Where did the American accent come from?

Question

Are there places in Great Britain with accents similiar to America? Did the colonizers have a different accent?

Answer 1

A mixture of English, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, etc. accents influenced speech in America to diverge from British speech, but I think probably isolation did most of the job. Speakers of the same language who are separated for a long time tend to diverge in pronunciation if they are isolated from each other.

Supposedly American accents are more similar to Elizabethan speech than modern British accents are, so American speech may have just changed less than British speech over the centuries.

Lowland Scots is the closest to American speech of all the British dialects I've heard.

Answer 2

I have asked myself and others this same question over the years. What amazes me is that in spite of the States being so large - and there wasn't always obviously the communication there is today - an American can always be recognised by his/her speech, in spite of the varieties of American accents. If you are familiar with accents at all, you will always recognise a North American accent and never mix it up with an English one or an Australian one or a Scottish or Welsh one etc. I do think the Irish accent had a lot of influence in forming the American one. I found it interesting some years ago when I realised that the Irish as well as the Americans use the word "bring" wrongly, ie they say it when we would say "take".

Answer 3

People from the West Country in England sound rather twangy. Some of their words sound almost like the American pronunciation. I think the pilgrims came from the West Country and that accent was the starting point for the evolution of the American accent. David Prowse, the Darth Vader actor who was overdubbed, has such an accent.

Answer 4

The american accent is just like ours. Different dialects for different states.The original settlers were the pilgrim fathers who spoke english, but what dialect, I don't know.,And of course, america has been settled by immigrants of different nationalities for quite some time now. This all adds up to what you would call the american accent.

Answer 5

Well, there are lots of accents in the U.S., and I mean as spoken by native-born citizens. The Brooklyn accent, the low-country South Carolina accent, the southern Mississippi accent, the Minnesota accent, and Mountain West accent all have different origins. So, your question is perhaps too broad.

But let's look at you question as addressing the "TV" American accent - the one that news directors find is most "neutral". (I've heard it referred to as the way Ohioans talk, though I'm not so sure.) If we look at (listen to) this accent, then my money is on certain counties of Ireland as the source. I'm not a linguist and don't know - but I have on more than one occasion heard interviews with some Irishmen who don't have a brogue and whose consonants are much softer than those of the British, and I've thought many times that they sound like they belong in the U.S.

Just shootin' the shiite over this - curious what others here will say.

Answer 6

Don't know how the accent evolved. But some say that an English person from the 17th / 18th century would find it easier to understand modern American-English than he would the English accent of today.

Answer 7

No, darlin. The accent across the U.S. varies. For example: I live in South Louisiana, when I go places on vacation, people actually make me repeat words just so they can here them again. Or sometimes I'll say a popular cajun-french word, like "cher", and people look at me like I've got three heads. There isn't one solid American accent... And no one from Great Britain has this accent. The people in the colonies sounded just like the English. Do realize, we aren't all of english decent. I'm English, Polish, German, French, Scottish, Native American, Irish, and Cajun. The American accent was formed how any accent is formed: From different people over many years. It's just the way we talk. If I were to travel a little further south toward the coast of Louisiana to a little town called Cut Off, I'd find that they all sound and talk the same. A lot of the locals speak Cajun-French, and say the same phrases and such. Why? Their all Cajun. So, really, wherever you live, I'm sure that all of yall have the same accent.

Any of that make any sense at all? haha. sorry I couldn't give a better explaination, love.

Answer 8

It had to originate interior the South with the aid of fact it particularly is the place the black people contained in u.s. began. i understand a black lady who did no longer strengthen up interior the South. Her entire kinfolk does no longer have an accessory, yet she does with the aid of fact she socialized with different black people who had the accessory. once you hear the rustic and western singers talk, they have a "u . s . a ." accessory of their voices. It comes via of their track too. i'm able to attempt to repeat them, yet I nevertheless can't acquire the deepness that they have got of their voices. the comparable could properly be reported with reference to the British accessory. i could no longer reproduction Melanie Brown's (frightening Spice of the Spice women) voice if i attempted. Her accessory (which i admire, BTW) is so wealthy.

Answer 9

All accents are a blend of vocalization based on the region of the world it is located.

Answer 10

from america