I was reading in Wikipedia how Canadian French, particularly Quebecois, is more conservative than continental French, preserving aspects lost in Parisian French. Likewise for American colonial English preserving things like "gotten" and "if I were" as opposed to the British usage of "got" and "if I was." Are there any first-hand sources of pronunciation and grammar anywhere for how French and English should be spoken around 1700-1780? Also, what about the German language of that time? What was the language of the Hessians hired by the British at the time like? Or German on the continent? If anyone knows some first-hand sources on this I'd appreciate it.
I'm interested in learning how both sides of the Atlantic spoke at that time to see how it diverged from then.