AHC: Have American and British English be mutually unintelligible

[Mechadogzilla]

For this challenge, you have to have Americans and Brits be speaking variants of English about as distinct from one another as Dutch and Afrikaans. Is this possible? What could the differences be? What effects would it have on the wider world?

 

[Analytical Engine]

The simplest solution is to have British English or/and American English be standardised under different systems to OTL.

Prior to the work of Dr Samuel Johnson, the various English dialects were very different to each other. To the point where some were mutually unintelligible - someone from the southeast of England would need a translator from the Midlands to speak to someone from the northeast of England, for example.

 

[piratedude]

Does it have to be mutual? Itd be easier if it was asymmetric, like Scots is to standard English

 

[SwampTiger]

My wife thinks the two dialects are mutually unintelligible. We use subtitles for British TV and movies.

 

[Donald Reaver]

I often use subtitles for shows such as "Vera" and "Shetland". Usually have no problem understanding but miss things at times. There was one police show set in rural Ireland whose name escapes me, that I found it almost required.

 

[Analytical Engine]

I think the only American dialect I have ever had trouble with understanding is Cajun, and that was partly down to the speaker also having a very heavy accent.

Mostly, I can get by, unless the speaker makes heavy use of colloquialisms that I am not familiar with.

 

[ASDFG56]

One way to do this may be a Timeline-191 esque scenario where the U.S. allies with a non-English European power, likely either Germany or Russia, and takes loanwords from the language. Over time due to linguistic drift, American English loses intelligibility with its British counterpart, eventually becoming it's own language; it would still be a West Germanic language, perhaps even creating a new branch of the Indo-European language family, the Brittanic languages. If the progression of technology is the same as in OTL, that would also affect the development of American English dialects through exposure to non-Anglophone foreign linguistic influence in mass media.

 

[Tomislav Addai]

There were attempts to use a phonetic spelling of English in America .... I meen ther wur etems tu yooz a fenetek speleng of Inglish in Emereke

 

[FriendlyGhost]

I often use subtitles for shows such as "Vera" and "Shetland". Usually have no problem understanding but miss things at times.

Vera and Shetland are fine, as is Taggart. It's shows with southerners speaking which need subtitles.

I meen ther wur etems tu yooz a fenetek speleng of Inglish in Emereke

A different version: I meen thair wer atemts too yooz a fonetik speling ov Inglish in Amerika.
Just goes to prove that 'phonetic spelling' is only true for one particular dialect.

Somehow delay higher levels of literacy and there's a good chance that the language(s) on either side of the Atlantic would drift apart more. It's the printed word and the concomitant standardisation which leads to mutual intelligibility. If the language(s) remain primarily verbal for longer, they'll become different. Combine this with a period when another language becomes the international lingua franca and the effect could be enhanced.

 

[Deleted member 114175]

Between the Industrial Revolution and now, I don't think it's possible to lose intelligibility between standardized forms of British English and American English. Has any language in history diverged that fast?

 

[Jan Olbracht]

I think English colonization of North America must be hastened by at least century for it to happen, OR colonization must be limited with most of colonist coming from one particular region of England that uses dialect very different from national standard.

 

[Mina-van-Mako]

American could be more influenced by the big other-Germanic community, becoming Amerikan opposed to British

 

[JanWellem]

I think English colonization of North America must be hastened by at least century for it to happen, OR colonization must be limited with most of colonist coming from one particular region of England that uses dialect very different from national standard.

And have Native American languages and the languages of other European countries' colonies, which were annexed into BNA (Dutch, Swedish, French) have a more profound impact on American English than IOTL,

 

[Nephi]

My wife thinks the two dialects are mutually unintelligible. We use subtitles for British TV and movies.

Seriously, I wonder if it's a regional thing. I can understand them just fine.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Newcastle pronunciation becomes the mark of high culture and the aristocracy.

 

[xsampa]

An ideological movement takes power and creates an American language that removes features seen as too complex (excess number of vowels, parts of the TAM etc.)

 

[Xenophonte]

There were attempts to use a phonetic spelling of English in America .... I meen ther wur etems tu yooz a fenetek speleng of Inglish in Emereke

An ideological movement takes power and creates an American language that removes features seen as too complex (excess number of vowels, parts of the TAM etc.)

The more near to achieve it in OTL would be if the proposed spelling reform and new alphabet proposed/created by Franklin to succeed. Perhaps if Ben Flanking could somewhat, in place to only inspire him, could convince/persuade to Noah Webster in accept his reform and to join him in to campaign to 'sell it' to the American printers and to the public...

 

[Musadutoe]

The influence of the British be less pronounced in the U.S.A, and Canada in the 1700's. New Amsterdam remains a Dutch Colony for a longer period of time, the English not beating the French in Canada, the Swedes remaining a stronger influence in the Mid Atlantic and more immigrants from northern Europe.

 

[Driftless]

One way to do this may be a Timeline-191 esque scenario where the U.S. allies with a non-English European power, likely either Germany or Russia, and takes loanwords from the language. Over time due to linguistic drift, American English loses intelligibility with its British counterpart, eventually becoming it's own language; it would still be a West Germanic language, perhaps even creating a new branch of the Indo-European language family, the Brittanic languages. If the progression of technology is the same as in OTL, that would also affect the development of American English dialects through exposure to non-Anglophone foreign linguistic influence in mass media.

There were stretches in American history were German was a very common language in several parts of the US. The anti-german backlash of World War 1 functionally killed that off.

Or, a real stretch of a POD.... Have the relationship between Native Americans and the French and English fall out differently west of the Applachians, where French becomes the Lingua Franca of the frontier. More Acadian resettlement to the Great Lakes as well as the Lower Mississippi Valley might help? Perhaps the end product is a Franco-English creole?

 

[funnyhat]

The more near to achieve it in OTL would be if the proposed spelling reform and new alphabet proposed/created by Franklin to succeed. Perhaps if Ben Flanking could somewhat, in place to only inspire him, could convince/persuade to Noah Webster in accept his reform and to join him in to campaign to 'sell it' to the American printers and to the public...

If this spelling system were adopted, it would certainly make written British English harder for Americans to understand. British people could probably understand American spelling a little better - but only if it matches their own pronunciation. Even then they would have to pronounce it out loud and it would slow down comprehension. Books would probably have to be translated between the two.