The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a purposefully cultivated accent of English that blends together the most prestigious features of American and British English. Adopted in the early 20th century mostly by American aristocrats and Hollywood actors, it is not a native or regional accent; instead, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, it is an affected set of speech patterns "whose chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so". Primarily fashionable in the first half of the 20th century, the accent was embraced in private independent preparatory schools, especially by members of the Northeastern upper class, as well as in schools for and stage acting. The accent's overall use sharply declined following the Second World War. A similar accent that resulted from different historical processes, Canadian dainty, was also known in Canada in the same era. More recently, the terms "mid-Atlantic accent" and "Transatlantic accent" refer to any accent with a mixture of both American and British characteristics.
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/HnLCBhLm138/maxresdefault.jpg)