It became the default dialect to use in theater if no regional dialect was specified. Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater were the first American actors to abandon it (although if you listen to old episodes of The Shadow radio show, Welles was a master of the mid-Atlantic dialect). Although I really think it was WWII — where we Yanks sat on our asses for two years while Europe and Asia burned, and then showed up like the fucking cavalry — that killed it as far as America goes. The weird part is how this fake accent got adopted by actors in all sorts of places (think Australia, South Africa) as a model for “how Americans talk.”

Americans, OTOH, have no frikkin idea what an Irish accent sounds like, unless they seek them out, because we still think the Irish sound like Vaudeville characters from the 1900s. The odd thing is, once you start listening to contemporary Irish speakers, it’s probably the closest European analogue to American and Canadian English. Y’all sound more like us, naturally, than the Brits and Antipodeans could hope to.

– Oh, holy crap! This thread is over a month old. I found this blog today, and I’ve been reading through the archives, and lost all track of time. Into the feed reader it goes. Okay, speaking of Santa, and Mid-Atlantic, and theater, here’s something special for you, since no one else is reading: Santa Claus Hides in Your Phonograph (1922) (mp3), a supremely creepy example of a) Santa’s voice, b) authentic Vaudeville mid-Atlantic stage dialect, c) childhood trauma.

Blame has to laid at the feet of the Beeb for this one.’Kid’Jensen leaps to mind.

A great and terrible beauty is like… fuckiiin’… born, man!

In the US, “Mid-Atlantic” refers to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but your interpretation describes that phenomenon perfectly.

Cnuimh

On a vaguely related theme, I heard a rural, Munster midwife use the word “bling” recently. Nearly fell off my birthing ball.

Oh and Barbara, you’re entirely right. Sadly (and amusingly) people are nuts so this is never going to happen.

You don’t get the full mid-atlantic until the breaks, when the station idents and “stings” expose you to a growling voice somewhere between an action movie trailer voice-over and the dude who did that ad for Night Owls in Ranelagh: “Late Night…On Two…Eff! Emm!”

Perhaps rather than stemming from societal insecurity the use of the mid-Atlantic accent may have more to do with personal insecurities. Who can honestly say they like hearing their voice on recorded medium? Perhaps even DJ’s cringe at hearing their own lilt so choose to adopt a different more generic radio voice.

I also think the term mid-Atlantic accent is over used. Personally I can’t hear any American aspect to the accent of someone like Tony Fenton. Rather, the Irish / English radio voice is something unknown to linguistics. Strangely geographically unspecific. When I think of mid-athletic accents I think of people like say Carry Grant or Vincent Price.

Or perhaps I am wrong and in fact radio DJs suffer from the rare, but highly amusing, medical condition of Foreign Accent Syndrome (whereby peoples’ accents inexplicably change as a result of brain trauma).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/5144300.stm

Definitely up there in my top 10 most amusing medical conditions (sandwiched somewhere between Tourette’s syndrome and narcolepsy).

Important questions all.

The mid-atlantic DJ phenomenon isn’t, of course, confined to our braying, mucksavagey isle. The Beeb’s Radio 1 is a famous example and may even be where it was born. Still, even if it did, and even if it reflected British insecurities, we’re obviously even more plagued with self doubt since we nicked it 2nd hand (from the ould enemy no less).

Your point about the “layer of affectation which modifies but never entirely obliterates the brogue below” firmly batters the nail on the head I think. This is not supposed to be a wholly convincing impression or copy. It wears its fakeness openly and obviously. That makes the whole thing even weirder.

It reminds me vaguely of Country ‘n’ Irish music. On the one hand it addresses local rural concerns, while on the other it riffs on typically American motifs. In the process something entirely new is created…though I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing.

But how does this explain the mid-atlantic accent much favoured by radio station idents? It’s not a fake accent as such – it doesn’t try to fool the listener into thinking he’s listening to an American. Rather it makes clear that it is a layer of affectation which modifies but never entirely obliterates the brogue below. What weird inchoate fears and prejudices can motivate such a thing? Just as kids (and adults too, gawd help us) sometimes prefer tv-advertised processed foods to the infinitely superior real thing, radio station managers think we’ll take a patently inauthentic american twang or upper-crust drawl over an honest to goodness local accent. God, we’re such rubes.