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Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

nicholasjohnpatrick.com

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Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#51
post #50
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try being a Brit without an accent. It's so bloody boring I have to fake the Queens English to get laid. ;)

What does "no accent" mean? How can anyone not have an accent?

I just mean there is no discernible accent; you can't tell where in the UK I am from.

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#52
post #20
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your typing comes off with a very thick accent, something you don't find often online.

Oh, a funny American. Did you get that humor in a legal settlement? -- Edit: Let me add that what you're noticing is probably my staccato diction, filled with code-words and verbal winks to deliver mild amusement to an invisible audience of masochists who I love oh so very much. Cultural and linguistic banter might not be appreciated in these "learned" circles; but to the objects of my affection, the working classes…

See now I can't tell if you are trying to be funny or a dick, but what I said I meant in no way to offend you. Your previous comment did indeed come off with an accent (I wasn't even trying to be funny).

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#53
post #2

> What is surprising, though, is that those accents were much closer to today’s American accents than to today’s British accents. While both have changed over time, it’s actually British accents that have changed much more drastically since then. He claims that RP has diverged much more than American English, but only goes on to support this claim with the divergence of the (r) variable. Any other variables that char…

Yeah, there're many. Here're a few examples:

- the gas/pass divide: in many British accents pass is pronounced like 'pahs', but gas retains the same vowel as in American accents. gas and pass will basically always rhyme in America, but in Britain it'll depend on where you are. In RP they won't rhyme. In the 18th century, it was the same sound everywhere, the one Americans retained.

- the long o, in words like go, home, etc. changed in many British accents from [ou] to [eu]. If you can imagine a very "British", RP pronunciation of home, that's the difference you hear.

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#54
post #51
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does "no accent" mean? How can anyone not have an accent?

I just mean there is no discernible accent; you can't tell where in the UK I am from.

But you do sound distinctively British? Similar to Americans that saw they have no accent but there's no mistaking they're American.

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#57

From the article: Americans in 1776 did have British accents in that American accents and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. That’s not too surprising. Really? Because that surprises the hell out of me. Americans were an ocean away from Britain for maybe a century before 1776, and the accents still hadn't diverged?

I do not think it is that surprising. Being part of the same political entity, there should have been a decent amount of intermingling and cross-travel in both directions. There was a NYTimes op-ed today about colonists from Massachusetts who returned to England to fight in the English Civil War in the mid-17th century: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/opinion/04tinniswood.html

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#58
post #52
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, a funny American. Did you get that humor in a legal settlement? -- Edit: Let me add that what you're noticing is probably my staccato diction, filled with code-words and verbal winks to deliver mild amusement to an invisible audience of masochists who I love oh so very much. Cultural and linguistic banter might not be appreciated in these "learned" circles; but to the objects of my affection, the working classes…

See now I can't tell if you are trying to be funny or a dick, but what I said I meant in no way to offend you. Your previous comment did indeed come off with an accent (I wasn't even trying to be funny).

And this is exactly what I meant by "piss-taking"; your comment was such a delightful jab, I was pleased to play along :-)

I stopped short of scratching others as well, my gut response was to say "Did you divorce a German and take half her humor in settlement." That would have gotten an ovation from the English crowd, but could have confused you and other festive yanks in this victorious of all occasions! Happy 4th of July, mate! No harm was meant :-D

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#59
post #54
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just mean there is no discernible accent; you can't tell where in the UK I am from.

But you do sound distinctively British? Similar to Americans that saw they have no accent but there's no mistaking they're American.

Ethnocentrism 101: Only other people have accents, never us.

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#60
post #22
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but which one? He says "us Somalis", "...the U.S (we...", mentions in his profile that he lives in Northern Virginia but also calls Sydney home yet the diction (i.e. "shopkeepers", "Chavs", "piss-taking", etc.) of his post screams British to me.

Napoleon called the English "a nation of shopkeepers".

Oh, so that's what A Nation of Shoplifters means! Funny. (It's a song by Carter USM).
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