Since they split, whose accent has changed more? Americans or the British?

Question

If America's has changed more, then Why?
If England's has changed more, why do they complain about the American accent?

serious question

Answer 1

They’ve both changed a lot. There's a misconception in Britain that British English has remained the same since the 'split' and that it's the Americans who have changed the English they speak. However, in many ways, American English is more like the 'original' English, for example in terms of grammar (e.g. 'I have gotten a letter' vs. 'I have got a letter' - 'gotten' was the original form, but the ending was eventually dropped in British English), or vocabulary (Fall vs. Autumn - British English used 'fall' originally, but at some point we adopted the French word instead, while America continued to use 'fall').

Answer 2

"Dude", you're so wrong.

"Another English teacher I know said that in the Appalachian mountains in the USA the accent has changed the least in the past few centuries, because of isolation (she was an Aussie. I don't know if she mean it as an inbreeding insult though.)"

A myth. There's this great myth held by people that don't know anything about linguist processes that says that they speak "Shakespeare's English" in the Appalachian mountains. The fact is, NO ONE today speaks Shakespearean English (probably not even those who perform Shakespeare in what they *think* was the original pronunciation). Every English speaker today speaks a modern dialect which is the result of many many generations of change.

"Because of education, more standardized schools (the old deluder act in the Massachusetts bay area for instance), the "WASP" accent of the USA is probably more like the original English."

The speakers of a very high brow dialect in Boston (the waspish of the WASPs, for sure) do have a dialect that sounds similar to British English. However, they nevertheless still speak a modern American English dialect.
There's a flaw in your reasoning: what is "original English"? This assumes that languages don't change over time, or that every change after a certain arbitrary point is a degredation of some sort-- neither of which is true.
In addition, despite what English teachers may think or claim, education has very little to do with how you speak English as a native speaker, since language is acquired and essentially set before you even enter kindergarten. Education may make some surface changes and confuse your understanding of a language, but you don't learn to speak at school.

"British people didn't have mandatory schooling as early, and even when they did, correct speech has not been traditionally taught in school."

Correct speech being...?

"They complain about the American accent because they ruled the world very recently, and now we have our army in many countries. We've taken their language and their empire. And plus, they're ignorant of the fact that we speak English better."

And you're ignorant of the fact that every native speaker of English speaks it equally well. Not everyone speaks a "standard" variant, yes, but the judgment that standard=good and non-standard=bad is a social one, not a linguistic one.

Answer 3

England has changed more.

The British director of Romeo and Juliet (the one who did the Leonardo Di Caprio version) said that he chose the American accent because it was closer to how Shakespeare spoke, and so do a lot of linguists I know.

Another English teacher I know said that in the Appalachian mountains in the USA the accent has changed the least in the past few centuries, because of isolation (she was an Aussie. I don't know if she mean it as an inbreeding insult though.)

Spanish and Chinese have not affected the American accent. Because of education, more standardized schools (the old deluder act in the Massachusetts bay area for instance), the "WASP" accent of the USA is probably more like the original English. British people didn't have mandatory schooling as early, and even when they did, correct speech has not been traditionally taught in school.

The Queen's a German anyway, her husband's Greek, and the Royal family regularly breed with immigrants (as does the rest of the upper "Queen's English" classes)

The British have also had a lot of influxes, from Jews, French Protestants, their colonies (which went both ways repeatedly), and Ireland.

They complain about the American accent because they ruled the world very recently, and now we have our army in many countries. We've taken their language and their empire. And plus, they're ignorant of the fact that we speak English better.

Answer 4

We're talking about a span of just over two hundred years and about countries with an enormous diversity of accents, particularly the British Isles. The fact that in New England one hardly notices any difference between the speech pattern and that of received English would indicate that there has been comparatively little change there over two hundred years. (The old English forms referred to by another answerer were not in use in Britain at the time of the Declaration of Independence -- she's looking back to Elizabethan and Jacobean times.) I think that only someone who was an expert in dialects could speak for the evolution of other accents, particularly as new dialects seem to be springing up all the time with the arrival of influences from so many other countries on speech patterns. However, making a sweeping generalisation and taking standard English (the Queen's English) as the British standard, I must express the view that the English spoken in North America has undergone the more dramatic change over two centuries.

Answer 5

The American one because it had add words from many other languages like Spanish, Chinese and other many. Word like rodeo, salsa, tortilla, tacos, hurricane, calzone, etc.

Answer 6

Caicos is right.