If we could hear their actual voices today, would the Founding Fathers' accents sound "British" to us today?

Answer 1

That's an interesting question. I don't think so. When our founding fathers were alive the American colonies were already over 150 years old. Jamestown in the Virginia colony was founded in 1608. From the beginning English colonists in New England and Virginia spoke differently because they were from different parts of England. However they would have sounded different from the people still in England. Washington would have spoken with a southern accent while John Adams would have had a New England accent. Thomas Paine was directly from England and would have sounded English. And yet some time ago I saw a miniseries on TV in which George Washington was played by a British actor.

Answer 2

Maybe a little bit, but not much. The "British" accent that most of us think of is called Recieved Pronounciation, and it's based on the accent common around London a lond time ago. English-speaking settlers of America mostly came from western parts of Britain, though, and so their accents wouldn't have sounded the same to begin with; by the time of the American Revolution, American accents were already starting to diverge from ones back home. (Though it's because of settlers from the West Country that most Americans still don't drop their r-sounds.)

Now, the Founding Fathers were educated men, so they might've imitated some features of an upper-class British accent of the times, but even that wouldn't have sounded exactly like RP today. So if you could go back and listen to Benjamin Franklin of George Washington speechify, their accents would sound like a mix of British, local (Boston for Ben, Virginia for George) and a little bit foreign.

Answer 3

Well, accents change over time, so the modern British pronunciation wouldn't sound like Colonial pronunciation.

In colonies, people are very conservative about the way they talk. In the mother country (England in most cases), the accent changes way faster. So in American English, you get words like, "garage" pronounced more like the French original, "gah-rah-zhe", whereas, in England, you get stuff like, "gare-age". In England, they're more likely to Anglicize pronunciations, but in the US, we're more conservative about maintaining the original pronunciation.

The Founding Fathers would sound British like the British sounded at the time that they moved over here. But British English rapidly changed to something much different than the English spoken in America. Also, "British" is a bit of a misnomer--Fat Bastard doesn't sound like Austin Powers, now, does he? And neither of them sound much like Dr. Evil. Even though it's the same guy. You have Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England, various islands and regions--there's no one "British" accent.

Watch The Last of the Mohicans--Daniel Day Lewis's accent is pretty accurate for a frontier guy. And remember that the Founding Fathers, while often very well-educated, didn't have the influence of BBC TV and radio. So their accents wouldn't be as "standard" as they like broadcasters to sound now.

Answer 4

I doubt it. I doubt they would sound very recognizable as English speakers, in fact. Read Poor Richard's Almanack (written by Benjamin Franklin) and notice how he rhymes a lot of the words: 'were' rhymes with 'career', 'would' and 'could' have the Ls still pronounced, just to name a couple examples.

It is also my unsertanding that the modern-day British accent we all know didn't develope until a little later in the 18th century -- at the trial of Levi Weeks, in 1800, one of the witnesses apparently spoke with the "new" British accent and it was remarked upon.

Answer 5

maximum of our founders appeared to believe that Christianity and reasonability went hand-in-hand. This strains each and every of the some time previous to Aristotle's rhetorical emblems, or argument from reason. The emblems develop into considered to be the divine, spoken note, therefore the common translation of John a million:a million: "in the starting up develop into the note, and the note develop into with God, and the note develop into God." Philo of Alexandria, easily one of Jesus' contemporaries, taught that the emblems develop into equivalent to God. Paul, on the different hand, taught that Christ develop into equivalent to God. so long tale short, emblems grew to develop into an respectable call for Christ in early Christian theology. in case you imagine there's a conflict between Christianity and reason, early Christian theology proves that reason has continually been between the widely used concerns of the religion.

Answer 6

No-well, maybe slightly. Most of them had been in the country for generations, and some had pronounced regional accents. See the video 'Founding Brothers' for examples:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0326881/

Answer 7

I kind of doubt it, since they had already been in America for a few generations. Maybe tho

Answer 8

shaw enuf ya'all!