Why do Americans and Brits have different accents?

[Mindful]

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. At that time, American and British accents hadn't yet diverged. What's surprising, though, is that Hollywood costume dramas get it all wrong: The Patriots and the Redcoats spoke with accents that were much closer to the contemporary American accent than to the Queen's English.

It is the standard British accent that has drastically changed in the past two centuries, while the typical American accent has changed only subtly.


Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

 

[Moonglow]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

 

[Mindful]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

 

[Moonglow]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

The swamps be a long whey away from here, this is hill kountry, where folks don't speak like Brits, Americans or anything closely related to English, they speak Hill Latin...

 

[Pogo]

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. At that time, American and British accents hadn't yet diverged. What's surprising, though, is that Hollywood costume dramas get it all wrong: The Patriots and the Redcoats spoke with accents that were much closer to the contemporary American accent than to the Queen's English.

It is the standard British accent that has drastically changed in the past two centuries, while the typical American accent has changed only subtly.


Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

You are correct about that, but Hollyweird does that because they think their audiences are so stupid they need the linguistic cue to tell who's who. Britain has a shit-ton of different accents, many of them barely mutually intelligible.

Now let's figure out why in science fiction flicks, aliens think they're doing Shakespeare.

 

[Pogo]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

Gotta say, I never saw so many people with such bad teeth until I went to live in France.

 

[Moonglow]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

Gotta say, I never saw so many people with such bad teeth until I went to live in France.

It was Arkansas for me...

 

[rightwinger]

I always wondered why we developed a distinct accent while England, S Africa, Austrailia all kept an English type accent

 

[DGS49]

Why do the characters in Game of Thrones all have British accents - even the American actors? It takes place on another world.

 

[Likkmee]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

Gotta say, I never saw so many people with such bad teeth until I went to live in France.

That's so their breath overwhelms the smell of their asz from only bathing 3X a month

 

[Pogo]

Because of the Brits poor teeth genes they talk funny....

Your Swamp Folk have the worst teeth I've ever seen. How on earth do they chew their grilled alligator?

Gotta say, I never saw so many people with such bad teeth until I went to live in France.

That's so their breath overwhelms the smell of their asz from only bathing 3X a month

Actually that's what all that perfume is for.

 

[Pogo]

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. At that time, American and British accents hadn't yet diverged. What's surprising, though, is that Hollywood costume dramas get it all wrong: The Patriots and the Redcoats spoke with accents that were much closer to the contemporary American accent than to the Queen's English.

It is the standard British accent that has drastically changed in the past two centuries, while the typical American accent has changed only subtly.


Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

Btw, same thing happened with French between Québec and France (Dalia )
--- and between the Dutch of Holland and the Afrikaans of South Africa.
And to some degree between the Portuguese of Brasil and that in Europe.

Don't know much about Spanish but perhaps Likkmee does

 

[zaangalewa]

... Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

- What for heavens sake did the Brits and Americans do with the German language? ... And what do you think how many languages would exist in the North of the continent America if the mass media would not exist? Hundreds? Thousands? Take a look at this tree: .

Englisch is here "Indogermanic - Kentum languages - West Germanic - English " - and that's it. I would say the interesting question is: "Why bears English no new languages, although lots of people speak English"?

 

[Mindful]

... Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

- What for heavens sake did the Brits and Americans do with the German language? ... And what do you think how many languages would exist in the North of the continent America if the mass media would not exist? Hundreds? Thousands? Take a look at this tree: .

Englisch is here "Indogermanic - Kentum languages - West Germanic - English " - and that's it. I would say the interesting question is: "Why bears English no new languages, although lots of people speak English"?

Have you ever listened to Texan German?

 

[fncceo]

People have English accents, even in a Galaxy far, far away.

 

[Mindful]

People have English accents, even in a Galaxy far, far away.

Sounds nice though, doesn't it?

Can you say: "can I have some butter on my bread please?" ?

 

[zaangalewa]

I always wondered why we developed a distinct accent while England, S Africa, Austrailia all kept an English type accent

The have the same accent? ... Whooow. ... I remember two policemen who controlled me once in the good old times, when I made a walking tour in the night. They asked me for an ID card and I said to them "Sorry. I forgot my ID card at home. What's the problem?" One policeman said to me: "No problem." and to his colleague he said: "He speaks the dialect of the people from K-town not far form the center direction east. I guess he lives in the P-street." ... And he was right.

 

[Mindful]

Many Southeastern US accents are closer to British English from the 16-1700s than British English is.

I'm researching the Australian/ South African connections. I should think our close colonial ties and cultural influences to those countries had a lot to do with the way they speak.

 

[cnm]

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same.

Yeah right. As though Scots, Welsh and Irish, not to mention English dialects all sounded the same.

 

[zaangalewa]

In 1776, whether you were declaring America independent from the crown or swearing your loyalty to King George III, your pronunciation would have been much the same. ...

But the first publishing of the declaration of independence was in the German language in the English colony USA in Philadelphia from the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote. "Wenn es im Lauf menschlicher Begebenheiten für ein Volk nöthig wird die Politischen Bande, wodurch es mit einem andern verknüpft gewesen, zu trennen, ..."