Is there an English without accent?
Is there an English without accent?
The answer is no. After your early teens, the chance of learning to speak a new language without an accent is vanishingly small. Not only the speech sounds but also the rhythm and intonation will give you away. But many people find a foreign accent intriguing, even sexy.
Is the American accent changing?
The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in the 20th century.
What happened to Mid-Atlantic accent?
While the Mid-Atlantic accent didn’t arise naturally, it was cultivated into American Cinema, as well as the American upper class. Though use of the accent dropped significantly after World War II, some well-known figures have adapted it in more recent years, such as musician and producer Mark Ronson.
What is a mid-Atlantic accent?
“Mid-Atlantic is a made-up accent; no one actually speaks this way naturally,” Holland Taylor’s Ellen Kincaid, a studio casting executive charged with training young talent, tells the group of wishful starlets. “But it takes on some British inflections that add some refinement to the otherwise flat and grating American dialect.
Is the transatlantic accent natural or taught?
The transatlantic accent was the accent of actors like Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. It is not a natural accent; rather, it was taught.
Why did Cary Grant have a mid-Atlantic accent?
The British-born Cary Grant didn’t need to employ a Mid-Atlantic accent to sound sophisticated, but often did anyway. It was a technique that dovetailed with the rise of “talkies,” which first came about in 1927, and gave actors the opportunity to use their voices to help further a story.
What is the origin of the American accent?
It was created to unify and standardize an American dialect; people thought that American English could be harsh and flat, so this was almost halfway British. It was a way to add a patina of class and élan to speech that would otherwise sound provincial.” The accent’s beginnings aren’t entirely clear.