How can Americans retain an English accent and dialect?

Actually the typical "General American"/"Chicago" accent (that you see most news anchors over here using) is about as close to British English in the 1700's as you can get nowadays.
 
England itself (and I mean England, not the UK as a whole) does'nt even have a single accent, and the English all live together.
 

Lateknight

Banned
England itself (and I mean England, not the UK as a whole) does'nt even have a single accent, and the English all live together.

How dare you sir the English do not all "live" together some of them live tens of miles apart. Next you be saying that kennish man and a Cornish man same are basically the same thing. :rolleyes:
 
How dare you sir the English do not all "live" together some of them tens of miles apart. Next you be saying that kennish man and a Cornish man same are basically the same thing. :rolleyes:
As a Canadian, if it would fit in one province it's pretty much the same thing. (Yes, that means New York and Florida are the same thing. :p)
 
As a Canadian, if it would fit in one province it's pretty much the same thing. (Yes, that means New York and Florida are the same thing. :p)

Just don't mention Newfoundland and the Maritimes. ;) The Canadian Maritimes accent, to me, sounds like a hybrid of a typical New England accent and a Scottish accent, and Newfoundland English is basically a weird mix of old-school English, as well as Irish and West Country accents (well, since Newfoundland English is probably the oldest English dialect spoken in North America, of course it would be different).

As for how Americans can retain an accent closer to southern England? Retain the upper-class accents (i.e. the Boston Brahmin accent in the case of New England) as the standard and heavily propagate them. The upper-class "Mid-Atlantic" dialects were basically halfway houses between RP and American English, with one version codified by Edith Skinner as American Theatre Standard (or, as she calls it, "Good Speech").
 
Among other things you would need to limit immigration to only 'English'. Those like my Swabian ancestors have been continually contaminating north American speech with a riotous mix of every common language on earth.

A second influence is the alteration of accent, grammar, vocabulary to create a separate social identity. Assorted groups like gangs, young, coworkers will unconciously or purposefully make alterations i their speech to create a distinct identification.
 
Newfoundland English is basically a weird mix of old-school English, as well as Irish and West Country accents (well, since Newfoundland English is probably the oldest English dialect spoken in North America, of course it would be different).

I would say that Newfoundland English is actually a multitude of separate accents/dialects, some fairly close to other Maritimes accents, and others quite distant indeed. I once spent a summer working in a resort, and shared a two-person room with an outport Newfoundlander. When we first met, he talked for around 20 minutes, but I did not understand a single word he said. After a while, I learned to get past the very different cadence and stress, not to mention actual phonemes, he used, and suddenly I could make sense of what he was saying. On the other hand, the St John's natives I have spoken with were perfectly clear and understandable.
 
Actually the typical "General American"/"Chicago" accent (that you see most news anchors over here using) is about as close to British English in the 1700's as you can get nowadays.

Yep, from what I have read the accent changed more in England than in the US. The US is closer to the English accent of say 1800, than the accent you would here on BBC.
 
Title says it all. Is it possible for American dialects to be similar to that of England to the present day?

The accent that was spoken on both sides of the pond in 1776 is almost nothing like Received Pronunciation, which is what I assume you mean by "English Accent". Otherwise, this is OTL in some cases. I've lived all my life in Michigan's Thumb, and my accent is far closer to West Country English than West Country English is to RP, for example.

The biggest change is non-rhotic accents, which started in England in the early 19th Century. They spread to coastal US cities that did heavy trade with Britain(Charleston, Boston) but never really made it inland.
 
Yep, from what I have read the accent changed more in England than in the US. The US is closer to the English accent of say 1800, than the accent you would here on BBC.

Herein lay the problem, and why I don't think this can work. Besides ISOTing everybody in today's UK to the US in 1800.
 
Invent electricity, rubber-coated wiring, fuses, circuit-breakers, phonographs, radio, television, records, wire-recording, tapes, CDs, VHS, DVDs, rockets, satellites, gyroscopes, and the internet by 1609,:eek::rolleyes::p thereby freezing language accents as they were.

As a life long New Englander living some 100 miles from New York, I've found my accent to be misinterpreted by American Southerners to be English.:cool: Tallyho!:)
 
Invent electricity, rubber-coated wiring, fuses, circuit-breakers, phonographs, radio, television, records, wire-recording, tapes, CDs, VHS, DVDs, rockets, satellites, gyroscopes, and the internet by 1609,:eek::rolleyes::p thereby freezing language accents as they were.

As a life long New Englander living some 100 miles from New York, I've found my accent to be misinterpreted by American Southerners to be English.:cool: Tallyho!:)

But freezing English as it was in the 17th Century would make the English sound more American(in general) not the other way around, because most American English dialects have changed relatively little since 1800, but most British English dialects have changed substantively since then.

And I've had Southerners think my thick Michigan accent is the result of a speech impediment or being from Mars.

"I hope yaras xzeitedt as I'um. Just a few milzup the mou'n tothe 'parmen'."

For English speakers: "I hope you are as excited as I am. Just a few miles up the mountain to the apartment."
 
Top