Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? • Hacker News Board

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#171

Post by inferno0069 » Mon, Jul 05, 2010, 10:28 PM UTC

coderdude wrote: post #132

wisty wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, everyone has an accent. They just think that they have a "neutral" accent, because that's the way they expect everybody should talk. Actually, if you record your voice, you will find that your spoken voice has a slight accent, while your "inner voice" (the one you use to compose emails) has no accent. This is because talking to yourself sounds different, due to the acoustics of your head and ears (or whatever).

Even southern Californians? We're the only ones I've met who seem to speak 'by the book' as far as I can tell. No noticable, random infections. Every word pronounced like the dictionary says it should be. Not talking about "valley speak," which no one uses anyway now.

Sorry, but it's Iowa / the Midwest, not Southern California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_American#Regional_home_...

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#172

Post by joshkaufman » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 1:55 AM UTC

Here's a follow-up to this post by Rocco Dal Vera, a world-renowned dialect expert: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1489723

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#173

Post by joshkaufman » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 2:07 AM UTC

nickpatrick wrote: post #81

Hey everyone, I'm the author of the post. I'm a longtime HN lurker, so I was very excited to see it shared here. I've really enjoyed reading the discussion. A quick disclaimer: I have zero background in linguistics. The only materials I used for research were Wikipedia and Google Books ( http://books.google.com/books?id=ia5tHVtQPn8C ). Moreover, this is nothing more than a short post on my personal blog. So, don't ex…

Thanks for writing - forwarded this to a famous dialect professor. Here's what he added to your analysis: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1489723

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#174

Post by StuffMaster » Tue, Jul 06, 2010, 3:27 PM UTC

goatforce5 wrote: post #149

wisty wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean a Californian accent? A New York accent? Boston? The accent of a hypothetical guy who immigrated from Mexico when he was 5, went to an all black school in Chicago for 3 years, then moved to South Africa till he finished high school, and now lives in New York? Because while he would have a "non-regional" accent, he will kinda sound a bit different.

Grew up in Australia and then moved to the UK for 10 years. English people think i'm Australian. Or sometimes American (too much time watching US TV, I think). When i'd return to Australia, people would think I was English. I then spent 2 years in Boston. And now 2 years in Toronto. My accent is completely mangled and jumps all over the place (ie, I might sound vaguely North American, but I know that you there's a 'h…

I once talked to a Frenchman who learned English in Australia. I could clearly hear the two accents. It was fascinating.

Re: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

#175

Post by thinker » Fri, Jul 09, 2010, 8:54 PM UTC

intellectronica wrote: post #28

thinker wrote: post #25

I'd agree with the analysis that English is closer to how its spoken in the US today accent-wise. If you look at how people speak English in British colonies, the pronunciation isn't heavily accented to how its spoken in the UK today. For example, South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).

I don't think this is relevant, since speakers in Asia rarely speak English as their mother tongue. Whatever accent they have is due to the sources they've been exposed to. Well educated speakers in India and Pakistan, for example, usually speak with an accent that is quite closed to RP. Other speakers often learn their pronunciation from American movies.

Valid points. I was thinking of people like my grandfather (born 1920) who speak English fluently without a british accent, and wasn't influenced by American tv.