When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

[Uladyne]

I found this article pretty interesting and figured some of you may also find it so:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/113640

Basically is says that what we commonly refer to today as the "British Accent" was something that developed after the colonies split from Britain, and prior to that both sides of the pond spoke in a fashion that was probably more similar to the "American Accent."

Totally bass ackwards from what I originally thought. I thought we Americans slowly lost our British accent over time.

 

[roy22341]

We lost their accent when we kicked their asses.

 

[Lowberg]

^

 

[Cyanide_Anima]

lulz

Awesome post. I always had wondered about this very topic. Now it makes sense how people on the east coast have funny accents. =P

 

[midget donkeys]

If this thread doesn't start shit around here nothing will. I will be waiting. Guvna.

 

[midget donkeys]

We lost their accent when we kicked their asses.

We had Mel Gibson. They didn't stand a chance. Seems they would have learned there lesson when Mel beat them up in Scotland with half his face painted blue.

 

[TravisW]

We lost their accent when we kicked their asses.

Relating back to the rhotal r in the article...

we* kicked the "r" out of their arses, making asses out of them.





*"We" meaning "the guys who fought the Revolutionary War", since it's not like I or any of my ancestors had the least bit to do with it.

 

[Harry Hughes]

We had Mel Gibson. They didn't stand a chance. Seems they would have learned there lesson when Mel beat them up in Scotland with half his face painted blue.

 

[Boerboel666]

If this is true why don't Australians share an identical accent with Americans ?

 

[StefTD]

because Aussies are just criminals and rednecks!

 

[ratsapprentice]

Haven't read the whole thing, but.... I find it hard to believe that all of the British (read: English) regional accents, of which there are too many to count, changed whilst the American one/'s did not.
I think this is talking mainly about the posh English accent which developed as a fashion trend more than anything else.....

Technically we kicked our own ass...

 

[::XeS::]

Maybe because USA citizens are a results of years of immigrations from many parts of the world..and every people carries his own accent. Mixing people from different countries mixes also the 2 language etc...

 

[Skinny Viking]

lulz

Awesome post. I always had wondered about this very topic. Now it makes sense how people on the east coast have funny accents. =P

da fuck yew tawkin bowt?

 

[John_C]

Haven't read the whole thing, but.... I find it hard to believe that all of the British (read: English) regional accents, of which there are too many to count, changed whilst the American one/'s did not.
I think this is talking mainly about the posh English accent which developed as a fashion trend more than anything else.....

Technically we kicked our own ass...

this.

Over a very small geographical area accents in the UK can change to the extent where people have to make a conscious effort to speak in a way that will be understood[1]. This is the byproduct of a 1000 years of relative stability and minimal movement allowing local speech to diverge. By contrast, american history is a relatively short history, dominated by movement and population mixing, creating a more uniform accent.

Quite simply, to refer to the so-called British accent is a misnomer.

[1] The ability to do this is a byproduct of modern education, you don't have to look far in to the past to find literature describing conversation being impossible between people with particularly distant accents in the UK.

 

[egan.]

If this is true why don't Australians share an identical accent with Americans ?

A 180 year head start? Different influences of accents along the way? Giant poison spiders?

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ I blame the dingoes and wallabies



hahahahahaha .... "wallabies"

 

[guitarguru777]

This ones for you Carlos .....

 

[SocialNumb]

I just have 1 question (and I don't know this to be a fact, just hear it in you guys TV shows):

Why is it that almost every sentence spoken ends in a question?

I hear a lot of "init", "yeah", "ya", "right" and so on at the end of a large portion of sentences.

I would say: "The cat is orange."

On your TV shows it's more like: "The cat is a orange wanker, init?

So is this really common and if so, why? Why the question?

Just trying to understand. Not starting shit.

 

[guitarguru777]

Probably cause most of what you watch is all the shit thats on BBC America, 98% of that is comedy based. Watch some real Brit TV and its very different.

 

[Skinny Viking]

This ones for you Carlos .....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R3L_NK0ER4

thats more a caricature of hard NY, NJ

I shed that years ago and through osmosis developed (unintentionally) an equally debilitating NE Philly slur

Essentially traded one set of bad vowel enunciation for another