How can Americans retain an English accent and dialect?

I do wonder if in a timeline where there was no American Revolution, North American and British English would remain at least slightly closer together because there would be stronger cultural ties. British-American aristocrats might self-consciously echo aristocratic accents from the mother country, and the influence might start flowing in the other direction as well as the colonies rose to equal Britain in power. For the non-aristocratic, a larger percentage of the immigration to British North America might be from Britain itself, leading to more commonality among accents.

The thing is, they DID that in OTL. It still faded away/merged into other dialects such as the New Yorker or Pennsylvania dialect. Furthermore, nothing like that really survived in Canada, itself de jure British territory for a longer period of time. If you want to see that dialect survive, I think butterflying away the Second World War and/or American cinema as it stood in OTL could work. Not that I'd approve (then again, I'm a rabid reverse-snob :p).
 
The thing is, they DID that in OTL. It still faded away/merged into other dialects such as the New Yorker or Pennsylvania dialect. Furthermore, nothing like that really survived in Canada, itself de jure British territory for a longer period of time. If you want to see that dialect survive, I think butterflying away the Second World War and/or American cinema as it stood in OTL could work. Not that I'd approve (then again, I'm a rabid reverse-snob :p).

If I can also point out, look at other language and the differences between the standard spoken in the motherland and those in the current or former oversea colonies. There is *always* differences notable to those who can speak the language (though it might be lost to those whose native language is something else).
 
The Americans could use British words and spellings but their accent would still be different, probably the same as OTL. The Aussies and Kiwis use British English and they still have distinctive accents.
Mind you there might be yet another cricket team that we would keep losing to!!!
 

JJohnson

Banned
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.

I've seen that as well. American English preserved older stages of accent, including rhoticism, that RP lost. Now to convince England to pronounce the R in all positions of a word...
 

JJohnson

Banned
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!:)

I spoke to a Bostoner on the phone while at work a week or so ago, and she told of getting made fun of for not pronouncing her Rs, which she never seemed to notice till it was pointed out to her. She then started pronouncing them to blend in to Florida, where she had moved for work. Interesting little tale.
 
Title says it all. Is it possible for American dialects to be similar to that of England to the present day?

There is no “retain”. THEY changed THEIR accents more than we have. American English is far closer to late 1700s English than British English is.
 
"American English is far closer to late 1700s English than British English is."

That's been claimed a few times already on this thread, but I'd like to hear what the evidence is for that?

I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but comparing speech patterns across 200+ years is not easy, so I would like to know what the evidence is to back such claims up? From a purely anecdotal and unscientific basis, in all of the 17th and 18th century period dramas from England that I've seen I can't remember thinking "they sound like Americans". Unless there's a Hollywood actor involved.
 
"American English is far closer to late 1700s English than British English is."

That's been claimed a few times already on this thread, but I'd like to hear what the evidence is for that?

I don't have a strong opinion on this either way, but comparing speech patterns across 200+ years is not easy, so I would like to know what the evidence is to back such claims up? From a purely anecdotal and unscientific basis, in all of the 17th and 18th century period dramas from England that I've seen I can't remember thinking "they sound like Americans". Unless there's a Hollywood actor involved.

Well, there are links in the thread, among the many purveyors of this stance. Here is one more:

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2012/04/shakespeares-english/

In actuality, it's not so much specifically close to American English. It is close to all more the conservative strands of English. Naturally. Bits and pieces of it have survived in each of these isolated spots. It's just that those conservative strands - aside from American-Midatlantic - exist in small corners of rural English counties or backwoods Newfoundland. Well, apparently the US dialect is closer overall, but that's it.

There's more information here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/...espeares-accent-how-did-the-bard-really-sound
 
"American English is far closer to late 1700s English than British English is."

That's been claimed a few times already on this thread, but I'd like to hear what the evidence is for that?

Bill Bryson said:
George Washington probably sounded as British as Lord North. On the other hand, Lord North probably sounded more American than would any British minister today. North would, for instance, have given "necessary" its full value. He would have pronounced path and bath in the American way. He would have given r's their full value in words like cart and horse. And he would have used many words that later fell out of use in England but were preserved in the New World.

This is all FILLER! FI-LLLER!
 
The thing is, they DID that in OTL. It still faded away/merged into other dialects such as the New Yorker or Pennsylvania dialect. Furthermore, nothing like that really survived in Canada, itself de jure British territory for a longer period of time. If you want to see that dialect survive, I think butterflying away the Second World War and/or American cinema as it stood in OTL could work. Not that I'd approve (then again, I'm a rabid reverse-snob :p).

For Canada, just give Mid-Atlantic English a dash of French influence and make it fashionable amongst the upper-class set in Montréal and Toronto. (However, if you listen to Alex Trebek's CBC newscasts which are in the CBC/Radio-Canada archive, even he sported quite a bit of it when doing his newsreading.)
 
I've seen that as well. American English preserved older stages of accent, including rhoticism, that RP lost. Now to convince England to pronounce the R in all positions of a word...

And apparently non-rhoticity was a Bostonian innovation which got exported back to The Mother Country (TM). :p
 
For Canada, just give Mid-Atlantic English a dash of French influence and make it fashionable amongst the upper-class set in Montréal and Toronto. (However, if you listen to Alex Trebek's CBC newscasts which are in the CBC/Radio-Canada archive, even he sported quite a bit of it when doing his newsreading.)

Considering the full extent of my understanding of Canadian media extends to Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Nickelback, myriad sci-fi shows like BSG and Stargate (which includes a fair number of American actors as well) and Flashpoint, I've actually never noticed that trait at all :eek:. Although, recently I did hear someone from Canada say "process" quite differently from what I'm used to ("pro-" rhyming with "crow"), maybe that's a clue to what you're talking about?
 
Considering the full extent of my understanding of Canadian media extends to Rush, Barenaked Ladies, Nickelback, myriad sci-fi shows like BSG and Stargate (which includes a fair number of American actors as well) and Flashpoint, I've actually never noticed that trait at all :eek:. Although, recently I did hear someone from Canada say "process" quite differently from what I'm used to ("pro-" rhyming with "crow"), maybe that's a clue to what you're talking about?

Have a listen.
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categori...vision-general/the-news-with-alex-trebek.html
 
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.

That's a myth.
It's closer to English of the time than RP. However there are other accents in the uk much closer to older English than American
 
That's a myth.
It's closer to English of the time than RP. However there are other accents in the uk much closer to older English than American

As close, I've seen sources for. Can you cite something for closer?

Anyway, it's not General American that's closest. The closest are isolated towns in Appalachian Virginia and perhaps islands off North Carolina. Even among large scale regional variations the closest is MidAtlantic American, not General.
 

I think I can hear what you mean. Although to be honest I heard more "Mid-Atlantic" in the on-scene correspondent's voice (e.g. "armed" having a nasal "A" sound). Trebek had a slight edge of it to his voice, but mostly just sounded like a Midwesterner or New York-stater to me.


...Anyway, it's not General American that's closest. The closest are isolated towns in Appalachian Virginia and perhaps islands off North Carolina. Even among large scale regional variations the closest is MidAtlantic American, not General.

The British dialect I think comes fairly close, perhaps closer, to original English than RP or "Broad" British is the West Country set of Gloucester, Somerset, etc. IIRC there are even spots of Old/Early Middle English grammar in that dialect, something I find immensely fascinating. Shame RP isn't like that :(.

And not to be pedantic, but neither Appalachian nor "High Tider" English are part of the Mid-Atlantic dialect set, they're subsets of SAE. Unless you meant that as an "or" comparison and not an inclusive one, in which case my mistake :eek:. I do agree that Mid-Atlantic English is probably the best "candidate" out of the US dialects to meet the overall sound of pre-Industrial English.
 
The British dialect I think comes fairly close, perhaps closer, to original English than RP or "Broad" British is the West Country set of Gloucester, Somerset, etc. IIRC there are even spots of Old/Early Middle English grammar in that dialect, something I find immensely fascinating. Shame RP isn't like that :(.

And not to be pedantic, but neither Appalachian nor "High Tider" English are part of the Mid-Atlantic dialect set, they're subsets of SAE. Unless you meant that as an "or" comparison and not an inclusive one, in which case my mistake :eek:. I do agree that Mid-Atlantic English is probably the best "candidate" out of the US dialects to meet the overall sound of pre-Industrial English.

I did mean the latter.

What sort of grammar would that be, exactly? I agree. Incredibly interesting.
 
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