When did Americans lose their British accents?
mentalfloss.com
When did Americans lose their British accents?
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Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#2[deleted]
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#3This is an interesting read but the article cites no sources for its claims. Even the claims that refer to linguistics debunking other theories have no citation.
It also makes some suspect statements. I live in New England and saying that it is hard to find someone who does not have an accent that links them to some New England locale is just silly. Then there is the claim that the “general American” accent heard on TV and radio is confined to a small region in the Midwest. That just sounds weird on its face. I imagine NPR must recruit reporters exclusively from this region because it would be difficult to find the accent anywhere else, according to the article. Having lived in the Deep South, far West, rural Midwest and urban East coast I have found that regional accents are largely overblown by articles like this.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#4A good, enjoyable read. It's informative while remaining concise, a quality mainstream media articles sorely lack - if this had been a newspaper article, it would've been nearly twice as long, with unnecessary quotes from people with long titles (which are watered down enough to be basically content-free), and still managed to be somewhat less informative than this one is. Reminds me of old (and possibly current) "How Stuff Works" articles.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#5This is an interesting read but the article cites no sources for its claims. Even the claims that refer to linguistics debunking other theories have no citation. It also makes some suspect statements. I live in New England and saying that it is hard to find someone who does not have an accent that links them to some New England locale is just silly. Then there is the claim that the “general American” accent heard on…
Yep. 7 years in Boston and the only time I have ever heard a “Boston” accent unironically was at Fenway Park.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#6Original pronunciation Shakespeare is a good example of this. It's performed with the sorts of accents people had in 16th/17th century England.
To my ear as an English person, it sounds like a Westcountry accent, an example of an English accent which is still rhotic today. But other people might perceive it as being slightly American or Irish sounding.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#7This is an interesting read but the article cites no sources for its claims. Even the claims that refer to linguistics debunking other theories have no citation. It also makes some suspect statements. I live in New England and saying that it is hard to find someone who does not have an accent that links them to some New England locale is just silly. Then there is the claim that the “general American” accent heard on…
People on TV/radio learn General American. They generally don't act with their native voices.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#8Original pronunciation Shakespeare is a good example of this. It's performed with the sorts of accents people had in 16th/17th century England. To my ear as an English person, it sounds like a Westcountry accent, an example of an English accent which is still rhotic today. But other people might perceive it as being slightly American or Irish sounding.
Related, it's such a farce that people will recite and listen to some of the best-regarded _poetry_ in history, and do it in a totally different accent from the original, ruining its auditory aesthetic, and then say that people who don't like it are boorish and low.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#9This is an interesting read but the article cites no sources for its claims. Even the claims that refer to linguistics debunking other theories have no citation. It also makes some suspect statements. I live in New England and saying that it is hard to find someone who does not have an accent that links them to some New England locale is just silly. Then there is the claim that the “general American” accent heard on…
People on TV/radio learn General American. They generally don't act with their native voices.
Some examples can easily be found on the Walking Dead - three or four of the actors have a natural British accent but their characters speak with a southern American accent.
Also, as someone who moved from a small town in the Deep South 20+ years ago to a metropolitan area still in the south, I spent some time working on my accent.
I thought it was better but some of my coworkers working in India that I have gotten to know asked me was English my first language (it is) because they couldn’t understand me as clearly as other native speakers.
I still have work to do - especially as I move more into consulting and leading teams who may be offshore.
Not to mention that I use phrases and references out of habit that are well understood by native speakers but not by non native or especially people in foreign countries.
Re: When did Americans lose their British accents?
#10I read somewhere that the American accent is closer to what British was like in the 1700-1800s. Later the Queen's family, which came from a corner of England, established its accent as the norm. So the American pronounciation is original, and the British one changed in the meantime. Not sure if this is true.