The Origin of That Old-Timey Accent in Classic Movies
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- Опубликовано: 13 янв 2016
- In the 1920s and into the 1950s, Hollywood had a particular way of talking. It was called the Midatlantic or the Transatlantic accent. But we don't speak like that anymore. The accent was acquired, so there's no line tracing it back through history - but we gave it a try.
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![Former Slave Owner Interview in 1929 [Colorized]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Le794ObMGm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Well, I just thought everybody back then spoke like that.
If you traveled back to the 1930s and spoke to them like that, they would call you "cringe."
@@wesk2675 no they wouldnt because most people from the 30s never left beyond 20 miles from where they fell out of their mothers twat. and there was no youtube for them to watch pompous videos on accents.
Me too
@@nullakjg767 the joke ->
You
I
V
@@nullakjg767 well that's a giant "woosh"
- Drop R's
- Emphasize T
- Soften Vowels
- Speak with Distinction by Edith Skinner
Thank you
-Have 80 year old audio equipment to get the tinny sound (not covered in this video because it's just a Wikipedia article lazily made into a video)
Clocking in at 4 seconds: you should summarize more videos.
Meh, thats a super oversimplification of the style of language. IT doesnt address the fact it involves speaking faster, and frequent use of euphemism and brevity/wit. Terrible video that fails to explain the nuances of this speaking style. Or as someone from the 50s would say, this report is two cents short of a dollar.
@@nullakjg767 The channel "Great Big Story", as you'll come to find in the next 2 seconds, runs on videos that don't often surpass 5 minutes--if at all. Of course it's a gross oversimplication over this accent, and of course there are key pieces of info missing from the video. *It's an introduction,* and for your level of cognizance, it should be especially apparent that this isn't a full-blown tutorial.
I think there were still traces of the accent during the late 60s early 70s. I watched a movie with Kurt Russell from that era and everyone was using a lighter version of it. It's very interesting to me that it was essentially a trend. So funny!
30Chompi My Parents were in their teens in the 70s and they said that people really spoke like that in real life but not as emphasised. Re listening to clips of people from that era speaking in that accent they found it weird now although at the time they said it sounded normal to hear and they weren't as self aware about it recording equipment was very expensive and rare then so they wouldn't have heard themselves speak a lot if not ever, all they had to go on was TV and radio broadcasts.
Yeah, right up through the 1970's that accent hung on. If you watch old TV or movies, from the 1970's, it was still around; just not as up front and loud.
Darth Vader too, it states that James Earl Jones used this accent on purpose. I just thought he was English at first
Raquel Welch too
Certainly there were residual traces in New England when I was growing up. I so miss it.
When she said "hybrid" I half expected her to shove the burger into the mug
🤣🤣🤣
I know it sounds fake but I think it sounds so classy like I always thought the Mid Atlantic accent was so suitable for like rich characters and such
70 or 80 years ago, it didn't sound fake at all. In fact, it was actually admired and looked up to and at times even imitated by the lower classes in America. It was associated with education and breeding and class. Which was something, unlike TODAY when it seems to be the exact opposite, many Americans actually strove for and dreamed of having.
@@TD75 I don’t know I’ve herd people in the modern era say they would date a man or woman who spoke like this I like this accent too but a valley surfer dude accent is also one of my guilty pleasures lol
Or villains if spoken slowly
pretentious, u right
@@retroguy9494 It would be silly to strive for that type of accent if you don't have the wealth or status to match it.
Thumbs up if you want this accent to make a comeback
+elsa1942 better= bettah
+elsa1942 i think if the movie is based in thr 20s/30s/40s the actors should speak like this. when i watch a new movie about the early 20th century its hard to take it seriously because they all talk so modern
Ugh I want this so bad.
karmalotus22 betta?
That's part of speech I already use, and I was born in 1960.
I always tried to figure out Frazier’s accent.... Wasn’t sure if it was British or American... Now I know 👍🏼
Me too!
Wasn't the reason Frasier and Niles spoke with that accent was that they were snobs? People of a certain generation in some eastern states of the U.S. really spoke like that for generations.Boston in particular had a wealthy caste who spoke with a really strong version of this accent.
@@damonwilliams5033yeah, the Mid-Atlantic accent was taught to rich kids in boarding schools in the northeast. It's possible kids in New England could be taught in that accent. I don't think Frasier actually talked in a Mid-Atlantic accent. It was more of a very theatrical New England accent.
I honestly love this accent , its so classy
Like a Hollywood Gold Age nostalgia !
Ban valley girl accent, up talk and vocal fry,
@abel4776 Oh no, it's the accent police trying to come in uninvited.
@@Maialeen No such thing as accent police 😀 Just an expression to show dislike of the BAD downturn of speech and linguistics in this country. Do you practice such mannerisms?
I have a transatlantic accent! With an American Mother, an English father and being raised in Wales, my accent was a mish-mash of all of it. When I was a teenager, I got tired of everyone I met saying "is that an american accent?" so I learned how to speak "more british," and with practice I could do that, but it shifted my default accent into a transatlantic one.
You're haff and hoff!
Trans Atlantic accent is an entirely learned accent, there are no native speakers and it’s origins aren’t really grounded in reality, it was a way for actors to make themselves sound more sophisticated
It’s not An accent if you’re faking it.
@@ViktoriousDeadone can certainly fake an accent though. And speak it. And its still called an accent.
All of my life, I have noticed this peculiar accent in classic Hollywood films, and in a few other places. This video does not mention two economic explanations for it:
1. It made Hollywood more welcoming to actors from the Commonwealth (eg, Cary Grant).
2. It made classic Hollywood films easier to market throughout the Commonwealth. (Something like an American accent is spoken only in Canada, the far south of New Zealand, southwest England, and among some Irish.) It did not put Americans off, because to them it sounded posh. V S Naipaul, writing of his 1940s boyhood in Trinidad, said that Hollywood films were the primary cultural product, one that nearly all poor Trinidadians could enjoy. The mid-Atlantic accent was easier than the American accent for Trinidadians to take in stride.
I do not not agree that no one spoke like that in real life. This accent was American patrician. Some of my mother's women friends talked that way in the lower midwest in the 1950s and 60s. I have met older women IRL who talked like Blanche DuBois in A Street Car Named Desire.
alnot01 Edward Everett Horton as in Fred Astaire and ginger rogers and fractured fairy tales too he came flm New York
One of the old-time Hollywood's three great "compromises" along with "effeminate" straights (including many who had the accent) and animated/comic strip human/animal hybrid anthromorphs (Porky Pig, Mickey and Goofy, and others from other studios were didn't look ENOUGH ;ike animals.) Three great thirties Hollywood/New York classic leftovers!
My grandmother went to a finishing school and had the accent
You are not alone. I also have a trace of it since, well, I AM from the middle Atlantic states close to New York and my family has been here for over 350 years and we were once what was considered the upper class in society. There are still some people who speak with it, some much more noticeable than others. For instance, Tom Kean, the former governor of New Jersey and former head of the 911 Commission has a VERY heavy mid-Atlantic accent. His son, currently a state senator who is running for Congress next year has a trace of it. When I was a boy, I knew very proper ladies of my grandmother's generation who spoke with it as well. However, sadly, it IS becoming a thing of the past.
Carey Grant was English. I don't know why she bracketed him with FDR and K Hepburn.
I am a theater major and I had to write papers about a play for three classes. Two of my professors did not know what a transatlantic accent was. The subtext of their comments were "are you crazy" and " Wtf is that".... I love these people but omg i wanted to bang my head against the wall.
And yet they’re professors
That's fucking depressing. Not even college professors give a fuck about the future anymore, or even have to pass any guidelines once they reach a certain amount of seniority. There needs to be some kind of yearly test for each professor in their respective major. I wonder how much of the majority would be canned on the spot for not knowing what they teach.
zeranzeran that’d actually be a good idea
@@ZeranZeran im pretty sure they do know what they teach. Stop acting like YOU know everything.
@@2wongsdontmakearice588 Wtf kind of theater professor has never heard of the trans atlantic accent? Or just refuses to google something they've never seen? It's very popular in movies and theater. Sounds like douchebags
Cool video...BUT at the beginning, when you refer to the principles of the accent, you chose to use the word "tenants", where I think you may have meant "tenets". Tenants inhabit a living space, and tenets are principles or characteristics of a concept or idea.
+Andrea B I was just about to point out the same thing
+tophgrass2000 so was I.
I missed that …but now that you Mention that - good catch!
it's so weird to see how native eng. speakers are aware of the difference. lol from a non native-speaker view of course
Oooooh!
I'm reading everything in a Transatlantic accent after watching this. Lol.
Ryan Gosling in the 90's
Ha me too lol
Listen here see, get the car and we'll go to the market.
same
Same but I did it before
*Lols in Transatlantic
"three tenants"
So this accent has three people who occupy a residence?
The correct word is tenets.
oh funny, you saw it too!
Is this copied from Brainstuff?
This is literally the same layout and everything as Brainstuffs.
It sure looks like its copied. I guess those who noticed were responsible for the likes for this comment and dislikes for the video. :)
It's presenting the same information, so there's bound to be some overlap. But still, it is a little _too_ similar.
I literally searched the Brainstuff video and watched it to see what you were talking about. There's a guy doing a video on the same topic. I don't see how this video seems ripped off. I want my wasted time back.
It's 💯 percent copy paste!
I think William Shatner used some variation of this accent in his role as Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek TV show. In the later films his voice is quite different and the same as the one he uses off-screen.
Captain Kirk did not talk in a Mid-Atlantic accent. He talked in a very theatrical way and enunciated clearly.
I actually have this accent, I've gotten many comments from peers about it as well. I sound english to americans but american to brits.
TheLazuliSailor Meghan trainor has it
nice. Just neutral and well-modulated
Are you an Ivy Leaguer?
@@Mpshfromlowell64 you think ivy league teaches this accent?
@@Andy-bh8hw They used to until the 60s or 70s.....
If you want to hear plenty of this accent, listen to vintage records. Old Edison wax tube records especially. I was baffled by the accents by the artists and speakers on these, but this explains them nicely. Thanks!
On the topic of Frasier, Bebe, Frasier's agent was a great example of the mid atlantic accent. Julia Childs was another.
The word you wanted was "tenets," not "tenants."
Adonais6669 Yeah, that bugged the hell out of me.
This is precisely what I was looking for! It's short but to the point and detailed enough to understand it! Thank you so much!!!
fun example of the transatlantic accent in a modern show: Rita Farr's 1950s starlet in Doom Patrol
Tenets
I've been wondering about this for a while. Thank you.
This is actually more of a New England accent than a Mid-Atlantic accent and can still be heard in many areas. Katharine Hepburn and FDR were both from upper-class families in the Northeast (Connecticut and New York) and came by their accents naturally. British-born Cary Grant's accent was pretty unique and the only time you hear anyone talking that way is when they are imitating him.
+Sue McGreevey Exactly.
It's funny, I graduated high school on Long Island, and we speak with the typical New York accent, but i remembered we had a school principal who was a WASP from Garden City, he spoke with a midatlantic accent just like President Roosevelt ! We found him hilarious, he probably did to, on account his student body consisted mostly of Irish-American and Italianz-Americans.
Really? What areas?
I think you're understanding this wrong. By Mid-Atlantic, they mean halfway between the US and UK, not the US region.
Mid-Atlantic here means "between the US and England" ... that's why it's otherwise known as "Trans-Atlantic"
The world doesn't deserve this accent , its not sophisticated enough anymore!
I agree
What is sophisticated about contemporary speech or diction?
Make the world around you a place that deserves it
Hao dahr yoo sah! Why I find it pahfictly sahphisticated.
SHUT UP
Omg thank you!! I've been trying to figure out why Frasier and Mike's accents were so weird!!
Who’s mike
Why do most men back then on 50’s tv shows sound so similar! They all have the exact tone and deepness in their voice, it’s so weird
Because everything before 1960 was fake
I always wondered about Frasier’s accent!! I could never put my finger on it until I saw this!
wish people still talked like ladies and gentlemen
I do.I'll make a video sometime..
I'd rather let them speak their trash. A lady and gentleman will do speak like so when they are only fit for it. Those junk are not ladies and gentleman.
You'd rather people be fake? 😄
I wish they still _acted_ like ladies and gentlemen. But today we have folks like the Kardashians.
Jesus fuck you people actually don't know HOW to use the terms ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and Gentlemens can talk trash too, it's not about the talk and act at all. It's how they treat other people in general.
I love your storytelling and content. As somebody who is often around multiple dialects I'm similarly fascinated with this subject. I find it deliciously complicated to determine where certain things I hear are from. And don't forget about how the Mid Atlantic people were obsessed with the romance and story of the west and less so, the northwest, where I'm from. I'm guessing the "mid-Atlantic" was heavily influence by the first pigin languages of "America", which are undoubtedly VERY old in the more eastern USA! I know nothing about it, but in the NW, we have the wawa. If I were to really dive in and study the ancient roots of the pigens of the mid Atlantic region, which is a such a huge space with lots of people-movement from 1600 to 1900, I'd listen to Oren Lyons for some background in that. Listening to him you hear the relationship between the indigenous languages and the modern modes of speaking in English. I gotta say, the Mid Atlantic must have been juicy as heck to people! As we Americans moved from our family languages to "English", proper English was a clear way up the social ladder, and people knew it! Plus, it was the language of films! The most-amazing-transformation-transmission-invention to-date! What does it HAVE that Queens English doesn't have! Therein lies the great and probably solvable mystery.
I like to be silly when I work at my drive through at McDonald's and I use this accent all the time. People love it. We need to bring it back
Indeed. I use it not because I'm silly, but because I really speak like that! But yet, I wouldn't be caught dead patronizing a McDonalds!
@@retroguy9494 It's been a year. Are you still such a sad person?
@@QuarterPast4 Worse actually.
@@retroguy9494 Consider basic self-improvement.
@@QuarterPast4 It's not as easy as you would think. You'd need to bring my dead family back or at least replace them which is pretty hard to do at my age. You would also need to improve my poor health and disabilities as well as change peoples attitude in general towards disabled people. Which, I can tell you from personal experience, is pretty rotten! So if you have any ideas, I'm willing to listen.
i love this accent so much
Brought to you by Netflix, now streaming “Frasier”.
People must have noted that this was so well researched that they missed the fact that Cary Grant sounded English because that’s where he was born and raised.
It's nevertheless "Trans-Atlantic"---because it is still a mix of American and British. He just modified it starting from the British side!
Excellent explanation, and quaT enterTaining I must say.
The Origin of That Old-Timey Accent in Classic Movies ruclips.net/video/BLT-SQUBRDw/видео.html
Why Do People In Old Movies Talk Weird? ruclips.net/video/Gpv_IkO_ZBU/видео.html
Why Do Americans In Old Movies Sound British? ruclips.net/video/F3yjDS35OYU/видео.html
The Transatlantic Accent Explained ruclips.net/video/4zKvgaVk6rk/видео.html
Albert Wesker and Lady Dimitrescu from the Resident Evil series talk like this, for Alcina it made perfect sense due to her actually being from that era of hollywood with her 1930s design.
Wesker on the other hand changes accents depending on the actor, Richard Waugh introduced this accent to the character in Code Veronica and DC Douglas continued it.
Can you spot the three linguistic tenants residing in this sentence?
Tenets not tenants.
Kevin You're an idiot. I was calling out the poster of the video for making the tenet/ tenant mistake with a play on words "tenants" and "residing."
My favorite thing are pseudo-intellectuals who, in the act of try-harding to appear intelligent, actually expose how fucking dim and desperate they are. Thanks for that, mate ;)
+Lady Vengeance: Wow, you are one angry, insulting bitch! Well excuse the hell out of me for not seeing your sarchasm. Bet you have lots of imaginary friends!
Kevin Sarcasm not sarchasm ;)
Yea, one's the leaseholder who works at Safeway, the other's a college student, and the third is a skater bro.
When I was a kid I thought Fraiser and Niles were British. Now I understand why.
Same here. Mind-blowing!
My older sister speaks like this. She's now in her 80's and I believe she does it to "put on airs", so to speak
Bring this back
OKAY I WASNT CRAZY. i asked my dad “what’s that accent people had in the older days” and he’s like what accent and i’m like the ones on old TVS and he didn’t understand
I could only make it through the first 15 seconds. This narrator's vocal fry set my teeth on edge.
Better than vocal fry / valley girl / surfer dude, that we have, today.
Much better.
vocal fry (especially in women) legit makes me want to kill myself.
@@Horny_Fruit_Flies Vocal fry is also bad for your vocal chords too.
r/lewronggeneration
The narrator used vocal fry at the last worst of every sentence.
James Earl Jones (Darth Vader and Mufasa) also speaks this way.
Best brief explanation
I'm just looking for an audio clip of "now look here, see"
I loved it in "the twilight zone"
I just like that voice
Those actors talked like that not just in movies, but in real life interviews too
Nice Frasier reference
Its not just the FDR sound, there is also the voice of those old news reels, and most of the gangster movies. Those seem different. The tall pants kinda talk see.
Best accent ever.
Yes
It’s certainly more pleasant to listen to then the way a lot of rich upper class American kids speak today with their heavy vocal fry.
I actually have to give a sample for potential voiceover Job for which I might be hired. Thanks for posting this, dudes!
They spoke like that on television (especially the late night tv talk show hosts) up into the 90's. Letterman and Conan do still kinda speak like that.
I'm sorry to inform you but Letterman died.
If you want an example of a transatlantic voice you have to go no further than Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote. A New England meets London..England voice. But again much more listenable than that Valley Girl style you hear so often in budget thrillers these days. I cannot abide lead characters using that voice which is far more affected than the old school movie accent.
Watched it just to see Kelsey grammer part.
He is so hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
Can't wait for the dr frasier's revival.
Btw Transatlantic accent is beautiful and Kelsey grammer mastered it
Yes, tenets not TENANTS. I was going just going to post that. Ironically I was asking a friend what WAS this accent? Now I know :)
I still have one
I always wondered this 😂
Well done!
+Don Diego Vega
Sir, I know not who you are, neither do I know what you do.
However, I bow before your stubborn determination to fight Monastario and his oppression of the Californian people.
Actually, the transatlantic accent was more comprehensible than the Valley Girl accent found in too many TV shows today. For example: "Trinsitlintic eksant" for "transatlantic accent." To make it worse, they rapidly mumble and sound like buzzing bees.
I want to speak like this
I wouldn't say it disappeared. Alot southerners still retain tons of it
You do say?
very interesting!
Is this the accent James March had in American Horror Story: Hotel? That was quite a distinctive accent, but couldn’t quite put my finger on what accent it was.
Winchester in MASH had the same accent
+CastAway_Dave I know. I was just pointing out that it is still used.
Oh, very good example!
This is something I was literally just wondering about yesterday, and voila! CNN posts it on their homepage.
I think it more has to do with how microphones picked up sound. If you listened to those people speak later with electric microphones they dropped that accent. It can be heard in music too. Old recordings had to be higher in pitch and had to emphasize certain sounds so that they would be able to be picked up on their mics. After the invention of the electric microphone that sound was no longer needed thus they dropped that nasally sound.
This would make regular movies 20x better.
Yea I was wondering why some of the people that were on TV back then talked like that and those same people now are older and talk normal.
Billie Burke Glinda in the wizard of oz I always thought spoke like the queen. Lovely speaking voice ❤️💖🌸
Cartoons from the early 90s and earlier had great variety in voice acting. now they all sound the same even when it's a complete different person.
It eventually goes away the more you watch old shows.. it just starts sounding more formal speaking rather than an accent
"Lovely!"
Its the 20s once again, Ladies and Gents. I think its high time we brought it back. Class, style, charisma, jazz, radio, I demand an encore. Lets make this the new Roaring 20s and just have a good ol' time.
What's the origin of Vocal Fry?
I love this accent.
The Howells from Gilligan's island. "Come along luvvy".
I didn't realize I've been using this accent far back in college when I took up my BA in English and joined a drama workshop.
Helloooo, Mr.Feeny - Boy Meets World. He spoke this way as well
Also Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England.
Cary Grant was a naturalized American, but is actually from Bristol England.
what happened? the brownie invasion! omg!!!
Imagine Senator Palpatine using this accent.
Evelyn Harper from Two and a half Men kinda speaks in that accent, too.
I love the tea and burger representation
I hear traces of that accent in 1960's and 70's movies and broadcasts.
Before I watch the video. I think it was more of an expectation then anything
I tried speaking like this but people just look at me funny. LOL
I would actually love to hear people speak this again.
I think Vincent Price spoke with the most amazing Mid-Atlantic accent.
lovely ; )
I was listening to Lovers Rock by TV Girl and was like “hmm i wonder why we sound so different today than we did in the 50’s🧐”
The one other hallmark of the mid-Atlantic accent that this video doesn’t cover is a tendency to convert as many a sounds to open central unrounded vowel sounds (from ah to aa as in the a sound in “fall” to the a sound is “ask”) and as many E vowel sounds to close-mid front unrounded vowel (ehh or aihh sounds). It is so grating how they have to make everything sounds so extremely nasal as if the person has their mouth closed and is forcing air out their nostrils to communicate
It’s just how auctioneers talk.
The word used to describe the three main elements of this speech should be tenet, not tenant as the filmmakers mistakingly use.
not sure why people are saying this narrator has an annoying voice, she sounds like a professional to me
didn't realize that I kinda have this accent
Idk why i like to learn how speak like this