The Transatlantic accent, also called a Mid-Atlantic accent, is a way of speaking English that is halfway between American and British. It makes you sound like you have a good education but no one can tell quite where you are from. You hear it in old Hollywood films from the 1930s and 1940s. It is the accent of Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and (at least in some films) God.

大西洋彼岸的口音，或者說(shuō)大西洋中部口音，是一種介于英音和美音之間的口音。擁有這種口音的人給人以受過(guò)良好教育的印象，但就是叫人猜不出他到底從哪里來(lái)。上個(gè)世紀(jì)三十年代到四十年代，好萊塢電影里常常能聽到這種口音，像加里·格蘭特、凱瑟琳·赫本，還有上帝都是這個(gè)腔調(diào)（至少某些電影里面是這樣）。

There is no town in the world where people grow up speaking English that way. Instead you get the accent in one of three ways:

世界上沒有哪個(gè)地方的人從小就有這種口音的，除非通過(guò)以下三種途徑：

Learn the accent on purpose (actors used to do that).

有意去學(xué)（演員都是這樣做的）

Grow up or live on both sides of the Atlantic (but that can lead to even stranger accents, like those of Madonna).

在大西洋兩岸長(zhǎng)大或生活（不過(guò)這可能導(dǎo)致更加奇怪的口音，就像麥當(dāng)娜那樣）

Pick it up at a top boarding school in America before the 1960s.

在上世紀(jì)六十年代前美國(guó)高等寄宿學(xué)校里學(xué)會(huì)這種口音。

The accent comes from American boarding schools in New England where students were taught to speak English in more of an RP（Received Pronunciation）or high-class British way.In the 1930s and 1940s it was seen as a good accent to use in film and theatre since it sounded universal and not from any particular part of the world. That makes it a good accent for God and creatures from outer space. You do not hear it much any more because people have grown used to the general American accent, thanks in part to Humphrey Bogart and the extremely Middle American John Wayne.

新英格蘭的寄宿學(xué)校中，學(xué)生們?cè)灰竽７聵?biāo)準(zhǔn)發(fā)音或上層英國(guó)人的英式發(fā)音，由此誕生了這種中大西洋口音。上世紀(jì)三十年代和四十年代，由于人們覺得這種口音很大眾化，所以電影和戲劇表演里普遍采取這樣的發(fā)音。上帝和外太空生物很適合用這種口音講話?，F(xiàn)在我們不大能聽到這種口音了，因?yàn)楹喔トR·鮑嘉（1899-1957，美國(guó)知名男演員）和典型美國(guó)中部出身的約翰·韋恩的出現(xiàn)，大家逐漸習(xí)慣了更加普遍的美式發(fā)音。

Transatlantic English goes something like this:

中大西洋口音的特征是：

Start with a mainstream American accent.

從主流美音入手

Drop your r’s at the end of words, like in “fear” and “winner”.

去掉單詞末尾的卷舌音，如fear和winter

Say all your t’s as t’s not d’s (like in “water” and “butter”).

清音t不要發(fā)成濁音d（美音的一個(gè)特征就是清音t會(huì)發(fā)得有點(diǎn)像d，有時(shí)候介于t和d之間）

Use RP (British) vowels. So “dance” becomes “dahns”.

參照標(biāo)準(zhǔn)發(fā)音（英式）里元音的發(fā)音，dance讀成dahns（具體怎么發(fā)音小編也不是很清楚哈，應(yīng)該是像英國(guó)人那樣吧……）

If you start from a British accent the rules are different. It is an Americanized RP accent.

如果是在英音的基礎(chǔ)上學(xué)習(xí)，步驟就不一樣了。中大西洋口音其實(shí)是一種美國(guó)化的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)發(fā)音。

It is a very particular accent and not just any sort of mix between British and American. There is even a book, now out of print, called “Teach Yourself Transatlantic: Theatre Speech for Actors” (1986) by Robert L. Hobbs.

這是一種相當(dāng)獨(dú)特的口音，不僅僅是英音和美音的混合。1986年Robert L. Hobbs甚至寫過(guò)一本書，《學(xué)會(huì)中大西洋口音：演員的專用口音》，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)了。

It is a hard accent to do – people will laugh at you if you do not get it right. So it takes plenty of practice. But for the British it is an easier accent to master than a general American one.

這種口音很難學(xué)——如果你沒抓住要領(lǐng)，是會(huì)被人嘲笑的。所以需要多多聯(lián)系。不過(guò)對(duì)于英國(guó)人來(lái)說(shuō)，掌握它比掌握美音要容易。

It is a good accent for those foreign to English, strangely enough: since no one grows up speaking it, you will not sound to anyone like you have a foreign accent!Among those who speak with a Transatlantic accent or something close to it: Franklin Roosevelt and most British actors who try to sound American.

奇怪的是，母語(yǔ)非英語(yǔ)的人學(xué)這種口音相當(dāng)有利：因?yàn)闆]人一生下來(lái)就是這種口音，所以聽起來(lái)也沒有“洋腔洋調(diào)”。有這種口音的人包括富蘭克林·羅斯福，以及那些想模仿美國(guó)人的英國(guó)演員。

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