I have often wondered why the difference between the old recordings and the way we talk now. This explains it. Partly. It's not just the slight differences in pronunciation, but the inflections are completely different, too. Compared to today's speech, this old movie/radio speech sounds really stilted.
I too think everyone talked like that back then. It is farfetched to pretend that all these people learned so well an accent all at the same time. I come from a spanish speaking country and there too, people talked weird spanish in old movies. I was just the way peopel talked at that time
@@bluebird5173 Most old radios and audio recording equipment could only register and play back mid-to-high pitched sound. Something low and bassy wouldn't get through.
The "see" wasn't Trans/Mid Atlantic. That was more in the gangster pictues. Edward G. Robinson and the like. "Myeah! Not gonna get me, copper! Myeah, see???" th-cam.com/video/Ed1ofgp0Y9I/w-d-xo.html Then there was the "Sayyyy! What's the big idea!" (also not Trans/Mid Atlantic). th-cam.com/video/TV1tbKtboaw/w-d-xo.html There was more than one prevalent accent.
I remember seeing bloopers from a movie in the 30s. An actor messed up his lines, so he laughed and spoke to everyone in what sounded like our modern American accent. Watching that clip blew my freaking mind.
+Commander_Ninja Oh dear God please remember the name of that clip!! I too also thought everyone spoke like that until watching this video. I kind of feel cheated :-/
This has literally bothered me since I was in middle school. It was straight up disturbing. I thought it was just how old microphones made everyone sound and I just couldn't pick it out irl.
Richard Webb i think it was meant as emphasis on the fact that they had been bothered by the accent since they were in middle school (u can infer that it was probably a long time ago)
Another reason why they sounded strange is because, back then, movie actors were also stage actors. You have to project your voice, and exaggerate pronunciation to even be understood. also I remember hearing my dad being interviewed on an AM news show back in the mid 60''s... I was shocked how different his voice sounded. Tinny nasal sounding voice... nothing like his normal voice.
Audio quality obviously wasn't as clear back then. Even in Australia people being interviewed back then sounded a lot more upper class than they would now.
I used to record my voice on our old early-'70s Panasonic home cassette recorder, and the playback sounded nothing like what had gone in. Too little bass response, just as he said.
50zcarsman that’s because what you hear coming out of your mouth sounds nothing like what you’re actually projecting. Partially due to the recording equipment, but mostly due to hearing how you sound from a different perspective.
I remember when my Grandparents (born late 1800's, early 1900's) would sometimes use the word "why" at the beginning of a sentence. For example, if I asked them what it was like in the old days on the farm they might say, "why, we didn't have electricity and used wagons". I noticed this in old movies from the 1930's and 1940's as well.
@@andrewstamford1988 But “actually” has always been used specifically as a *correction*. Nobody ever answered “What was it like in your day, Grandpa?” with “Actually we used horse-drawn wagons.”
I don't think that was intentional. I believe she once commented that when she tried to sound serious, she inadvertently sounded somewhat british. This was, I believe, a happy accident as the Empire was portrayed with British accents, so British was the "accent of government". The idea was that the Empire were Nazis (and, by extension, European) and the rebels were American.
It was a result of Carrie's amateurishness as an actress. Carrie only used that accent during the scene with Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing (a Britishman). Cushing had a posh British accent, so Carrie, unintentionally or not, adopted a similar accent. Carrie doesn't use that accent during any other scene in the film.
Mid-Atlantic is actually still commonly requested for Engiish voice-overs in Europe. Clients think that by using an accent that can’t be located, they can use one version of their TVC or Internet ad in all English-speaking markets and don’t have to record separate versions for UK, US, AUS etc. It usually results in a voice-over that sounds weird for all markets, but clients still keep demanding it, and voice talent offer it.
To give old Hollywood credit, you could understand every word they are saying. Something you can't say about the naturalistic style of acting today which often devolves to mumbling and speaking too softly.
Yes damn right and i could not agree more, the way they speak today is nothing short of ATROCIOUS! and totally impossible to understand and unintelligible, probably down to extreme laziness of pronunciation
This is true, one of the reasons I can’t watch movies without subtitles. They always mumble the important details. I’m always asking “what did he say?”
richardtheconquerer I've lived in various places. And where I live now has a speech/style speed which is so slow and unnessacarily over pronounced on each syllable. Just about incorrectly with enunciation too, by comparison to where I'm originally from. Good examples are talk shows. People where I'm originally from speak fast and cover ground comprehensively 5x ? Or so. I think speech styles depends on the region very greatly. I also think Hollywood taught their a string actors how to and how not to talk to correct their individual styles for film sake. It was a snooty thing.
One thing my Dad has always complained about these old movies is that they usually seem to speak so fast it's hard to keep track. And now it's gone the other way, where a lot of movies - usually dramas - will have the dialogue be so low and soft he can barely hear them.
As a none native English speaker I thought this was a problem with my hearing, I thought it was my problem, good to know that native speakers struggle with this too
Kelsey Grammar (or however you spell his name) is easily understood. When it comes to the English language isn't that why we have language in the first place? So we can communicate? Other commenters found it pretentious. I don't understand that rationale.
And Fraisier's brother Miles, also of the college educated professional class. Yet actor John Mahoney, who played their retired policeman father Martin Crane, spoke a more plebeian American English.
Maybe the speed or the accent was acted, but I never have had trouble understanding old movies because they were recorded in a way that was clearer and sharper than many films or television series now, which are so muddy and bass heavy. I also like films from the 30s and 40s, among other reasons, because they remind me of my late father, born in 1912. He didn’t speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, or especially fast, but he did use a lot of slang and expressions that I hear in 30s movies. It’s a delight whenever I hear a character in an old film suddenly use slang I remember from my dad.
BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks ...Explained the man with the horrible, nasal voice. Not to mention that Cary Grant is English, playing a Chicago newspaper editor in 'His Girl Friday'. Uh, it's called being a professional. And 'His Girl Friday' is an adaptation of the stage play, 'The Front Page'.
Bugs Bunny had the classic Queens accent, which is rather similar, although I won’t insult your distinguished Brooklyn brethren by saying it’s the same! Rodney Dangerfield is an iconic example.
@Scott Whatever I think you may be wrong. There is nothing artificial about getting your point across as eloquent as possible. You have your opinion and I have mine. Conveying a message through speech is not pretentious at all. It is nothing more than a way to properly communicate with one another. You dig?
@Ronove Yes, Frasier and even more IMO Niles were certainly pretentious. Artificial, no. If you grew up with the shows, you would know that is how audiences view the show now. I am guessing your point is that future generations might view Frasier in the same way, as an antiquated speech pattern. The problem is that real people didn't speak the way that Cary delivered lines.
@@paulh7589 "Eloquent" and "proper"? Sounds pretty superficial and dumb to me, as though one were compensating for a lack of substance. Speak plainly if you have anything that is truly worth saying and listening to, and do so with a measure of common humility rather than putting on airs and a transparently fake sense of superiority.
While at university, a linguistics professor stopped me in a corridor after hearing me speak to one of my peers. She asked me where I was from originally. I said, "Texas." She asked me if I got that a lot-being asked where I was from. I admitted that it was a common occurrence. She then asked if I was familiar with MidAtlantic speech pattern. I was not. She ended up making a recording of me to analyse and to use as an example. She said I was the youngest person-I was in my twenties at the time, she'd ever heard with this particular speech pattern and who used it naturally as their way of speaking. I happen to have had a voicemail message from my grandmother and played it and the professor smiled and said she realised that I was raised in a household where this was the actual way of speaking and not an affectation. It was all very good fun learning about all that. My friends accuse me of sounding like Stewie on family guy or a soft Virginian in a prewar picture.
PickelJars ForHillary lol. Darling, you're a jaded tragic old pale fart who risked their life for a country that doesn't give two fucks about you and now you're a cowardly bigot who trolls the internet. You wish.
Shampoo A Buffalo Did you watch the video? The language wasn't used widely, only for radio and television, so it was unique, and taught for these specific things
I think the first time I "noticed" this accent was as a kid watching Father Knows Best. Jane Wyatt, who played Margaret Anderson, always spoke with a Mid-Atlantic accent.
His Girl Friday is a great movie. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were so good together. Amazing writing where the dialog is concerned. The very definition of "witty repartee". So many fantastic movies were made in the Forties.
WOW! You managed to insult BOTH, this man AND Rick. Rick KNOWS people (Las Vegas Mafia)who can find you and fricassee you out in the desert, Mr. Chicken Breast ~~~{*!*}~~~
(yawn) How boring. Everyone sounds the same in those old times. I'm glad people mostly speak with their natural voices in films today. It brings more charm and immersion to the characters instead of making me think I'm listening to the news or an auction.
I had always had the theory that it was a bunch of silent movie actors who went to the same dialect coach when switching to talkies. Thank you for the information! My son and I crack each other up holding conversations in this dialect.
Last year, my drama teacher had several of us learn the Trans-Atlantic accent because it helps us with our articulation. We don't drop our R's, though. I'll admit, sometimes we did sound a bit funny, but those of us that bothered to learn it then are the most articulate actors in the school now.
If someone walked into my store talking like Cary Grant I would figure that they were having an aneurysm. I can't imagine anyone ever talking like Cary Grant LOL
Cary, Cary, Cary was born in England in 1904. He came to America in 1920, thence mostly lived in California. Similarly Bob Hope and Elizabeth Taylor, born in England but early emigrants to America, lost most of their English accents, but long sounded Midatlantic.
This kind of dialect can be heard on the sitcom “Frasier.” Although the brother characters, Frasier and Niels, were born and raised in Seattle, they obtained their trans-Atlantic accents from the mother and during their years in eastern universities. Next time if you watch Frasier listen intently to him when he’s talking to his father about something really serious - he loses his pompous accent and speaks with a soft “normal” American dialect. It’s fun to catch those moments when he’s being sincere and not so showy. I love that sitcom!👍
This was a terrific analysis. As a long-time movie buff, I was certainly aware of the accent and this way of speaking in older movies, but never understood why they spoke that way, since it wasn't British or mainstream American. The presenter would make a fantastic vocal coach for actors playing in appropriate period pieces.
I concur,wholeheartedly! Thinking now of so many old films which subtly illustrated the proper acceptable speech stylings, the host mentioned, in comparison to outlandish stylings of, say. A Brrt Lahr, Bogie, Leo Gorcey, and his troupe, etc.
If you were acting as an everyday person in a movie about this era would you actually need to learn the accent? If it was learned in some schools but not spoken in normal speech.
It's not radio that gave Mid-Atlantic accent a technical advantage -- it was the early acoustically recorded phonograph records and cylinders, in which performers had to shout into a cone that directly vibrated the needle capturing the sound. And before the advent of amplification, actors also had to shout to be heard in the back rows of the theater. This style of speaking carried over for a while even after microphones and amplifiers were invented; FDR's "nothing to fear but fear itself" speech is a great example of a Mid-Atlantic accent!
Interesting. If you think about it, a similar thing is happening today: SMS speak, originally due to the technical limitations of typing a long text message on a phone, now self sustaining as fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if in the 2080s people look back and assume that millenials were just poorly educated.
Daniel Natal it was adopted for the british market because the american accent was considered horrible. But it was invented in Boston between 1890s and early 1900s for business and with the same porpose, to sound fancy for the Britishers.
MrSwanley in fact millenials are poorly educated but social media and iphones dont have anything to do with this. In the past was easier to study in the USA and in most states nowdays is just a privilege. Other generations with an average job could afford an education.
That's why it's called the "transatlantic accent". It's supposed to sound like something in between American and English, equally understandable to Yanks and Brits.
+marzolian +marzolian Try to avoid "correcting" people until you are in full possession of the facts. Mid-Atlantic accent and Transatlantic accent are interchangeable, and generally refer to the same accent. I prefer Transatlantic because Mid-Atlantic accent can easily be confused with the Mid-Atlantic English dialect. Mid-Atlantic English basically basically refers to the Philly accent, which is completely different. People who live in the South Jersey, Western Pennsylvania, the Delaware valley, or speak with a Philly or Baltimore accent are using the Mid-Atlantic dialect. By the way, nobody lives in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (unless they are on the island of Bermuda). Hollywood actors did however employ transatlantic travel since many of them come from England and other parts of Europe.
+BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks One more note, the Mid Atlantic Accent was still in use around the 60s and 70s because of dubs done for Kung Fu and Kaiju films that were recorded in Hong Kong. These dubs were known as the International Dubs
+mastersnet18 Fundamentally, it's the Cambridge accent common in the areas around Suffolk. The vowels have flattened some in England, but the resemblance to the Thurston Howell Nob Hill accent is still very strong. The reason the Transatlantic accent sounds odd today is because most people on TV and radio speak with a Midland accent brought over by settlers from Birmingham and the British Midlands to Pennsylvania. It was carried by settlers across the lower Great Lakes region and down the California coast, so it has become one of the most widely spread dialects.
No. The Kennedys moved to New York when Jack was 10, and his brothers were younger still. The so-called 'Kennedy accent' has nothing to do with Boston. They were all sent to private schools where they did pick up a Yankee accent, but not Brahmin.
Angel Deville there's a TH-cam video featuring Henry Cabot Lodge delivering a speech to Congress in the 1920s which is a great example of Boston Brahmin as it existed before mass media.
I met a Belgian tour guide in France who spoke perfect American English. I thought he was a native American. His accent sounded a lot like a transatlantic accent and once he told us how he learned English (by watching TV as a kid) it all made sense. It was so interesting to hear him speak.
Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, James Earl Jones (Darth Vader/Mufasa), and to a degree, Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speak in Transatlantic/Mid-Atlantic voices.
In all the political coverage up to now, of the Democrats' race for the nomination prior to the 2020 US presidential election, I don't think I've even heard of Marianne Williamson (assuming she's a Democrat). I guess I haven't been paying close attention, LOL
I think it is worth noting, that Mid-Atlantic Speech discussed in this video is different from Mid-Atlantic American English, which is a common dialect spoken today in places along the Mid-Atlantic Region, such as Philadelphia, Trenton, Wilmington, Baltimore. It is notable for being a rhotic dialect, having no cot-caught merger, and having some unique lexical diffusion in regards to /æ/ tensing. I realize, as I write this, that I'm being a nerd and I probably sound really pretentious. What can I say? I have a fondness for linguistics. Great video!
+terminaldeity I grew up in Tampa in the 60s, I think we are the last generation to have distinct regional dialects, with the event of white flight everything became more homogenized, my spanish, cuban and italian neighbors that were replaced with midwesterners and southerners that destroyed their home communities and left a path of destruction in their wake. I really don't hear anyone under 40 speaking in dialects anymore, they all speak overly enunciated wide mouth English like this guy, does that have a name?
Everyone speaks a dialect. That's not even a question, it's just a fact of language. What you may be noticing though, is who is using the regional dialects. William Labov did studies on the social hierarchies of dialects, and while earlier in the 20th century, people of mid-upper class were more likely to have distinguishable dialects, but by the 60s and beyond, people of low-middle class were more likely to have the notable features of a regional dialect. Additionally, features of any given dialect are prone to change over time, so it may not be the same dialect that you grew up with, but like I said before, everyone speaks a dialect. I really don't know what dialect you're referring to by describing it as overly enunciated and wide-mouth. I need an example.
The more I watch classic films the more I talk like them~ So charming, and the way they expressed themselves using high class words is really enchanting and filled with confidence. Classic films changed me drastically...
The upper class New England/NY Tri-State accent is authentic. It wasn’t created by Skinner. Do the knowledge. Also, maybe travel to these regions. You’ll learn from the older ppl that it wasn’t something created by films but something that influenced films.
When you listen to the (lovely) Keanu Reeves trying an English accent, you understand why mid-Atlantic accents were useful; they were adaptable. One of my favourite actors in terms of diction was George Zucco (not sure if he was English or American) who graced so many horror films in the '40s. I'm not sure I could place his accent, but I understood every word - and he didn't sound affected, or "weird".
I always wondered why people said "Why" at the start of a sentence when they weren't asking a question. Especially in old American movies and old time radio. For example: "Why I oughta punch you in the nose." Or "Why thank you."
I just started listening to The History Of English Podcast and I didn't realize how fascinating and complex the way we pronounce things is! Loved this episode so much! Thank you!
My grandparents grew up in a time where an Australian version of mid-Atlantic was popular. They subsequently passed the accent onto my parents and my parents me. At high school my friends would say I sound like "an old black and white movie character, jimmy stewart etc". Only much later did I find my friends were more accurate than I realised. My grandmother, like stewie griffin always pronounces the H in wh words (like hhwhom, hwhat, hwhy, and maybe even cool hwhip).
It's more akin to England's ' Received Pronunciation ' accent. But I do get the similarities, like non-rhoticiy, hard ' t ', and similar vowels. But those are features shared with other accents too! For example, non-rhoticity can be found in many NYC accents, certain southern accents ( mainly those of Louisiana and the tidewater region of Virginia, where r-dropping can even be found among younger natives ), most of east New England ( most notably, Boston ), Australia, New Zealand and parts of India, as well as most of the UK. Also, NYC accents, Australian accents and most varieties of British English have quite similar vowels, most notably the vowels in words like ' all ' ' caught ' and ' awning '. In these varieties of English, ' caught ' is pronounced like ' court\ quart ' ' tall ' is pronounced like ' tool ' etc.
Cocaine wasn’t a big social drug in this country at that time. It’s still used medically to this day but that isn’t why it’s ever been popular. The ‘coked out businessman’ stereotype came around in the 1980s, after cocaine became popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s as a party drug. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, amphetamines were hugely popular (WWII made a lot of soldiers familiar with that drug) and I’ve definitely seen some evidence of its usage in some people’s performances like Johnny Carson.
Rather poor attempt. And "I'll shant" doesn't make sense, since "shan't' is the contraction of shall not: so you're saying with two contactions in a row - "I will shall not sleep another night".
Very interesting quick overview there, loved it. I have to say that, as much as I prefer genuine regional accents, the way that some American TV actors speak is so frustratingly poor, and mumbled, perhaps their speaking skills would benefit from learning the Mid-Atlantic accent.
Ditto for British actors speaking thick, nearly unintelligible substandard accents such as Cockney (and its descendant Australian) and Liverpudlian. When my father in 1964 saw the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, he after said, "was that English? I didn't understand a word!" Ironically his mother, born in east Scotland but emigrant to America at 5, was by American kids teased for her brogue, so she and her sisters made a point of developing the Midatlantic accent she spoke by my birth. My father and his siblings spoke the more American accent of their greater NYC area.
Mark Simpson he probably learned the trans Atlantic accent later. Like he said in the video for aristocrats socialites actors etc it was the “accent of choice”
@@dylancaylor1386 My point is that I don't think he did have a trans Atlantic accent. I think he sounded like an Englishman who spent a lot of time in the States.
@@simpsonmark I was thinking the same thing he was simply an Englishman who was losing his accent but then naturally he would have been mistaken for someone who was speaking Mid-Atlantic English... My supervisor at my job was born and raised in England but he has been living in the states since 1985 and his accent has declined over the years although it seems to get a reboot when he goes back to England for the summer... Mel Gibson is another good example... Although I think he can control the range of Aussie that he lets out you can tell a clear distinction of how well he controls it when he played The Patriot versus when he played in the movie The Beaver...
great video! as a linguist, though, I have two terminological qualms: you say this accent is "acquired" not "naturally evolved," but "acquired" in linguistics is nearly synonymous with "naturally acquired," i.e. naturally evolved! second, the sound you make in the middle of "rider" or "writer" is called a "flap" and not a "d", as you don't close up the articulation spot and release the air in a burst, like with t,d, k, g, p, or b, but rather flap the tongue quickly on the ridge of your mouth.
Very good review! :-D Loved the fact that you swapped the accents yourself too. I love the Transatlantic accent. It is largely a good combination of American sweetness and classic stiff upper lip British. Oliver Hardy (Laurel and Hardy) used to speak with a Transatlantic accent. :-)
It's not just the accent that plays a roll in this. The microphones back then heavily distorted people's voices. I saw a clip--out of a documentary--of some president speaking, and he sounded like any other person who one would see in some 1950s film... but as soon as a different clip of him was played (in which a better microphone was used), he sounded like a normal person. Sure, people used this odd accent and different demeanor, but I realized that the microphones are what make everything sound so weird.
+maccollectorZ (Commenting Account) yes the recording equivalent of the time imparted a particular sound to everyone - the same technology that made recordings of billie holiday et al sound like they did......
Donald Quan Yeah - I'd really like to hear a recording of someone today using a 1950s microphone; it would be interesting to compare it to recordings that are actually from the 1950s.
maccollectorZ (Commenting Account) Depending on type and quality, 1950s mikes CAN sound like modern ones (cheap Crystal types do change and clip voices, But that was true in 1975 as it was in 1955). Older recording equipment (and media used on it) actually had a bigger influence on the sound than the mikes. Transcription disk recordings (and commercially produced 78Rpm records) lack not only the frequency response,but the dynamic range of later magnetic tape or LP ( microgroove) records. Both of those being a largely post WW2 development. I have tapes recorded my relatives in the mid 1950s (open reel tape) that sound no different than the same people on 1970s cassette tape. If you're talking 1948 or earlier, yeah, there's a difference. (although some 1940s wire recorders are pretty accurate, compared to acetate disks.).
So, perhaps, it's different once an older recording has become digitized? Because, it strikes me as odd that some old records - even if they are clear and not particularly muffled - make a person's voice sound generic and unnatural.
I have worked with the elderly for over 10 Years and yes it is true- a lot with English or Caucasian backgrounds sound like this. It became a real accent- even if the first speakers of this accent were imitated on Radio. The folks that sound like this are in their 80s and 90s now!
The thing with the radio is propably the reason why Hitler and german broadcasters spoke the way they did. You had to articulate very clearly to be understood through the bad sound systems at the time.
I believe that this accent had much longer use than 30s -- 40s. I recently rewatched Lawrence of Arabia, and that type of speech is strong there. And that's 1962. Perhaps due to the ammount of british actors, I dunno.
The Mid-Atlantic accent fell out of favor during the years after World War Two, but some New Englanders and New Yorkers continued to talk with accents similuh to the Mid-Atlantic accent until about the early 1960s, after which they began using accents akin to the modern New England and New York City accents, which retain at least some non-rhoticity and quasi British vowels to this day.
It was standard at RADA, The Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts, often considered the best acting school in the UK or maybe even the World, at least through the 1960's. ...In fact, it may still be.
Never left my country down once till I was 15 only watching movies of America. First state I was in was South Carolina. I shit myself on arrival thinking I was in the wrong country
FDR did not speak with a mid Atlantic or transatlantic accent. His was Locust Valley lockjaw. The speech of New York aristocracy. Compare his speech to that of someone like William H Buckley who did have a mid Atlantic accent and you will see the difference.
The Mid-Atlantic accent was a hammed up and or faked version of several real accents of the American northeast region and the region of England in and around London. Most people never talked with the Mid-Atlantic accent, it was mainly affected for broadcast purposes as the semiofficial standard accent of the USA.
If you notice they also spoke very fast because film was expensive. Get those lines out quick and don't make mistakes or you hurt the budget
Also the actors talk very loudly, nearly shouting. That is because they did not have good microphones.
I always noticed that too, it was like they were just waiting for someone to finish their line so they could say theirs.
Wow, I swear I noticed that on Citizen Kane!! The talk very fast, to the point that it's annoying! (For me)
To compare with today's films, we tend to drag out scenes for extra dramatic effect. Not really what one would actually do in a certain situation.
And yet there were movies like Birth of a Nation which came out in 1915 and was 3 hours long lol
I just thought everyone talked like that back then.
Meta Mystery dude I've been looking into conspiracy theories lately so I don't even know lol
I have often wondered why the difference between the old recordings and the way we talk now. This explains it. Partly. It's not just the slight differences in pronunciation, but the inflections are completely different, too. Compared to today's speech, this old movie/radio speech sounds really stilted.
Conspiracies or conspiracy theories?
soundofone isn't it both the same thing?
I too think everyone talked like that back then. It is farfetched to pretend that all these people learned so well an accent all at the same time. I come from a spanish speaking country and there too, people talked weird spanish in old movies. I was just the way peopel talked at that time
You look like you're about to go bowling
Tony Dupre he looks like hes in flavortown
Tony Dupre IM DYING THIS IS T H E BEST COMMENT
He looks just plain awful!
obviously you're not a golfer
Lol u r right
"Heck yeah, drop that bass!"
1940's radio: *silence*
This is the funniest comment in this comments section. Underrated
I don't get it. Can someone explain the joke to my dumb ass?
@@bluebird5173 Most old radios and audio recording equipment could only register and play back mid-to-high pitched sound. Something low and bassy wouldn't get through.
@@CytotoxinK Thank you for the explanation!
This is UNDERRATED 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
The trick to nailing this accent is to say "see" after, well everything
The see trick see to see nailing see this see accent see is see to see say see "see" see after see well, see everything see
I see see
That sounds swell.
The "see" wasn't Trans/Mid Atlantic. That was more in the gangster pictues. Edward G. Robinson and the like. "Myeah! Not gonna get me, copper! Myeah, see???"
th-cam.com/video/Ed1ofgp0Y9I/w-d-xo.html
Then there was the "Sayyyy! What's the big idea!" (also not Trans/Mid Atlantic).
th-cam.com/video/TV1tbKtboaw/w-d-xo.html
There was more than one prevalent accent.
Who Dat Dude? S O U K A
My husband talks like this all the time, just to entertain himself!
Sometimes, I break out into "old timey movie character voice"
It's also just to entertain myself lol
Ah, yes. I, myself am straining at the bit to drive to Monte Cahlow.
Does he have a TH-cam channel?
Mine does, too. “Now, see here, you mug!”
You lucky sonovagun!
I remember seeing bloopers from a movie in the 30s. An actor messed up his lines, so he laughed and spoke to everyone in what sounded like our modern American accent. Watching that clip blew my freaking mind.
+Commander_Ninja Oh dear God please remember the name of that clip!! I too also thought everyone spoke like that until watching this video. I kind of feel cheated :-/
Clint Flicker That's the one! I was racking my brain trying to remember. Thanks!
Commander_Ninja i spent the last 20 minutes going through cracked videos and nope. can't find it. AHHHHH!!
Clint Flicker 6 Historic Events That Were Nothing Like You Picture Them - The Spit Take. Its up on youtube and its at about the 5:30 mark
Commander_Ninja boom!!
This has literally bothered me since I was in middle school. It was straight up disturbing. I thought it was just how old microphones made everyone sound and I just couldn't pick it out irl.
Prometheus - what is the purpose of 'literally' in your sentence?
@@richardwebb2348 the age-old tradition of dramatic effect, friend. It's for emphasis.
Prometheus Is Cold i don’t see how it’s disturbing though..
@@sixelakeller5377 I lost a lot of mental energy thinking too hard about it. that counts as disturbing to me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Richard Webb i think it was meant as emphasis on the fact that they had been bothered by the accent since they were in middle school (u can infer that it was probably a long time ago)
People in old movies don't talk weird, people NOW talk weird see?!
Adam Charlton
😂😂😂 WHATAYA TALKING ABOUT??WHY I OUGHTA...😂😂
Hell fucking yeah mfkers be talkin hella weird now ya heard?
People now are weird!
Msr Coldrooms Adam Charlton Say, you’re a couple o wise guys huh?!
Lol!
Hit that 't' like it stole something
+Phoenix Wiseman Ben Bowlin wrote this script, and we suspect that line will go down in history as the most Bowlin of all Bowlin writing.
Hehe.
Stop it! Stop it!!!
I'm going to organise a worldwide protest movement in support of tolerance and non-violence toward the letter 'T'...
I'm gonna hit that T and A
*T-pose intensifies*
Another reason why they sounded strange is because, back then, movie actors were also stage actors. You have to project your voice, and exaggerate pronunciation to even be understood.
also
I remember hearing my dad being interviewed on an AM news show back in the mid 60''s... I was shocked how different his voice sounded. Tinny nasal sounding voice... nothing like his normal voice.
They could use a lesson in speaking clearly today. I find some of the actors in new movies hard to understand.
Audio quality obviously wasn't as clear back then. Even in Australia people being interviewed back then sounded a lot more upper class than they would now.
I used to record my voice on our old early-'70s Panasonic home cassette recorder, and the playback sounded nothing like what had gone in. Too little bass response, just as he said.
Back then, movie actors were actors instead of pop stars and supermodels.
50zcarsman that’s because what you hear coming out of your mouth sounds nothing like what you’re actually projecting. Partially due to the recording equipment, but mostly due to hearing how you sound from a different perspective.
I remember when my Grandparents (born late 1800's, early 1900's) would sometimes use the word "why" at the beginning of a sentence. For example, if I asked them what it was like in the old days on the farm they might say, "why, we didn't have electricity and used wagons". I noticed this in old movies from the 1930's and 1940's as well.
Alastor: Why, I haven't been that entertained since the stock market crash of 1929!
I haven't thought about that in a long time. My grandparents did the same thing.
Now it's likely to be "so" or "like" or the most irritating of all... "actually".
“Why,” “you know” “like” were really common but just in different generations
@@andrewstamford1988 But “actually” has always been used specifically as a *correction*. Nobody ever answered “What was it like in your day, Grandpa?” with “Actually we used horse-drawn wagons.”
*NOW, YOU LISTEN HERE SEEEEEE!*
Magnus McCloud *I'M GONNA GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS CASE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT*
"WHYYYY, I OUGHTA... !!!".
Say! Pipe down, Sister!
Magnus McCloud *Hey, pal! Ya wanna me ta introduce ya to my Tommy!? Shut yer trap!*
I once shot an elephant in my pajamas.
How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
2108 ： Why Do People In Old Internet Talk Weird?
More like "why were people on Old Internet such poor spellers and so poor at grammar"
@ilovebeinagirl Your reply is funny, because it lacks grammar and punctuation.
epic lowkey savage comment
2108: what did 'savage' and 'lowkey' imply in the old internet?
Because OP is a bunch of twigs, obviously.
Carrie Fisher used the accent as Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie.
I think this is a trope in a lot of sci fi and fantasy. Kind of a half-way effort in a middle earth olde English type accent.
@ And perhaps channeling the accent of characters in the 1930s Flash Gordon film(s).
Yes... but only a little. As Carrie herself humorously observed, she wafted in and out of it.
I don't think that was intentional. I believe she once commented that when she tried to sound serious, she inadvertently sounded somewhat british.
This was, I believe, a happy accident as the Empire was portrayed with British accents, so British was the "accent of government". The idea was that the Empire were Nazis (and, by extension, European) and the rebels were American.
It was a result of Carrie's amateurishness as an actress. Carrie only used that accent during the scene with Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing (a Britishman). Cushing had a posh British accent, so Carrie, unintentionally or not, adopted a similar accent. Carrie doesn't use that accent during any other scene in the film.
Mid-Atlantic is actually still commonly requested for Engiish voice-overs in Europe. Clients think that by using an accent that can’t be located, they can use one version of their TVC or Internet ad in all English-speaking markets and don’t have to record separate versions for UK, US, AUS etc. It usually results in a voice-over that sounds weird for all markets, but clients still keep demanding it, and voice talent offer it.
To give old Hollywood credit, you could understand every word they are saying. Something you can't say about the naturalistic style of acting today which often devolves to mumbling and speaking too softly.
I call it “whisper talking”. Edward James Olmos in virtually any roll has the same low monotone delivery.
Yes damn right and i could not agree more, the way they speak today is nothing short of ATROCIOUS! and totally impossible to understand and unintelligible, probably down to extreme laziness of pronunciation
Good actors make themselves heard, no matter what era it is.
This is true, one of the reasons I can’t watch movies without subtitles. They always mumble the important details. I’m always asking “what did he say?”
Nah you’re all just old and need hearing aids
I wish we still spoke like this, it has a certain charm and class to it.
Me Again I dont
I agree it sounds so pretty
Me Again It sounds very intelect.
I enjoy it myself. It is enticing.
You wouls be desensitized to it and it would lose charm
This still doesn't explain why they spoke 100 miles an hour
richardtheconquerer the actual cocaine in coca cola
Playback at 75% speed to hear the original speed. Old film was 24 frames per second, but we play them today at 30 fps.
richardtheconquerer I've lived in various places. And where I live now has a speech/style speed which is so slow and unnessacarily over pronounced on each syllable. Just about incorrectly with enunciation too, by comparison to where I'm originally from. Good examples are talk shows. People where I'm originally from speak fast and cover ground comprehensively
5x ? Or so. I think speech styles depends on the region very greatly. I also think Hollywood taught their a string actors how to and how not to talk to correct their individual styles for film sake. It was a snooty thing.
Good point, but 70% my friend. .7 X 30=24.
Forgiven Sinner - true, but TH-cam doesn't have that option. Only 25, 50, and 75 percent for slower. 125, 150, and 200 percent for faster.
One thing my Dad has always complained about these old movies is that they usually seem to speak so fast it's hard to keep track. And now it's gone the other way, where a lot of movies - usually dramas - will have the dialogue be so low and soft he can barely hear them.
Ugh! Yes! Or the background music is so loud that you can't hear the voices over it.
As a none native English speaker I thought this was a problem with my hearing, I thought it was my problem, good to know that native speakers struggle with this too
"Hit that "T" like it STOLE something!" Love it!
You guys hit the R like it stole something .
Remember where you came from 🤫🇬🇧
ALRIGHT. IT WAS ME... ME, I TELL YA! AND I'D DO IT AGAIN, YA HEAR!
J T G lol nice!
Ha!!!
...ya heah!
*obligatory: holds woman harshly by her upper arm while holding a tiny gun in my other hand and keeping it pointed at her*
Heah, heah!
Fraiser was one of the last pop culture characters to use the mid Atlantic accent.
Kelsey Grammar (or however you spell his name) is easily understood. When it comes to the English language isn't that why we have language in the first place? So we can communicate? Other commenters found it pretentious. I don't understand that rationale.
Major Winchester on MASH was a classic case. Couldn't stand to listen to him.
And Fraisier's brother Miles, also of the college educated professional class. Yet actor John Mahoney, who played their retired policeman father Martin Crane, spoke a more plebeian American English.
@@JudgeJulieLit which was weird since Mahoney was actually from england - altho he sounded the most american in that family
@@JudgeJulieLit *Niles
Maybe the speed or the accent was acted, but I never have had trouble understanding old movies because they were recorded in a way that was clearer and sharper than many films or television series now, which are so muddy and bass heavy. I also like films from the 30s and 40s, among other reasons, because they remind me of my late father, born in 1912. He didn’t speak with a Mid-Atlantic accent, or especially fast, but he did use a lot of slang and expressions that I hear in 30s movies. It’s a delight whenever I hear a character in an old film suddenly use slang I remember from my dad.
No one said it was difficult to understand, just weird, and never real in the first place
I really love that "old-timey" accent in movies. I mean, it's actually quite pleasant to hear.
I've been wondering this for SO LONG; thank you!
+Jasmine W. ^___^ You're welcome. Thanks for watching!
+BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks yea me too
Same here!
Jasmine W. Me too!
BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks
...Explained the man with the horrible, nasal voice. Not to mention that Cary Grant is English, playing a Chicago newspaper editor in 'His Girl Friday'.
Uh, it's called being a professional. And 'His Girl Friday' is an adaptation of the stage play, 'The Front Page'.
I wish they still taught us how to speak. They all sound so eloquent, everything they say is crystal clear.😍💕
Georgia Twomey fuck that they sound snoody
It sounds bad to me.
Pick it up yourself. Plenty of examples out there.
People fr getting wet over the 1950s movie accents
I wish it were more organic though. It has a very metallic melody to it.
I always thought the accent sounded cool, particularly when it was spoken with a deep voice
As a Brooklyn native, I've also noticed that the Brooklyn accent was also used to illustrate class differences in pre-war cinema.
And in postwar, as in the tv series The Honeymooners.
The old Three Stooges short films are a good example :)
Bugs Bunny had the classic Queens accent, which is rather similar, although I won’t insult your distinguished Brooklyn brethren by saying it’s the same!
Rodney Dangerfield is an iconic example.
This style of speech always commands some form of authority to the listener. That’s what makes it interesting.
@Scott Whatever I think you may be wrong. There is nothing artificial about getting your point across as eloquent as possible. You have your opinion and I have mine. Conveying a message through speech is not pretentious at all. It is nothing more than a way to properly communicate with one another. You dig?
@Scott Whatever I agree.
@Ronove Yes, Frasier and even more IMO Niles were certainly pretentious. Artificial, no. If you grew up with the shows, you would know that is how audiences view the show now.
I am guessing your point is that future generations might view Frasier in the same way, as an antiquated speech pattern.
The problem is that real people didn't speak the way that Cary delivered lines.
@Scott Whatever rather shallow and pedantic.
@@paulh7589 "Eloquent" and "proper"? Sounds pretty superficial and dumb to me, as though one were compensating for a lack of substance. Speak plainly if you have anything that is truly worth saying and listening to, and do so with a measure of common humility rather than putting on airs and a transparently fake sense of superiority.
While at university, a linguistics professor stopped me in a corridor after hearing me speak to one of my peers. She asked me where I was from originally. I said, "Texas." She asked me if I got that a lot-being asked where I was from. I admitted that it was a common occurrence. She then asked if I was familiar with MidAtlantic speech pattern. I was not. She ended up making a recording of me to analyse and to use as an example. She said I was the youngest person-I was in my twenties at the time, she'd ever heard with this particular speech pattern and who used it naturally as their way of speaking. I happen to have had a voicemail message from my grandmother and played it and the professor smiled and said she realised that I was raised in a household where this was the actual way of speaking and not an affectation. It was all very good fun learning about all that. My friends accuse me of sounding like Stewie on family guy or a soft Virginian in a prewar picture.
I’m curious to hear your voice now lol
I'm pretty sure they spell analyse and realise with Zs in Texas. And they say Zee, not Zed.
Can you record yourself doing your voice? Dont have to show your face? Understandable if you don't want to.
You should upload a video of yourself talking.
I’m subscribing to you just in case you make a video of yourself talking
That was fantastic my good man. Quick, concise, and entertaining. BULLY!!!
I love their accents. Wish people still had them
William Daniels has it.
Time to become an English teacher for immigrants so we can have a bunch of Arabs and Chinese people speak like they're in a 40's Noir movie.
Yess😂😂
Hell yes!
PickelJars ForHillary lol. Darling, you're a jaded tragic old pale fart who risked their life for a country that doesn't give two fucks about you and now you're a cowardly bigot who trolls the internet. You wish.
Yep, it's trigged.
Brilliant!
I always thought that was a cool accent. Kinda sucks it's not being taught
Ever think if you were actually taught it that it would be perceived as "cool"? Probably not...
Shampoo A Buffalo Did you watch the video? The language wasn't used widely, only for radio and television, so it was unique, and taught for these specific things
+Outset Eddy You'd sound like an idiot.
That would be cool, wear a three piece suit and a fedora and you're set.
The Tee Not when I'm roasting you in that accent
I think the first time I "noticed" this accent was as a kid watching Father Knows Best. Jane Wyatt, who played Margaret Anderson, always spoke with a Mid-Atlantic accent.
Right. And I always wondered how no one else in the family had that weird accent.
Mid-Atlantic accent - is that what people living in the middle of the ocean speak?
Ha.
that's the working theory, yeah.
Rapture City accent
Doesn't Mid-Atlantic mean Maryland?
CheesyTV It goes 'glub glub glub'
Thank you! I have been scratching my head about this for years.
omg this video answered a loooooooong standing question I could never properly put into a question, thank you!
His Girl Friday is a great movie. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were so good together. Amazing writing where the dialog is concerned. The very definition of "witty repartee". So many fantastic movies were made in the Forties.
Directed by the great Howard Hawks. He could flourish in any genre.
“They’ll hit that T like it stole something.”
Hahahahaha. :)
You kinda look like a rip-off Rick from Pawn Stars.
Mr. Chicken breast “I want a British accent”
“Young Man! the you best will get is my mid Atlantic accent!” (Said in mid Atlantic accent)
This made me chuckle
Mr. Chicken breast HAHAHA
that's not very nice
WOW! You managed to insult BOTH, this man AND Rick. Rick KNOWS people (Las Vegas Mafia)who can find you and fricassee you out in the desert, Mr. Chicken Breast ~~~{*!*}~~~
In the 1950s you could understand everything people said. Speech was clear, well enunciated. Not just in the US but in UK, Australia
Yeah...absolutely no one had accents then, did they?
Akane Cortich no, I'm afraid not. American accents have gotten more homogeneous over the last two generations.
Lol, try talking to an old man from Dorset and then tell me that you could understand everyone!
Try listening to Strom Thurmond or similar American politicians from back then.
(yawn) How boring. Everyone sounds the same in those old times. I'm glad people mostly speak with their natural voices in films today. It brings more charm and immersion to the characters instead of making me think I'm listening to the news or an auction.
I had always had the theory that it was a bunch of silent movie actors who went to the same dialect coach when switching to talkies. Thank you for the information! My son and I crack each other up holding conversations in this dialect.
Last year, my drama teacher had several of us learn the Trans-Atlantic accent because it helps us with our articulation. We don't drop our R's, though. I'll admit, sometimes we did sound a bit funny, but those of us that bothered to learn it then are the most articulate actors in the school now.
I've watched so many old movies that it sounds normal to me.
@Jimmy I've noticed that in adult movies and sitcoms
Same here. Doesn't sound a bit strange to me.
Can someone recommend me some old tv-shows or movies please ♥️
It still sounds normal to me' in fact, I don't know what you're talking about.
I was wondering why all actors back then sounded British. Although, Cary Grant is actually British.
Yet his English accent in Gunga Din was terrible. Weird huh?
If someone walked into my store talking like Cary Grant I would figure that they were having an aneurysm. I can't imagine anyone ever talking like Cary Grant LOL
@@runlarryrun77 come to think of it, it was awful😂
Bristol
Cary, Cary, Cary was born in England in 1904. He came to America in 1920, thence mostly lived in California. Similarly Bob Hope and Elizabeth Taylor, born in England but early emigrants to America, lost most of their English accents, but long sounded Midatlantic.
This kind of dialect can be heard on the sitcom “Frasier.” Although the brother characters, Frasier and Niels, were born and raised in Seattle, they obtained their trans-Atlantic accents from the mother and during their years in eastern universities. Next time if you watch Frasier listen intently to him when he’s talking to his father about something really serious - he loses his pompous accent and speaks with a soft “normal” American dialect. It’s fun to catch those moments when he’s being sincere and not so showy. I love that sitcom!👍
This was a terrific analysis. As a long-time movie buff, I was certainly aware of the accent and this way of speaking in older movies, but never understood why they spoke that way, since it wasn't British or mainstream American. The presenter would make a fantastic vocal coach for actors playing in appropriate period pieces.
I concur,wholeheartedly! Thinking now of so many old films which subtly illustrated the proper acceptable speech stylings, the host mentioned, in comparison to outlandish stylings of, say. A Brrt Lahr, Bogie, Leo Gorcey, and his troupe, etc.
If you were acting as an everyday person in a movie about this era would you actually need to learn the accent? If it was learned in some schools but not spoken in normal speech.
It's not radio that gave Mid-Atlantic accent a technical advantage -- it was the early acoustically recorded phonograph records and cylinders, in which performers had to shout into a cone that directly vibrated the needle capturing the sound. And before the advent of amplification, actors also had to shout to be heard in the back rows of the theater. This style of speaking carried over for a while even after microphones and amplifiers were invented; FDR's "nothing to fear but fear itself" speech is a great example of a Mid-Atlantic accent!
Interesting. If you think about it, a similar thing is happening today: SMS speak, originally due to the technical limitations of typing a long text message on a phone, now self sustaining as fashion. I wouldn't be surprised if in the 2080s people look back and assume that millenials were just poorly educated.
Don't love me for fun girrrrl, let me be the one girrrl-love me for a reeaasooon, let the reason be looooooove.
Actors don't "shout" - actors "project."
It's a diaphragm thing, like singing. If you shout, you'll lose your voice.
Daniel Natal it was adopted for the british market because the american accent was considered horrible. But it was invented in Boston between 1890s and early 1900s for business and with the same porpose, to sound fancy for the Britishers.
MrSwanley in fact millenials are poorly educated but social media and iphones dont have anything to do with this. In the past was easier to study in the USA and in most states nowdays is just a privilege. Other generations with an average job could afford an education.
It’s not quite British, and it’s not quite American - so what gives? Why do all those actors of yesteryear have such a distinct and strange accent?
That's why it's called the "transatlantic accent". It's supposed to sound like something in between American and English, equally understandable to Yanks and Brits.
+captainbryce1 "Midatlantic", as in middle of the Atlantic. Not "transatlantic".
+marzolian +marzolian Try to avoid "correcting" people until you are in full possession of the facts. Mid-Atlantic accent and Transatlantic accent are interchangeable, and generally refer to the same accent. I prefer Transatlantic because Mid-Atlantic accent can easily be confused with the Mid-Atlantic English dialect. Mid-Atlantic English basically basically refers to the Philly accent, which is completely different. People who live in the South Jersey, Western Pennsylvania, the Delaware valley, or speak with a Philly or Baltimore accent are using the Mid-Atlantic dialect. By the way, nobody lives in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (unless they are on the island of Bermuda). Hollywood actors did however employ transatlantic travel since many of them come from England and other parts of Europe.
+marzolian - LOL. rekt.
+BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks
One more note, the Mid Atlantic Accent was still in use around the 60s and 70s because of dubs done for Kung Fu and Kaiju films that were recorded in Hong Kong. These dubs were known as the International Dubs
What I wish I could hear are earliest recordings of a normal conversation,
It sounds like a high-class Boston accent to me
+mastersnet18 A few actors have adopted a milder form - Lawrence Fishburne comes to mind - also John Travolta
It is, essentially.
+Marco Kimani *Laurence FishPorne*
+mastersnet18 Fundamentally, it's the Cambridge accent common in the areas around Suffolk. The vowels have flattened some in England, but the resemblance to the Thurston Howell Nob Hill accent is still very strong.
The reason the Transatlantic accent sounds odd today is because most people on TV and radio speak with a Midland accent brought over by settlers from Birmingham and the British Midlands to Pennsylvania. It was carried by settlers across the lower Great Lakes region and down the California coast, so it has become one of the most widely spread dialects.
New England brahmin is a distinct accent though. It's not quite the same.
On Gilligan's Island, character Thurston Howel and wife "Lovey" are great examples of the accent.
Matt J S UR RIGHT that's so weird
It was considered rich and upper class. William F Buckley spoke like that well into the 80s.
Locust Valley lockjaw
in Boston, the Kennedys spoke with something called the Brahmin accent, which is virtually unheard of around here today.
Yeah, I always thought JFK sounded like a hybrid accent of Mid-Atlantic and Boston
Louis CK said that Boston was just a city of people pronouncing words wrong on purpose. "Vaginer."
No. The Kennedys moved to New York when Jack was 10, and his brothers were younger still. The so-called 'Kennedy accent' has nothing to do with Boston. They were all sent to private schools where they did pick up a Yankee accent, but not Brahmin.
Angel Deville there's a TH-cam video featuring Henry Cabot Lodge delivering a speech to Congress in the 1920s which is a great example of Boston Brahmin as it existed before mass media.
Kennedy couldn't pronounce his "r's" but put an "r" on the end of "Africa" and "Cuba."
This whole time I thought it was just the audio that was trash
I met a Belgian tour guide in France who spoke perfect American English. I thought he was a native American. His accent sounded a lot like a transatlantic accent and once he told us how he learned English (by watching TV as a kid) it all made sense. It was so interesting to hear him speak.
Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, James Earl Jones (Darth Vader/Mufasa), and to a degree, Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson speak in Transatlantic/Mid-Atlantic voices.
Silver Sun Aenohr keen observation!
LOL thanks I needed to hear another crazy thing about Marianne Williamson.
In all the political coverage up to now, of the Democrats' race for the nomination prior to the 2020 US presidential election, I don't think I've even heard of Marianne Williamson (assuming she's a Democrat). I guess I haven't been paying close attention, LOL
James earl jones? No wonder I like it when he speaks
Kelsey and Vader's is _kind of_ mid Atlantic
I think it is worth noting, that Mid-Atlantic Speech discussed in this video is different from Mid-Atlantic American English, which is a common dialect spoken today in places along the Mid-Atlantic Region, such as Philadelphia, Trenton, Wilmington, Baltimore. It is notable for being a rhotic dialect, having no cot-caught merger, and having some unique lexical diffusion in regards to /æ/ tensing. I realize, as I write this, that I'm being a nerd and I probably sound really pretentious. What can I say? I have a fondness for linguistics. Great video!
+terminaldeity ^^^An important note! :) We like nerds here. Thanks for watching!
Another reason why I generally refer to this as the Transatlantic accent. Mid-Atlantic becomes confusing for exactly that reason.
+terminaldeity :: That explanation is very good. Can you tell if the samples in the video are actually Mid-Atlantic Speech or just a (good) imitation?
+terminaldeity I grew up in Tampa in the 60s, I think we are the last generation to have distinct regional dialects, with the event of white flight everything became more homogenized, my spanish, cuban and italian neighbors that were replaced with midwesterners and southerners that destroyed their home communities and left a path of destruction in their wake. I really don't hear anyone under 40 speaking in dialects anymore, they all speak overly enunciated wide mouth English like this guy, does that have a name?
Everyone speaks a dialect. That's not even a question, it's just a fact of language. What you may be noticing though, is who is using the regional dialects. William Labov did studies on the social hierarchies of dialects, and while earlier in the 20th century, people of mid-upper class were more likely to have distinguishable dialects, but by the 60s and beyond, people of low-middle class were more likely to have the notable features of a regional dialect. Additionally, features of any given dialect are prone to change over time, so it may not be the same dialect that you grew up with, but like I said before, everyone speaks a dialect. I really don't know what dialect you're referring to by describing it as overly enunciated and wide-mouth. I need an example.
Brings back many happy memories of watching the dirigible racing in my youth.
Hope you brought your pillow.
"Hit that T like it stole somthing" is my favorite phrase of the year!
"Enough of this chitchat fella. Let's get right down to it. Why don't you take me out to dinna sometime?"
The more I watch classic films the more I talk like them~
So charming, and the way they expressed themselves using high class words is really enchanting and filled with confidence.
Classic films changed me drastically...
oh, that shows, assuming it's you in the avatar lol
I be lisnen to some dope gangsta rhymes and dis is whud it be doin to me.
@@rudyschwab7709 most hillarious comment of all time
The upper class New England/NY Tri-State accent is authentic. It wasn’t created by Skinner. Do the knowledge. Also, maybe travel to these regions. You’ll learn from the older ppl that it wasn’t something created by films but something that influenced films.
Ok so I'm not the only one who notices this. Thanks for the explanation!
When you listen to the (lovely) Keanu Reeves trying an English accent, you understand why mid-Atlantic accents were useful; they were adaptable. One of my favourite actors in terms of diction was George Zucco (not sure if he was English or American) who graced so many horror films in the '40s. I'm not sure I could place his accent, but I understood every word - and he didn't sound affected, or "weird".
I like the term "Transatlantic" better because the Mid-Atlantic is a region of the United States with a distinct dialect.
I always wondered why people said "Why" at the start of a sentence when they weren't asking a question. Especially in old American movies and old time radio. For example: "Why I oughta punch you in the nose." Or "Why thank you."
I just started listening to The History Of English Podcast and I didn't realize how fascinating and complex the way we pronounce things is! Loved this episode so much! Thank you!
My grandparents grew up in a time where an Australian version of mid-Atlantic was popular. They subsequently passed the accent onto my parents and my parents me. At high school my friends would say I sound like "an old black and white movie character, jimmy stewart etc". Only much later did I find my friends were more accurate than I realised. My grandmother, like stewie griffin always pronounces the H in wh words (like hhwhom, hwhat, hwhy, and maybe even cool hwhip).
People in Ireland still do the H before W thing
So you say Hwill Hwheaton?
Cool hwip
@@stuffums stop it
I instantly thought of liquid hwite!
I just figured it was a "coked-out New York businessman" accent.
JM1993951 Hardly
JM1993951 They weren't "Coked out" in those days.....Everyone had a life!!!!
@@brigittebeltran6701 actually they were probably more coked out than anyone is today on average, considering it was in medicine until about 1922!
It's more akin to England's ' Received Pronunciation ' accent. But I do get the similarities, like non-rhoticiy, hard ' t ', and similar vowels. But those are features shared with other accents too!
For example, non-rhoticity can be found in many NYC accents, certain southern accents ( mainly those of Louisiana and the tidewater region of Virginia, where r-dropping can even be found among younger natives ), most of east New England ( most notably, Boston ), Australia, New Zealand and parts of India, as well as most of the UK.
Also, NYC accents, Australian accents and most varieties of British English have quite similar vowels, most notably the vowels in words like ' all ' ' caught ' and ' awning '. In these varieties of English, ' caught ' is pronounced like ' court\ quart ' ' tall ' is pronounced like ' tool ' etc.
Cocaine wasn’t a big social drug in this country at that time. It’s still used medically to this day but that isn’t why it’s ever been popular. The ‘coked out businessman’ stereotype came around in the 1980s, after cocaine became popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s as a party drug. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, amphetamines were hugely popular (WWII made a lot of soldiers familiar with that drug) and I’ve definitely seen some evidence of its usage in some people’s performances like Johnny Carson.
0:53 you're thinking of HRP not RP, RP is used widely across South East England
Frasier has this accent
Richard Philip he kinda does
Stewie.
I thought it was because grammer is from st. Thomas
He sounds nothing like Frasier IRL.
Next time on Legend of Korra...
+Jenifer Joseph omg... yes
if I had a trophy I would give it to you.
I'm not the only one who thought that!
I'm currently wetting my pants.
Fun fact: Shiro Shinobi and the Man with the Yellow Hat are voiced by the same VA.
I speak this way wearing a monacle and top hat
Monocle*
And a moustache
Bob Hieronemus No no, monocle and top hat don't go with this accent, its fedora and cigar.
I'm very good at this accent and often spend the day talking like this to everyone. 😂
I would so learn this accent. It's beautiful and articulate.
Rather poor attempt. And "I'll shant" doesn't make sense, since "shan't' is the contraction of shall not: so you're saying with two contactions in a row - "I will shall not sleep another night".
Certainly more elegant sounding than the modern american accent. At least to my foreign ears.
I feel like it's the opposite of articulate. Especially since they don't pronounce the r's.
Mikkyyo Ok, but you'd also have to stop using "so" like that.
Very interesting quick overview there, loved it.
I have to say that, as much as I prefer genuine regional accents, the way that some American TV actors speak is so frustratingly poor, and mumbled, perhaps their speaking skills would benefit from learning the Mid-Atlantic accent.
Ditto for British actors speaking thick, nearly unintelligible substandard accents such as Cockney (and its descendant Australian) and Liverpudlian. When my father in 1964 saw the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night, he after said, "was that English? I didn't understand a word!" Ironically his mother, born in east Scotland but emigrant to America at 5, was by American kids teased for her brogue, so she and her sisters made a point of developing the Midatlantic accent she spoke by my birth. My father and his siblings spoke the more American accent of their greater NYC area.
Dunno it kind of sounds like everyone I grew up with in Boston.
@@dgarrard100 no. He's just fibbing.
Also dialogues in those movies were top-notch. No wasted words but memorable lines and catch phrases.
But Cary Grant spent his first 16 years or so in England. So why wouldn't he have an English accent ?
Mark Simpson he probably learned the trans Atlantic accent later. Like he said in the video for aristocrats socialites actors etc it was the “accent of choice”
@@dylancaylor1386 My point is that I don't think he did have a trans Atlantic accent. I think he sounded like an Englishman who spent a lot of time in the States.
And his real name was Archibald Alexander Leach
@@simpsonmark I was thinking the same thing he was simply an Englishman who was losing his accent but then naturally he would have been mistaken for someone who was speaking Mid-Atlantic English... My supervisor at my job was born and raised in England but he has been living in the states since 1985 and his accent has declined over the years although it seems to get a reboot when he goes back to England for the summer... Mel Gibson is another good example... Although I think he can control the range of Aussie that he lets out you can tell a clear distinction of how well he controls it when he played The Patriot versus when he played in the movie The Beaver...
Damn, i'd love it if we all still talked with those accents.
+Fioaoiudou Me too!
It takes a lot of practice with a candlestick telephone to maintain it.
They never talked like that in the first place, they talked exactly like us, only actors during filming used it because it was easier to understand.
Josue Alejandro They didn't talk like us but they definitely did not speak the way they did in films.
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great video! as a linguist, though, I have two terminological qualms:
you say this accent is "acquired" not "naturally evolved," but "acquired" in linguistics is nearly synonymous with "naturally acquired," i.e. naturally evolved!
second, the sound you make in the middle of "rider" or "writer" is called a "flap" and not a "d", as you don't close up the articulation spot and release the air in a burst, like with t,d, k, g, p, or b, but rather flap the tongue quickly on the ridge of your mouth.
+00000gerat hahah yes! I think he meant "learnt" not acquired, because that's what we do naturally.
Very good review! :-D Loved the fact that you swapped the accents yourself too. I love the Transatlantic accent. It is largely a good combination of American sweetness and classic stiff upper lip British. Oliver Hardy (Laurel and Hardy) used to speak with a Transatlantic accent. :-)
Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith show had the same accent. Also,Jack Haley(Tin man) spoke that way as well.
I have a degree in linguistics and knew none of this! Well done, very interesting.
It's not just the accent that plays a roll in this. The microphones back then heavily distorted people's voices. I saw a clip--out of a documentary--of some president speaking, and he sounded like any other person who one would see in some 1950s film... but as soon as a different clip of him was played (in which a better microphone was used), he sounded like a normal person. Sure, people used this odd accent and different demeanor, but I realized that the microphones are what make everything sound so weird.
***** I wish I could remember the name of it... :-(
+maccollectorZ (Commenting Account) yes the recording equivalent of the time imparted a particular sound to everyone - the same technology that made recordings of billie holiday et al sound like they did......
Donald Quan Yeah - I'd really like to hear a recording of someone today using a 1950s microphone; it would be interesting to compare it to recordings that are actually from the 1950s.
maccollectorZ (Commenting Account) Depending on type and quality, 1950s mikes CAN sound like modern ones (cheap Crystal types do change and clip voices, But that was true in 1975 as it was in 1955). Older recording equipment (and media used on it) actually had a bigger influence on the sound than the mikes. Transcription disk recordings (and commercially produced 78Rpm records) lack not only the frequency response,but the dynamic range of later magnetic tape or LP ( microgroove) records. Both of those being a largely post WW2 development. I have tapes recorded my relatives in the mid 1950s (open reel tape) that sound no different than the same people on 1970s cassette tape. If you're talking 1948 or earlier, yeah, there's a difference. (although some 1940s wire recorders are pretty accurate, compared to acetate disks.).
So, perhaps, it's different once an older recording has become digitized? Because, it strikes me as odd that some old records - even if they are clear and not particularly muffled - make a person's voice sound generic and unnatural.
This is the way T.V. characters "Frazier" and "Niels" speak.
THANK YOU!! I've always wondered about this!
You're welcome. Glad you liked it!
I have worked with the elderly for over 10
Years and yes it is true- a lot with English or Caucasian backgrounds sound like this. It became a real accent- even if the first speakers of this accent were imitated on Radio.
The folks that sound like this are in their 80s and 90s now!
The thing with the radio is propably the reason why Hitler and german broadcasters spoke the way they did. You had to articulate very clearly to be understood through the bad sound systems at the time.
Idk why but I find old school accents like the ones from the 40s and older as elegant. I sometimes talk like that when I’m by myself
I believe that this accent had much longer use than 30s -- 40s. I recently rewatched Lawrence of Arabia, and that type of speech is strong there. And that's 1962. Perhaps due to the ammount of british actors, I dunno.
The Mid-Atlantic accent fell out of favor during the years after World War Two, but some New Englanders and New Yorkers continued to talk with accents similuh to the Mid-Atlantic accent until about the early 1960s, after which they began using accents akin to the modern New England and New York City accents, which retain at least some non-rhoticity and quasi British vowels to this day.
It was standard at RADA, The Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts, often considered the best acting school in the UK or maybe even the World, at least through the 1960's. ...In fact, it may still be.
@@sparky6086 The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC the past century has trained galaxies of film and theatre award winners.
Bette Davis was the past master of the transatlantic accent!!!!
Never left my country down once till I was 15 only watching movies of America. First state I was in was South Carolina. I shit myself on arrival thinking I was in the wrong country
My husband and I have decided to speak to one another in this accent from now on because it’s fun/funny.
They seem to speak very fast too.
Thats sorta why i just tune it out not meaning to.
diva1675 .... Cocaine. Completely unregulated before the 60s.
I guess time was money (recording space like tape or film was expensive)
FDR did not speak with a mid Atlantic or transatlantic accent. His was Locust Valley lockjaw. The speech of New York aristocracy. Compare his speech to that of someone like William H Buckley who did have a mid Atlantic accent and you will see the difference.
The Mid-Atlantic accent was a hammed up and or faked version of several real accents of the American northeast region and the region of England in and around London. Most people never talked with the Mid-Atlantic accent, it was mainly affected for broadcast purposes as the semiofficial standard accent of the USA.
William S. Burroughs also had the same speech pattern
No, you will hear the difference.
William F. Buckley
News journalism up until the early 1980’s still used this way of speaking.
Thurston & Lovey Howell on Gilligan.