大西洋彼岸的口音——英語學習者最應模仿的口音

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，或者說大西洋中部口音，是一種介於英音和美音之間的口音。擁有這種口音的人給人以受過良好教育的印象，但就是叫人猜不出他到底從哪裏來。上個世紀三十年代到四十年代，好萊塢電影裏常常能聽到這種口音，像加里·格蘭特、凱瑟琳·赫本，還有上帝都是這個腔調（至少某些電影裏面是這樣）。

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:

世界上沒有哪個地方的人從小就有這種口音的，除非通過以下三種途徑：

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

有意去學（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).

在大西洋兩岸長大或生活（不過這可能導致更加奇怪的口音，就像麥當娜那樣）

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

在上世紀六十年代前美國高等寄宿學校裏學會這種口音。

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 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.

新英格蘭的寄宿學校中，學生們曾被要求模仿標準發音或上層英國人的英式發音，由此誕生了這種中大西洋口音。上世紀三十年代和四十年代，由於人們覺得這種口音很大衆化，所以電影和戲劇表演裏普遍採取這樣的發音。上帝和外太空生物很適合用這種口音講話。現在我們不大能聽到這種口音了，因爲亨弗萊·鮑嘉（1899-1957，美國知名男演員）和典型美國中部出身的約翰·韋恩的出現，大家逐漸習慣了更加普遍的美式發音。

Transatlantic English goes something like this:

中大西洋口音的特徵是：

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”.

去掉單詞末尾的捲舌音，如fear和winter

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

清音t不要發成濁音d（美音的一個特徵就是清音t會發得有點像d，有時候介於t和d之間）

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

參照標準發音（英式）裏元音的發音，dance讀成dahns（具體怎麼發音小編也不是很清楚哈，應該是像英國人那樣吧……）

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上學習，步驟就不一樣了。中大西洋口音其實是一種美國化的標準發音。

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.

這是一種相當獨特的口音，不僅僅是英音和美音的混合。1986年Robert L. Hobbs甚至寫過一本書，《學會中大西洋口音：演員的專用口音》，現在已經絕版了。

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——如果你沒抓住要領，是會被人嘲笑的。所以需要多多聯繫。不過對於英國人來說，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，母語非英語的人學這種口音相當有利：因爲沒人一生下來就是這種口音，所以聽起來也沒有“洋腔洋調”。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人的英國演員。