看到一半忽然想起 Cary Grant 是英国人，但是他的口音很奇怪，又不英又不美的，然后联想起好莱坞影片30-40年代里很多影星都是这个口音，例如 Katherine Hepburn 和 Jimmy Stewart 就是最典型的例子。然后又联想到其实JFK之类的名人说话也有这个腔调。是的，不仅是咬字和发音，而且语音节奏和抑扬顿挫都是自成一家，既不是节拍短促的英国口音和上下走向，又不是软软平平的美国口音（主要的来源是爱尔兰口音），而且也对不上美国的各个地方口音。
其实这个疑问以前就有过，现在有Google和Wikipedia了，可以找到答案 ---
Mid-Atlantic Accent.
"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.
Mid-Atlantic English is also a name that has been given to a pronunciation of English that was formerly cultivated by actors for use in theatre, radio, film, early television, and by news announcers. This dialect was formerly used by American actors who adopted some features of British pronunciation; it was used on stage generally - and especially in productions of Shakespeare and other pieces from the British Isles - and frequently in film until the mid-1960s.
Similar speech has historically been used by certain Americans not in the theatre; it was cultivated by the upper classes in some areas of the Northeastern United States.
口音在英国是阶级的标志，阶级是英国的 national obsession，人一张口就被定性。在美国，演员，媒体，蓝血的上流人士合用一个口音，真是个奇怪而有趣的混合阶级呢。
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