英语学习者最应模仿大西洋中部口音

 　　The Transatlantic accent, also called a Mid-Atlantic accent, is a way of speaking English that is halfway 1 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 2 films from the 1930s and 1940s. It is the accent of Cary Grant 3, Katherine Hepburn and (at least in some films) God。

　　大西洋彼岸的口音，或者说大西洋中部口音，是一种介于英音和美音之间的口音。拥有这种口音的人给人以受过良好教育的印象，但就是叫人猜不出他到底从哪里来。上个世纪三十年代到四十年代，好莱坞电影里常常能听到这种口音，像加里·格兰特、凯瑟琳·赫本，还有上帝都是这个腔调(至少某些电影里面是这样)。
　　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:
　　世界上没有哪个地方的人从小就有这种口音的，除非通过以下三种途径：
　　Learn the accent on purpose (actors used to do that)。
　　有意去学(演员都是这样做的)
　　Grow up or live on both sides of the Atlantic (but that can lead to even stranger accents, like those of Madonna)。
　　在大西洋两岸长大或生活(不过这可能导致更加奇怪的口音，就像麦当娜那样)
　　Pick it up at a top boarding school in America before the 1960s。
　　在上世纪六十年代前美国高等寄宿学校里学会这种口音。
　　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 4 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 5 Middle American John Wayne。
　　新英格兰的寄宿学校中，学生们曾被要求模仿标准发音或上层英国人的英式发音，由此诞生了这种中大西洋口音。上世纪三十年代和四十年代，由于人们觉得这种口音很大众化，所以电影和戏剧表演里普遍采取这样的发音。上帝和外太空生物很适合用这种口音讲话。现在我们不大能听到这种口音了，因为亨弗莱·鲍嘉(1899-1957，美国知名男演员)和典型美国中部出身的约翰·韦恩的出现，大家逐渐习惯了更加普遍的美式发音。
　　Transatlantic English goes something like this:
　　中大西洋口音的特征是：
　　Start with a mainstream 6 American accent。
　　从主流美音入手
　　Drop your r’s at the end of words, like in “fear” and “winner”。
　　去掉单词末尾的卷舌音，如fear和winter
　　Say all your t’s as t’s not d’s (like in “water” and “butter”)。
　　清音t不要发成浊音d(美音的一个特征就是清音t会发得有点像 d，有时候介于t和d之间)
　　Use RP (British) vowels 7. So “dance” becomes “dahns”。
　　参照标准发音(英式)里元音的发音，dance读成dahns(具体怎么发音小编也不是很清楚哈，应该是像英国人那样吧……)
　　If you start from a British accent the rules are different. It is an Americanized RP accent。
　　如果是在英音的基础上学习，步骤就不一样了。中大西洋口音其实是一种美国化的标准发音。
　　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。
　　这是一种相当独特的口音，不仅仅是英音和美音的混合。1986年Robert L. Hobbs甚至写过一本书，《学会中大西洋口音：演员的专用口音》，现在已经绝版了。
　　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。
　　这种口音很难学——如果你没抓住要领，是会被人嘲笑的。所以需要多多联系。不过对于英国人来说，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，母语非英语的人学这种口音相当有利：因为没人一生下来就是这种口音，所以听起来也没有“洋腔洋调”。有这种口音的人包括富兰克林·罗斯福，以及那些想模仿美国人的英国演员。