Early American Accents

[jimmy olsen]

American accents were similar to the British accents of the time, however American accents have changed significantly less then the British since then.

[Malthus]

American accents were similar to the British accents of the time, however American accents have changed significantly less then the British since then.

Americans talk more like 18th century Brits, than Brits? 

[Habbaku]

American accents were similar to the British accents of the time, however American accents have changed significantly less then the British since then.

[Queequeg]

Mountains foster linguistic diversity, they don't freeze things.

They foster diversity by freezing things. It's not just mountains anyway. It's also distance and frequency of contact with others.

No language is frozen. Ever.

[dps]

American accents were similar to the British accents of the time, however American accents have changed significantly less then the British since then.

Americans talk more like 18th century Brits, than Brits? 

The problem with this is that I'm not sure that "talk.. ...like 18th century Brits" has much meaning.  Even today, with a smaller population and far smaller land area than the US, the UK has more diverse dialects than America.  And British English was even more chaotic in the 18th century than now.

[Viking]

Do we have any idea when the various American dialects and accents developed? Watching John Adams.  Almost the entire cast has some kind of British accent, but that's likely because of casting and that Americans associate British accents so strongly with Education that a Yorkshire plumber sounds like Milton to American ears.

Also, what kind of accent does King George have in this?

zee djörman akzent i suspect.... (no, that was his father and grandfather)

speculation into spoken english has elder forms of english sounding more like modern irish english. But, the best example of how fucking impossible it is to think about this is the story of the danish slur. The reason danes speak as if they were mentally retarded with a potatoe in their mouth in their own language (but manage to do so clearly in other languages) is that centuries ago a fad for speaking with a slur gained favor in france when the king spoke with a slur. This reached fashionable circles in Kopenhagen and became all the rage resulting in the modern unintellegability of spoken danish.

English has hints of this with slurred speech being associated with upper class twits; the "bwian" joke from "The life of brian" is a perfect example of this.

[garbon]

American accents were similar to the British accents of the time, however American accents have changed significantly less then the British since then.

Americans talk more like 18th century Brits, than Brits? 

We didn't get all uppity and start talking all posh like.

[Razgovory]

They had regular British accents. Just the accents changed much more slowly than they did back in Avalon.

I don't think there is a "regular" British accent.  I seem to recall that the old Yankee accent was dying by the mid 19th century.  I think Daniel Day Lewis's character in Gangs of New York was trying to imitate it.

[Razgovory]

Do we have any idea when the various American dialects and accents developed? Watching John Adams.  Almost the entire cast has some kind of British accent, but that's likely because of casting and that Americans associate British accents so strongly with Education that a Yorkshire plumber sounds like Milton to American ears.

Also, what kind of accent does King George have in this?

zee djörman akzent i suspect.... (no, that was his father and grandfather)

speculation into spoken english has elder forms of english sounding more like modern irish english. But, the best example of how fucking impossible it is to think about this is the story of the danish slur. The reason danes speak as if they were mentally retarded with a potatoe in their mouth in their own language (but manage to do so clearly in other languages) is that centuries ago a fad for speaking with a slur gained favor in france when the king spoke with a slur. This reached fashionable circles in Kopenhagen and became all the rage resulting in the modern unintellegability of spoken danish.

English has hints of this with slurred speech being associated with upper class twits; the "bwian" joke from "The life of brian" is a perfect example of this.

What in the Hell are you talking about?

[Admiral Yi]

What in the Hell are you talking about?

He's talking about the institutionalization of affectation.  I've read similar things about the Spanish lisp, affected at first by the Spanish court to make a lisping monarch feel more comfortable.

[Josquius]

I hate the often repeated line that American is closer to old English than British is. That is just wrong.
American is probally closer to the English of a few hundred years ago than RP (a creation of modern times) but no way is it closer than other British dialects. It is recognised for instance that Bede makes more sense read with a modern northern accent than a standard English one.
The dialects of Britain largely have their basis way back in the dark ages.
American (and Australian and others)...is some weird evolution of them all splodged together.

[Caliga]

My understanding is that the 'original' American default accent was fairly close to the modern coastal southern accents, but was then altered greatly in places like the northeast and midwest by subsequent immigration.  I think that the colonial American accent drew heavily on the west country accents, and it had to have been influenced by the Scots-Irish in some areas, as well as the Poor Palatines and New Netherland Dutch in others.  I can tell you that in my own personal case, most of my colonial American ancestors who came from Britain were from Wiltshire, Yorkshire, or Ulster (the Scots-Irish).

This is a topic I'm very interested in and I know we've discussed it to some degree before.  I've mentioned before that people in rural Pennsylvania sound a lot like southerners (e.g. my dad's family), and I've encountered people in rural Vermont who almost sound southern, and would be in areas not largely affected by subsequent immigration as well.

Note that there are a few places in the coastal south that maintain very unusual, archaic accents (Harker's Island, North Carolina, Tangier Island, Virginia, etc.)

[dps]

Note that there are a few places in the coastal south that maintain very unusual, archaic accents (Harker's Island, North Carolina, Tangier Island, Virginia, etc.)

When we first moved to NC, I worked in Kinston (about 30 miles east of Goldsboro).  Some (but only a small minority) of the people in that area had an accent that I had a good deal of trouble understanding.  I'm not sure what the heck that accent was, but the people I noticed speaking it were older black natives of the area.

[derspiess]

Note that there are a few places in the coastal south that maintain very unusual, archaic accents (Harker's Island, North Carolina, Tangier Island, Virginia, etc.)

When we first moved to NC, I worked in Kinston (about 30 miles east of Goldsboro).  Some (but only a small minority) of the people in that area had an accent that I had a good deal of trouble understanding.  I'm not sure what the heck that accent was, but the people I noticed speaking it were older black natives of the area.

Gullah?

[derspiess]

This is a topic I'm very interested in and I know we've discussed it to some degree before.  I've mentioned before that people in rural Pennsylvania sound a lot like southerners (e.g. my dad's family),

Are you talking about the Mid-Atlantic accent (Philly/SE PA, south Jersey, Baltimore)?  I always thought it sounded like a fusion of southern and New York accents.  In western PA it's downright Appalachian IMO.