Early American Accents

[Queequeg]

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?

[MadImmortalMan]

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

[Phillip V]

I like Abigail Adams; seems like a good role model.


I plan to read the exchange of letters between her, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.

[Queequeg]

You mean Albion?

[MadImmortalMan]

You mean Albion?

I guess. I use them more or less interchangeably. Even though one is fictional. 

[Malthus]

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?

I have always imagined George III to be the first of his line to have an English accent, rather than a German one ...

[Queequeg]

Yeah, but surely it would be some kind of posh accent?  George had something of an Irish accent almost.  It was weird. 

[alfred russel]

Early recordings I've heard of American accents aren't so different than those today. I remember Lettow posting a recording of southern Civil War veterans and they wouldn't sound out of place today. I doubt the bulk of divergence took place from 1776 to ~1850--a significant amount probably started before then. Which would make sense in light of the changes that took place in England 1620-1776.

I've read that until the civil war, some isolated southerners were speaking elizabethan english, but that the war led them to be pulled out of the mountains.

[Queequeg]

I've read that until the civil war, some isolated southerners were speaking elizabethan english, but that the war led them to be pulled out of the mountains.

Mountains foster linguistic diversity, they don't freeze things.  It's likely that they came over speaking a northern English or Scots dialect that maintained "thou", which several do even today. This probably would have sounded Elizabethan to Civil War officers familiar with the King James Bible and Shakespear, but I'd bet my life that their dialect had way more French, West African, Indian and Spanish influence than anything the Bard of Avon would recognize as his own dialect. 

[Queequeg]

Hmm.  It would be very interesting to see what English dialects contributed the most to American English. 

[CountDeMoney]

Gordon S. Wood wrote about it.

[Warspite]

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?

A Yorkshire plumber is probably closer to Milton that most modern English accents, especially RP ('BBC English') which is a creation of the industrial age.

[dps]

I've read that until the civil war, some isolated southerners were speaking elizabethan english, but that the war led them to be pulled out of the mountains.

Mountains foster linguistic diversity, they don't freeze things.  It's likely that they came over speaking a northern English or Scots dialect that maintained "thou", which several do even today. This probably would have sounded Elizabethan to Civil War officers familiar with the King James Bible and Shakespear, but I'd bet my life that their dialect had way more French, West African, Indian and Spanish influence than anything the Bard of Avon would recognize as his own dialect. 

French, West African, Indian and Spanish influences among people living in the southern Appalachians?  (I assume that he was primarily referring to people in that area, given the bit about "pulled out of the mountains".)

[Phillip V]

Perhaps Thomas Jefferson hated Alexander Hamilton because the latter had a West Indian accent?

[MadImmortalMan]

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.