Probably a bit of both. What we tend to see as a British accent today was deliberately popularized, for example. However, you also get dialects that aren't intentional, but arise anyway.RCBH928 wrote:So I was watching Gone With The Wind and The Cincinnati Kid, there is a huge difference between the style of dialogue back then and now. Is it possible that people back then used to speak this way in their everyday lives or is this style of talk is purposely used?
You probably also see some technical aspects creep in there. For example, if an actor needs to be able to project into an auditorium, or in a way that whatever microphone tech they had in 1939 picked up well, it could also be a reason.
I'd chalk this up a lot more to Hollywood standards than actual day-to-day speech, however, it would also generally be part of polite conversation, even today.One very noticeable thing is the lack of foul language
