Mid-Atlantic English

Mid-Atlantic English (sometimes called a Transatlantic accent) is a cultivated or acquired version of the English language that is not a typical idiom of any location. It blends American and British without being predominantly either. It is also used to describe various forms of North American speech that have assimilated some British pronunciations and vice-versa. These pronunciations were, at one time, common in English-speaking theatre and film, and were also found among members of the upper classes of American society. It is also commonly used by Anglophone expatriates, many of whom have adopted certain features of the accent of their place of residence.

Mid-Atlantic English was popular in Hollywood films from the 1930s to the early 1960s, and continues to be associated with people such as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, William F. Buckley, Jr., Gore Vidal, George Plimpton, Roscoe Lee Browne, Norman Mailer, Maria Callas and John Houseman.

Mid-Atlantic English was usually learned in one of three ways:

• Intentionally practiced for stage or other use (as with many Hollywood actors of the past). A version of this accent, codified by voice coach Edith Skinner, is widely taught in acting schools as American Theater Standard.
• Developed naturally by spending extended time in various Anglophone communities outside one's native environment, most typically in North America and the United Kingdom.
• Learned at a boarding school in America prior to the 1960s (after which it fell out of vogue).

Scottish-born John Barrowman speculates that he may have developed a Mid-Atlantic accent while attempting to adapt his native speech to American English.

"Mid-Atlantic" attempts to use no deliberate Briticisms nor any deliberate Americanisms, so that it can be equally understandable and acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The term "mid-Atlantic" is sometimes used in Britain to refer, often critically, to British public figures who affect a quasi-American accent. It is also used to refer to a bland, geographically unspecific form of popular culture.