How did us Americans, who used to be British, all end up with such different distinct accents? South, New York

Question

I imagine I need to talk with a linguist, But my guess is that Maybe English accents slowly faded away. But I don't understand how they all became so different? I mean southerners, Brooklynites, New Yorkers, Californians (Me) we all speak english and yet so different.

Answer 1

We weren't all British. The first influx of settlers were Dutch, French, British and German. They settled in different areas and those areas picked up their accent. Other nationalities poured in over time, for instance, much of New York was populated by poor Irish Immigrants, Ukrainian and Slovak Immigrants and several waves of Italian Immigrants.

Answer 2

Accents or Dialects develop over several decades or longer. The Southern Drawl doesn't sound anything like the new Jersey Girl who talks a mile a minute. Jeff Foxworthy loves to poke fun at Rednecks with word definitions like Auto. "You and the kids auto come over this weekend."

We weren't just British. There were German and Dutch colonies, in America, and the French had a strong colony and fought a war with the British: The French and American Indian War.

Varied dialects are more common in Europe and Asia. Several bands of Chinese can't even understand each other. But they have a national language of Mandarin which was developed by court nobles. Then there is the case of the Dutch were every few towns has its own dialect, they all speak High Dutch, but the local dialect can be quite different--even the spelling of certain words are different. When a Freishlander speaks on Dutch TV the rest of the Dutch people need subtitles because their dialect is so strange. And I cannot understand the Cockney Accent (which is on purpose).

In conclusion a different accent develops in an area that is isolated from another region It is also developed as a code so other speakers of the common language cannot understand you--that's the original purpose of Cockney. A dialect also gives a group a feeling of unity, with an "us v.s. them" attitude.

Answer 3

First off, you should hear the number and variety of accents here in the UK. There are several just in this city alone and even more in the surrounding countryside. And that's just one city....

Second, the U.S. is an enormous country. Why should Californians speak like New Yorkers? Homogenizing forces like cable television are too young to have overcome a couple of centuries of diversification. Think about it in terms of the evolution model -- mutations arise in a population and can carry on until there are two species.
After all, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages, including a lot of English vocabulary, all came out of Latin. Why not a variety of accents?
Consider also social conditions -- would an urban teenager really want to express him/herself the same way that a suburban middle manager does?
If you want to understand more about how this all actually happens, then by all means, read up on linguistics. Language is a powerful shaper of our ways of thinking, so having more options and better understanding is always useful.

Third, "British" is how the English describes themselves when they are trying to be inclusive. The term is so badly abused that it justifiably rankles a lot of Scots, Irish and Welsh. Perhaps best not to use it....

Answer 4

Of course living languages can change in many ways over time, but a key part of the answer to the origins of the major American dialects of English is found in the BRITISH dialects of English
that they brought with them!

In short, the main dialect areas of the US can be traced to the four main migrations of English speaking people to America from the British Isles during the colonial period (1607-1775).

1. New England - Puritan Migrations (1629-40) from East Anglia

2. Coastal South (Virginia to Florida) -Cavalier Migrations (1642-1675) from South England

3. New Jersey, Pennsylvania - Quaker migrations (1675-1725)from the Midlands area of England (near Whales)

4. Appalachian English - Scots-Irish migrations (1715-1775), mostly English people from Britain's Celtic fringe (North England, Northern Ireland)

For a further description of these dialects and how they have affected "General American English" see:
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/AmericanDialects.htm

(The same professor has some more general notes about both American and British dialects at:
http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/USdialectsoverhead.htm )



To see an even picture of these four major groups --and not only their language difference but many other distinctive "folkways" they brought with them, I highly recommend the book by David Hackett Fischer, *Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America*

Answer 5

Even in a little country you can find dialects. It changes vertically (education, social situation), and horizontally (areas). So, in Britain as far as i know there are 8 dialects of english, in the US there are much more. And, plus, there are 4000 new words enter the so called english language, spoken by people from the USA to Asia.

Answer 6

Now this is a GREAT question! I'm sorry I don't have any answers, but I'm going to be watching this one. I hope you get some REAL answers. Good luck!

You're getting answers, but I don't think anyone is hitting on exactly WHY different dialects develop. I think we need a real scientific mind here...maybe an anthropologist.

Answer 7

It is because people in different areas, perhaps isolated from one another developed certain speech patterns. For instance, people who speak Canadian French sound much different from Parisian French.

Answer 8

American immigrants were NOT all British!!

So maybe THAT'S why American accents are so different to the British accents..!
; )

Answer 9

brits are too "stiff upper liped....too well mannered and too stiff people" people who came to America came in search of something new and to be away from the bonds..it was like being rebelious...then they got mixed with the native languages and with all the people who came to setle in america...so the difference .....DUDE thats y america is known as the " Melting pot'

Answer 10

British people weren't the only people who came over here.