Why don't Americans have a British Accent?
- Thread starter Brent
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linguistic drift.
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Amaris
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I was going to make a joke and say that we do have British accents, but then I started thinking about how our accents came about and I decided I wanted to know too, so carry on please. 
Plus an influx of Irish, German, Polish, Swedish, and a myriad of other European immigrants from the 1900's through the early 20th Century.
Why do you consider American accents (of which there are many) to be "flat"?
Not all of our ancestors came here from Europe.
Indeed. My family came here from Mexico.
Wasn't there a woman in Florida a couple of years back who had some sort of brain aneurysm and started speaking with an English accent? Could exposure to something in the local environment (viruses, trace elements, ...) during development have a part to play as well?
Certain places in England sound very similar to Boston accents. I'm sure you'll find parallels throughout most of the east coast. Those areas that differ probably have to do with significant German, Irish, or Italian influences. As they moved west, the language developed. There was a philosophical change related to a belief that a pure English language should pronounce Rs. It's significant that only the mid-atlantic pronounces them on the east coast. A sort of mid-west accent (simplifying the variety to make a more coherent narrative) began to gain favor because of its ease to understand and the fact that it didn't drop as many letters. Schools began to hire people with this accent to teach their kids and news organizations either tried to hire these people or encouraged their broadcasters to adopt an accent like this. Television has helped to homogenize American accents to some degree, but it's taken quite a long time and is only partially successful.
This is only a partial story, the other half would be the linguistic drift in the UK that moved away from the accent they had in the 1600s (I think there was a more conscious effort of purification there than in America too, but that's just opinion). Both sides were closer back then and neither one sounds like what it is today.
Let's also keep in mind that we have some of the smallest regional variation of any language. Italian or German is far, far worse and the dialects are pretty close to each other geographically.
This is only a partial story, the other half would be the linguistic drift in the UK that moved away from the accent they had in the 1600s (I think there was a more conscious effort of purification there than in America too, but that's just opinion). Both sides were closer back then and neither one sounds like what it is today.
Let's also keep in mind that we have some of the smallest regional variation of any language. Italian or German is far, far worse and the dialects are pretty close to each other geographically.
I don't see why not, really. All i know is that i totally have a California accent, dude.
We do like to take our time.
Something I'd heard, I have no clue if this is true or not, but I had heard that in Britain and in the early colonies, the upper class would actively try to have a different accent than the lower class, and whenever the lower class' accent started to get too similar to the upper class one, they would try to change their accent to be different again. Now, that's just what I've heard, like I said, I have no clue as to its accuracy.
As for my accent, I live fairly close to Boston, and I don't have a Boston accent. I actually have noticed that many people around here don't have the same accent as me. Theirs lean towards a Boston accent, and mine... well... doesn't... I don't know what accent it sounds like.
As for my accent, I live fairly close to Boston, and I don't have a Boston accent. I actually have noticed that many people around here don't have the same accent as me. Theirs lean towards a Boston accent, and mine... well... doesn't... I don't know what accent it sounds like.
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Amaris
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Every time you sing "More than a Feeling", I can definitely hear the Boston accent.
I've always found the Irish accent easier to understand than the British one. I wonder if if that's a sign that the Irish had a strong influence on us here in America?
That's called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and it is a speech impediment caused by brain injury that makes the individual's speech sound somewhat like a foreign accent. If you listen carefully, it doesn't actually sound all that much like an English accent.
As for the differences in accents, it is also important to remember that British accents and pronunciations of many words of today aren't the same as they were 400 or even 200 years ago. Even some distinct Americanisms like saying "mad" to mean angry were common in Britain at the time of the colonies -- they just faded out of use there while remaining here.
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