Here's Why Kelsey Grammer Sounds British-ish

Ever understand how Kelsey Grammer's Frasier sounds oddly British? We provide an explanation for the Transatlantic accent.

If you may have ever puzzled why Kelsey Grammer sounds British in Frasier, take comfort in the truth that you're very much not alone. "This has bothered me a lot since I was a small child," writes one particular person on Twitter about Kelsey's persona's mysterious twang. 

From some speculating that he might have studied in the UK to others wondering if it is "because he was from the Virgin Islands ... maybe others in his family had accents?," we are left with numerous questions in regards to the Frasier actor. 

But there's a uncomplicated rationalization in the back of all of it. Well, simple-ish. 

Why does Kelsey Grammer sound British?

You would possibly giggle whilst you learn this, however people from exact Britain very a lot do not think Kelsey sounds like considered one of their own. "As someone from the UK, I think he sounds like an American who is always doing a Shakespearean accent," wrote one hilarious person on Twitter. 

Another agrees, "To me — as a Brit — Frasier and Niles just sounded like two cultured Americans. In all the years I watched the show, they NEVER sounded British at all. That’s why Daphne’s accent sticks out. To any Brit, Frasier and Niles don’t sound British in any way." L-O-L.

Fine, however to American audiences, the way in which Frasier (and his brother Nile) speaks sounds a bit... off. If you think back to films and shows you used to experience as a child, you might realize that his affectations are vaguely familiar. In a way that's in all probability reminiscent of Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, or the resort proprietor guy from American Horror Story: Hotel. 

It's the way in which they drop their 'r's in words like "euh-ly" or emphasize their 't's announcing "buTTer" reasonably than "budder," like we do. This is because they speak with the Transatlantic accessory, which is mainly acquainted from outdated motion pictures — except you will have an historic rich great-great-uncle from the east coast. Personally, Frasier's accessory strikes a chord in my memory of Boy Meets World's Mister Feeny.

The Transatlantic (or Mid-Atlantic) Accent, explained.

The Transatlantic accessory is not British, however it additionally is not American. In fact, it isn't from any place, but it is made to sound love it might be from someplace between right here and the United Kingdom (Mid-Atlantic, get it?). 

Essentially, again in the '30s and '40s, rich other people (particularly on the east coast) determined to undertake this hybrid accessory as a "class" marker. "Hah-vahd English" or "aristocratic drawl" may strike a chord. Rich other people taught it in boarding faculties, completing faculties, and also you guessed it, in theater and drama classes.

While we will think Kelsey, the actor (who, to be transparent, speaks completely normal American English), advanced his Transatlantic accent, in conjunction with the various others he masters, in theater school, his personality, Frasier, almost certainly picked it up from one of the crucial many snobby personal faculties he attended in Boston. Notice how his dad, who is of a perceptively lower magnificence, doesn't talk in the same means.

It's not utterly transparent how this snobby east coast accessory became an trade usual in Hollywood, however it totally did. If you take a look at just about any movie prior to the '50s with sound, you'll understand that all the actors discuss this way.

Most other folks agree the rise in Transatlantic vernacular had something to do with the transition from silent films to "talkies," the place actors spoke on display for the very first time. Receivers had very little bass era again then, so actors needed to enunciate super clearly if they sought after to be understood. By adopting this accent, which had extra nasal options, audiences may just perceive them without problems.

Plus, it helped that the accent did not make the actors sound like they came from any explicit area, which allowed them more versatility when it came to roles.

So why do not we pay attention the Transatlantic accessory anymore?

After World War II, the Mid-Atlantic accent fell out of fashion in the U.S. Instructors stopped educating it in finishing college and boarding faculties, apparently in a rejection of classicism. At that cut-off date, rich Americans who boasted about their accessory had been just about ridiculed by way of everybody else. Kind of in the same manner that individuals laugh at Frasier's accessory lately.

Obviously that shift took a while, and a few Americans (each on-screen and off-) had been nonetheless heard using the accent up till the late '40s and '50s. As a new generations of actors took over, none of them had been taught the accent in theater faculty, and spoke a lot more in a similar way to the American English all of us discuss nowadays, which is the way it eventually turned into extinct in motion pictures.

These days, it is predominantly used for snobbish comedic impact and for characters, like Frasier, to make it clear that he's much more pretentious than you.

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