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However, since the 19th century, upper-class communities on the Eastern Seaboard increasingly adopted many of the phonetic qualities (like non-rhoticity) of Received Pronunciation-the standard accent of the British upper class-at least as evidenced in recorded public speeches of the time. Īt the start of the 20th century, formal public speaking in the United States focused on song-like intonation, lengthily and tremulously uttered vowels, and a booming resonance, rather than the details of given words' phonetic qualities. Roosevelt, also employed a non-rhotic Mid-Atlantic accent. His non-trilling distant cousin, Franklin D. This trill is less consistently heard in recordings of Theodore Roosevelt, McKinley's successor from an affluent district of New York City, who also used a cultivated non-rhotic accent but with the addition of the coil-curl merger once notably associated with New York accents. Yet presidents William McKinley of Ohio and Grover Cleveland of Central New York, who attended private schools, clearly employed a non-rhotic, upper-class, Mid-Atlantic quality in their public speeches both even use the distinctive and especially archaic affectation of a " trilled" or " flapped r" at times whenever r is pronounced. President William Howard Taft, who attended public school in Ohio, and inventor Thomas Edison, who grew up in Ohio and Michigan of modest means, both used natural rhotic accents. Įarly recordings of prominent Americans born in the middle of the 19th century provide some insight into their adoption or not of a carefully employed non-rhotic (sometimes called " r-less") speaking style. More recently, the term "mid-Atlantic accent" can also refer to any accent with a perceived mixture of American and British characteristics. A similar accent that resulted from different historical processes, Canadian dainty, was also known in Canada, existing for a century before waning in the 1950s. The accent was embraced in private independent preparatory schools, especially by members of the American Northeastern upper class, as well as in schools for film and stage acting, with its overall use sharply declining after the Second World War. It is not a native or regional accent rather, according to voice and drama professor Dudley Knight, "its earliest advocates bragged that its chief quality was that no Americans actually spoke it unless educated to do so".
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The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the early 20th-century American upper class and entertainment industry, which blended together features regarded as the most prestigious from both American and British English (specifically Received Pronunciation). For the regional dialects of American English in the Mid-Atlantic United States, see Mid-Atlantic American English. 28, 2021.This article is about the cultivated accent blending American and British English. " Defining the Middle Class: Cash, Credentials, or Culture?" Accessed Nov. "Changes in the Consumption, Income, and Well-Being of Single Mother Headed Families." The American Economic Review, vol. " Household Wealth Trends in the United States, 1962 to 2016: Has Middle Class Wealth Recovered?,". " H.R.8 - American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012." Accessed Nov. " Remarks by the President on Extending Tax Cuts for the Middle Class." Accessed Nov.
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" There Are Many Definitions of 'Middle Class'-Here’s Ours." Accessed Nov. " Are You in the American Middle Class? Find Out With Our Income Calculator." Accessed Nov.
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Selected Characteristics of Households by Total Money Income," Download Excel Spreadsheet "Household Income in 2020: All Races." Accessed Nov.
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" Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines." Accessed Nov. " Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020." Accessed Nov. Type of Household-All Households by Median and Mean Income," Download "All Races." Accessed Nov. " America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas." Accessed Nov.
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