanton Auchincloss (; September 27, 1917 – January 26, 2010)Holcomb B. Noble and Charles McGrath''The New York Times''. Retrieved on January 27, 2010. was an American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novel ...
,
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
,
Diana Vreeland (though her accent is unique, with not entirely consistent Mid-Atlantic features),
C. Z. Guest
Lucy Douglas "C. Z." Guest (''née'' Cochrane; February 19, 1920 – November 8, 2003) was an American stage actress, author, columnist, horsewoman, fashion designer, and socialite who achieved a degree of fame as a fashion icon. She was fre ...
Joseph Alsop,
Robert Silvers,
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, ...
(though, as the lone non-Northeasterner in this list, her accent was consistently rhotic), and
Cornelius Vanderbilt IV. Except for Child, all of these example speakers were raised, educated, or both in the
Northeastern United States. This includes just over half who were raised specifically in New York (most of them New York City) and five of whom were educated specifically at the
independent boarding school Groton in Massachusetts: Franklin Roosevelt, Harriman, Acheson, Alsop, and Auchincloss.
Examples of individuals described as having a cultivated New England accent or "
Boston Brahmin accent" include
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...
,
[Henry Cabot Lodge]
on the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...
. Retrieved 2017-05-15. Charles Eliot Norton,
Samuel Eliot Morison,
Harry Crosby,
John Brooks Wheelwright
John Brooks Wheelwright (sometimes Wheelright) (9 September 1897 – 13 September 1940) was an American poet from a Boston Brahmin background. He belonged to the poetic ''avant garde'' of the 1930s and was a Marxist, a founder-member of the T ...
,
George C. Homans,
Elliot Richardson
Elliot Lee Richardson (July 20, 1920December 31, 1999) was an American lawyer and public servant who was a member of the cabinet of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. As U.S. Attorney General, he was a prominent figure in the Watergate ...
,
George Plimpton (though he was actually a lifelong member of the New York City elite),
and
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
,
who has noticeably
reduced this accent since his early adulthood toward a more
General American
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or soc ...
one.
U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, who came from a privileged New York City family, has a
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...
accent, though it is not an ordinary
New York accent
The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio ...
; one of Roosevelt's most frequently heard speeches has a falling
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
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"; this pronunciation of ''r'' is also famously recorded in his
Pearl Harbor speech
The "Day of Infamy" speech, sometimes referred to as just ''"The Infamy speech"'', was delivered by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, to a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1941. The previous day, the ...
, for example, in the phrase "naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan".
Decline
After the accent's decline following the end of World War II, this American version of a "posh" accent has all but disappeared even among the American upper classes, as Americans have increasingly dissociated from the effete speaking styles of the East Coast elite;
if anything, the accent is now subject to ridicule in American popular culture. The clipped, non-rhotic English accents of
George Plimpton and
William F. Buckley Jr.
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
were vestigial examples.
Self-help author and
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson
Marianne Deborah Williamson (born July 8, 1952) is an American author, spiritual leader, and political activist. She has written 14 books, including four ''New York Times'' number one bestsellers in the "Advice, How To, and Miscellaneous" cate ...
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.
An article from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'', for example, stated that Williamson "speaks in a beguiling mid-Atlantic accent that makes her sound as if she has walked straight off the set of a
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
movie."
Theatrical and cinematic use
When the 20th century began, classical training for actors in the United States explicitly focused on imitating upper-class British accents onstage.
From the 1920s to 1940s, the "World English" of William Tilly, and his followers' slight variations of it taught in classes of theatre and oratory, became popular affectations onstage and in other forms of high culture in North America. The codification of a Mid-Atlantic accent in writing, particularly for theatrical training, is often credited to
Edith Warman Skinner in the 1930s,
a student of Tilly best known for her 1942 instructional text on the accent: ''Speak with Distinction''.
Skinner, who referred to this accent as Good (American) Speech or
Eastern (American) Standard, described it as the appropriate American pronunciation for "classics and elevated texts". She vigorously drilled her students in learning the accent at the
Carnegie Institute of Technology and, later, the
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most ...
.
It is also possible that a clipped, nasal, "all-
treble
Treble may refer to:
In music:
*Treble (sound), tones of high frequency or range, the counterpart of bass
*Treble voice, a choirboy or choirgirl singing in the soprano range
*Treble (musical group), a three-piece girl group from the Netherlands
*T ...
" acoustic quality sometimes associated with the Mid-Atlantic accent arose out of technological necessity in the earliest days of
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...
and
sound film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed befo ...
, which ineffectively reproduced natural human bass tones. As used by actors, the Mid-Atlantic accent is also known by various other names, including American Theatre Standard or American stage speech.
American cinema
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Am ...
began in the early 1900s in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
before becoming largely transplanted to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
beginning in the mid-1910s, with
talkies
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...
beginning in the late 1920s. Hollywood studios encouraged actors to learn this accent into the 1940s.
Examples of actors known for publicly using this accent include
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power III (May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958) was an American actor. From the 1930s to the 1950s, Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include ''Jesse James (193 ...
,
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her p ...
,
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
,
Laird Cregar,
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wa ...
(who also went to school in Connecticut),
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
,
Sally Kellerman
Sally Clare Kellerman (June 2, 1937 – February 24, 2022) was an American actress and singer whose acting career spanned 60 years. Her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in Robert Altman's film ''M*A*S*H'' (1970) earned her an Oscar nom ...
,
Tammy Grimes, and
Westbrook Van Voorhis.
Cary Grant
Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...
, who arrived in the United States from England at age of sixteen, had an accent that was often considered Mid-Atlantic, though with a more natural and unconscious mixture of both British and American features.
Roscoe Lee Browne, defying roles typically cast for black actors, also consistently spoke with a Mid-Atlantic accent. Humorist
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is an American former musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician, having lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded i ...
lampooned this accent in a 1945 satirical tribute to his alma mater,
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
, called "
Fight Fiercely, Harvard". Actor and singer
David Cassidy
David Bruce Cassidy (April 12, 1950 – November 21, 2017) was an American actor, singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge, the son of Shirley Partridge (played by his stepmother, Shirley Jones), in ...
noted that his father,
Jack Cassidy
John Joseph Edward Cassidy (March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976), was an American actor, singer and theater director known for his work in the theater, television and films. He received multiple Tony Award nominations and a win, as well a ...
, used the Mid-Atlantic accent.
Examples
Although it has disappeared as a standard of high society and high culture, the Transatlantic accent has still been heard in some media in the second half of the 20th century, or even more recently, for the sake of historical, humorous, or other stylistic reasons:
* In the film
''Auntie Mame'' (1958), Gloria Upson's accent identifies her as a “lockjawed prep princess” from Connecticut's
WASP
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...
elite.
*
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perf ...
uses the Mid-Atlantic accent in playing the flamboyant, fussy, upper-class character
Effie Trinket in the
''Hunger Games'' film series, which depicts enormous class divisions in a futuristic North America.
* An example of this accent appears in the television sitcom ''
Frasier
''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons. It premiered on September 16, 1993, and ended on May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee (as Grub ...
'' used by the snobbish Crane brothers, who are played by
Kelsey Grammer
Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off '' Frasier'' (1993-2004) ...
and
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom '' Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Scree ...
.
*
David Ogden Stiers used the accent in portraying wealthy Bostonian
Major Charles Emerson Winchester III
This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel '' MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 film adaptation of the novel, and the televisio ...
on the TV series ''
M*A*S*H
''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker (auth ...
''.
*
Jim Backus and
Natalie Schafer portrayed
Thurston and
Lovey Howell, a millionaire couple on the 1960s TV series ''
Gilligan's Island''; they both employed the Locust Valley lockjaw accent.
* In the ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
'' film franchise, the character
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a fictional Character (arts), character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The character is the central antagonist of the Star Wars original trilogy, original trilogy and, as Anakin Skywalker, is one of the main protagonists in the ...
(voiced by
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...
) noticeably speaks with a deep bass tone and a Mid-Atlantic accent to suggest his position of high authority;
Princess Leia (played by
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983). She reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last ...
) and
Queen Amidala (played by
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...
) also use this accent when switching to a formal
speaking register in political situations.
* Many 20th-century
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
villains speak either with a British accent (e.g.,
Shere Khan,
Prince John, the
Horned King
''The Chronicles of Prydain'' is a pentalogy of children's high fantasy Bildungsroman novels written by American author Lloyd Alexander and published by Henry Holt and Company. The series includes: '' The Book of Three'' (1964), ''The Black ...
,
Scar
A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a n ...
, and
Frollo) or a Transatlantic accent (notably, the
Evil Queen
The Evil Queen, also called the Wicked Queen, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of "Snow White", a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm; similar stories exist worldwide. Other versions of the Queen appear in subsequen ...
from ''
Snow White
"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...
'',
Maleficent,
Cruella de Vil
Cruella de Vil is a fictional character in British author Dodie Smith's 1956 novel ''The Hundred and One Dalmatians''. A pampered and glamorous London heiress and fashion designer, she appears in Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Productions' Lis ...
,
Lady Tremaine,
Mother Gothel,
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wa ...
's
Professor Ratigan
''Basil of Baker Street'' is a series of children's novels written by Eve Titus and illustrated by Paul Galdone. The stories focus on the titular Basil of Baker Street and his personal biographer Doctor David Q. Dawson. Together they solve the ma ...
,
Jafar, and
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of " C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song " Santa ...
's
Yzma).
*
Mr. Burns,
Sideshow Bob, and
Cecil Terwilliger
The American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' contains a wide range of minor and supporting characters like co-workers, teachers, students, family friends, extended relatives, townspeople, local celebrities, and even animals. The writ ...
from ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' all speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, with the latter two characters voiced by the aforementioned Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce, respectively.
*In the animated television series ''
The Critic'',
Franklin Sherman (an affluent former governor of New York) and his wife
Eleanor Sherman both speak with pronounced Locust Valley Lockjaw accents.
*
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards ...
's vocal portrayal of ''
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book '' Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939 ...
'' villain
the Joker
The Joker is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson, and first appeared in the debut issue of the comic book ''Batman'' on April 25, 19 ...
adopts a highly theatrical Mid-Atlantic accent throughout the character's many animation and video game appearances.
*
Evan Peters employs a Mid-Atlantic accent as James Patrick March, a ghostly serial killer from the 1920s on ''
American Horror Story: Hotel'', as does
Mare Winningham
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than fou ...
as March's accomplice, Miss Evers.
*
Alexander Scourby was an American stage, film, and voice actor who continues to be well-known for his recording of the entire
King James Bible
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611, by sponsorship of K ...
completed in 1953. Scourby was often employed as a voice actor and narrator in advertisements and in media put out by the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, ...
. His well-refined mid-Atlantic accent was considered desirable for such roles.
Phonology
The Mid-Atlantic accent was carefully taught as a model of "correct" English in American elocution classes,
and it was also taught for use in the American theatre prior to the 1960s, after which it fell out of vogue. It is still taught to actors for use in playing historical characters.
A codified version of the Mid-Atlantic accent, American Theatre Standard, advocated by voice coaches like
Edith Skinner
Edith Skinner (née Warman; 22 September 1902 – 25 July 1981) was a vocal coach and a consultant to actors. Her book, ''Speak With Distinction'', has been reprinted several times, promoting actors' use of what she called " Good American Speech".
...
("Good Speech" as she called it), was once widely taught in acting schools of the early-mid 20th century. Skinner's code is listed below:
Vowels
*
''Trap–bath'' split: The Mid-Atlantic accent exhibits the split of RP. However, unlike in
RP, the vowel does not merge with the back vowel of . It is only lowered from to the open front vowel .
* No
/æ/ tensing
The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Bot ...
: While most dialects of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
have the vowel
tensed before nasals, the vowel is not particularly tensed in this environment in Mid-Atlantic accents.
*
''Father''–''bother'' variability: The "a" in ''father'' is unrounded, while the "bother" vowel may be rounded, like RP. Therefore, the ''father''-''bother'' distinction exists for some speakers, particularly those following American Theatre Standard in the vein of Skinner, but not necessarily in aristocratic speakers trained outside of the entertainment industry. Some speakers who clearly developed their accents before the Theatre Standard was codified in the 20th century, like Franklin Roosevelt, indeed show a merger.
[Urban, Mateusz (2021). "Franklin D. Roosevelt and the American Theatre Standard: The low vowels". Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2021(4), 227-245.] The ''bother'' vowel is also used in words like "watch" and "quad".
*No
''cot''–''caught'' merger: The vowels in ''cot'' and ''caught'' (the vowel and vowel, respectively) are distinguished, with the latter being pronounced
higher and longer than the former, like RP.
**
''Lot''–''cloth'' variability: Like contemporary RP, but unlike conservative RP and
General American
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or soc ...
, Theatre Standard promoted that the words in the
lexical set
A lexical set is a group of words that all fall under a single category based on a single shared phonological feature.
A phoneme is a basic unit of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another. Most commonly, following the work ...
use the vowel rather than the vowel.
However, speakers trained before the Theatre Standard, like Franklin Roosevelt, indeed show a - split, with the latter aligning to the vowel.
The vowel is also used before in words such as "all", "salt", and "malt".
*Lack of
''happy'' tensing: Like conservative RP, the vowel at the end of words such as "happy" (), "Charlie", "sherry", "coffee" is not tensed and is thus pronounced with the SIT vowel , rather than the SEAT vowel .
This also extends to "i", "y", and sometimes "e", "ie", and "ee" in other positions in words. For example, the SIT vowel is used in "cit''ie''s", "r''e''mark", "b''e''cause", "ser''i''ous", "var''i''able".
*No
Canadian raising: Like RP, the diphthongs and do not undergo Canadian raising and are pronounced as and , respectively, in all environments.
*Back , , : The vowels , , do not undergo advancing, being pronounced farther back as , and , respectively,
like in conservative and Northern varieties of American English; the latter two are also similar to conservative RP.
*No weak vowel merger: The vowels in "Ros''a''s" and "ros''e''s" are distinguished, with the former being pronounced as and the latter as either or . This is done in General American, as well, but in the Mid-Atlantic accent, the same distinction means the retention of historic in weak preconsonantal positions (as in RP), so "rabb''i''t" does not rhyme with "abb''o''t".
* Lack of
mergers before : Mergers before , which are typical of several accents, both British and North American, do not occur. For example, the vowels in "hull" and "bull" are kept distinct, the former as and the latter as .
Vowels before
In the Mid-Atlantic accent, the postvocalic is typically either
dropped or vocalized.
The vowels or do not undergo
R-coloring.
Linking R
Linking R and intrusive R are sandhi or ''linking'' phenomena involving the appearance of the rhotic consonant (which normally corresponds to the letter ) between two consecutive morphemes where it would not normally be pronounced. These phenom ...
is used, but Skinner openly disapproved of
intrusive R.
In Mid-Atlantic accents, intervocalic 's and
linking r
Linking R and intrusive R are sandhi or ''linking'' phenomena involving the appearance of the rhotic consonant (which normally corresponds to the letter ) between two consecutive morphemes where it would not normally be pronounced. These phenom ...
's undergo
liaison.
When preceded by a long vowel, the is vocalized to , commonly known as schwa, while the long vowel itself is laxed. However, when preceded by a short vowel, the is elided. Therefore, tense and lax vowels before are typically only distinguished by the presence/absence of . The following distinctions are examples of this concept:
*
''Mirror''–''nearer'' distinction: Hence ''mirror'' is , but ''nearer'' is .
*
''Mary''–''merry'' distinction:
Hence ''merry'' is , but ''Mary'' is . ''Mary'' also has an opener variant of than ''merry''.
:* "Marry" is pronounced with a different vowel altogether. See further in the bullet list below.
Other distinctions before include the following:
*
''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' distinction: Like in
RP,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, and
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, ''marry'' is pronounced as , which is distinct from the vowels of both ''Mary'' and ''merry''.
*
''Cure''–''force''–''north'' distinction: The vowels in ''cure'' and ''force–north'' are distinguished, the former being realized as and the latter as , like conservative RP.
* ''Thought''–''force'' distinction: The vowels in ''thought'' and ''force''–''north'' are distinguished, the former being realized as and the latter as . Hence ''saw'' , ''sauce'' but ''sore/sour'' , ''source'' . This does not agree with ''horse'' and for ''hoarse'' in traditional Received Pronunciation, but it keeps the distinction observed in rhotic accents like General American.
* ''Hurry–furry'' distinction: The vowels in ''hurry'' and ''furry'' are distinguished, with the former pronounced as and the latter pronounced as .()
*''Palm''–''start'' distinction: The vowels in ''palm'' and ''start'' are distinguished, the former being realized as and the latter as . Hence ''spa'' , ''alms'' but ''spar'' , ''arms'' . This keeps the distinction observed in rhotic accents like General American, but not made in RP.
* Distinction of and .
Consonants
A table containing the
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced ...
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
s is given below:
* ''Wine-whine'' distinction: The Mid-Atlantic accent resists the modern
''wine''–''whine'' merger: The consonants spelled ''w'' and ''wh'' are pronounced differently; words spelled with ''wh'' are pronounced as "hw" (). The distinction is a feature found in conservative
RP and
New England English
New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the " Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features st ...
, as well as in some Canadian and Southern US accents, and sporadically across the Mid-West and the West. However, it is rarely heard in contemporary
RP.
* Pronunciation of : can be pronounced as a glottal stop (transcribed as: ) only if it is followed by a consonant in either the same word or the following word. Thus ''grateful'' can be pronounced . However, Skinner advocated for avoiding the glottal stop altogether; she also advocated for a "lightly aspirated" in place of the
flapped /t/ typical of American speakers whenever appears between vowels. Likewise, ''winter'' is not pronounced similarly or identically to ''winner'' , as it is by some Americans. Skinner generally promotes articulating with some degree of aspiration in all contexts.
* Resistance to
yod-dropping
The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters.
H-cluster reductions
The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, i ...
: Dropping of only occurs after , and optionally after and .
Mid-Atlantic also lacks palatalization, so ''duke'' is pronounced () rather than (). All of this mirrors (conservative) RP.
* A "dark L" sound, , may be heard for in all contexts, more like General American than RP. However, Skinner explicitly discouraged darker articulations.
* A
tapped articulation of post-consonantal or inter-vocalic is heard in many of the earliest recordings of Mid-Atlantic accents, likely for dramatic effect in
public speaking
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech delive ...
. Skinner, however, disapproved of its usage.
Other pronunciation patterns
* Skinner approved of the -day suffix (e.g. Monday; yesterday) being pronounced as or as ("i" as in "did"), without any particular preference.
* Instead of the unrounded vowel, the rounded vowel () vowel is used in ''everybody, nobody, somebody, and anybody''; and when stressed, ''was, of, from, what''. This is more like RP than General American. At times, the vowels in the latter words can be reduced to a schwa.
However, "because" uses the vowel.
* Polysyllabic words ending in ''-ary, -ery, -ory, -mony, -ative, -bury, -berry'': The first vowel in the endings -ary, -ery, -ory, -mony, -ative, -bury, and -berry are all pronounced as , commonly known as a schwa. Thus inventory is pronounced , rather than General American or rapidly-spoken RP .
See also
*
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
* ''
Atlas of North American English
''The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change'' (abbreviated ANAE; formerly, the ''Phonological Atlas of North America'') is an overview of the pronunciation patterns (accents) in all the major regional dial ...
''
*
Elocution
Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone as well as the idea and practice of effective speech and its forms. It stems from the idea that while communication is symbolic, sounds are final and compelli ...
*
General American English
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or soc ...
*
Linguistic prescription
*
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
Explanatory notes
Citations
General bibliography
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
Robert MacNeil
Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, OC (born January 19, 1931) is a Canadian-American journalist and writer. He is a retired television news anchor who partnered with Jim Lehrer to create '' The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' in 1975.
Early life and ...
and William Cran, ''
Do You Speak American?'' (Talese, 2004). .
*
External links
Early radio episodesof ''
The Guiding Light
''Guiding Light'' (known as ''The Guiding Light'' before 1975) is an American radio and television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the third longest-running drama in television in American history. ''Guiding Light'' a ...
'' featuring Mid-Atlantic English
"Puhfect Together" an episode of ''
The Brian Lehrer Show'' in which
William Labov
William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...
is interviewed about the accent
"A Dying Race" a segment of the 1986 documentary film ''
American Tongues
''American Tongues'' is a 1988 sociolinguistic documentary examining American English dialects and accents and perceptions thereof.
It was produced and directed by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker. The Center for New American Media won a Peab ...
'', in which two Boston Brahmin academics talk about their accents while sitting in the
Boston Athenæum
The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mid-Atlantic English
Dialect levelling
Standard English
Upper class culture in the United States