American accent?

Question

When did the american accent, as we know it, develop and break away from the English accent. What year(s)did this happen in, and how?

Answer 1

1922.....sept 7th 9.33am ...

Answer 2

First off, there are many dialects of the English language too. The closer you go to Ireland the more Irish it sounds, The closer to Manchester, or Liverpool, or London, etc. It also depends on the education level. But mostly the area. For instance The further west you go in America the clearer people speak. The major influx of English citizens was on the East coast. So the accents there are stronger and more pronounced and are some strange cross between English, Spanish, Italian, Irish, ...you name it, whoever migrated there in large groups had a hand in how they speak now. The longer you are away from people who speak the way you do though the quicker you lose the accent and adapt to how other people speak. Those trips across the Oregon Trail were long and sometimes lonely, and people probably didn't talk to much.

Answer 3

I think the accent is influenced by French and other languages. The accent in New Zealand and Australia are both amalgams of various British accents (including irish and scots) and sound similar to each other but are nothing like the American or Canadian accent.
I think the early settlers in America from England probably sounded like Australians or New Zealanders at some point then the accent mutated again with the influence of French and Dutch colonists.

Answer 4

American accents are not difficult to quantify.

In port cities such as New York, the common accent has changed and devloped over a short period of about 100 years. This is due to the massive influx of new people from Europe.

I'm not sure if you can hear it much now, but the most pronounced New York accent used to be that of the Bronx. If you can get hold of any video or audio of the late Prime Minister of Israel, Mrs Golda Mayer, she spoke with a pronounced Bronx accent; most beautifully.

The Bronx accent remained unchanged for decades because the folk who occupied the Bronx, a mixed bag of Jews, Irish, English and so on, just held on to their way of life for quite a long time.

Further out into the Mid West, we encounter accents which have changed little over time because the folk who live in small town America tend on the whole to be descended from the original pioneers and settlers. Not exclusively so, but in the main.

Any changes to Mid West accents is probably more to do with the influence of TV than new-comers.

You can still hear quality Regency and Victorian English accents in America in the Southern States.

When you next get a chance have a look at the audience in the Old Oprey. There you will find lots of English and Welsh faces and lots of folk singing and speaking in old forgotten English accents.

Dolly Parton is a particular case in point. Not only does she proclaim her Englishness, she still retains much of what the English might have sounded like back in the 1800s in her accent.

Answer 5

I'm American and I love the British accent

Answer 6

American English evolved when the first settlers arrived in the Americas and, subsequently, the English dialects have continued to evolve throughout the U.S. regions.

In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such, the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dialects_of_the_English_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_regional_phonology
http://www.geocities.com/yvain.geo/dialects.html
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/southern/sounds/
http://www.evolpub.com/Americandialects/AmDialLnx.html
http://www.translationdirectory.com/article267.htm
http://www.translationdirectory.com/article273.htm

Answer 7

It developed due to isolation from the main stream English dialects. It started within months of permeate colonies being established in the New World.

Answer 8

I'd say it is more influenced by the Irish and Scottish accent. However, it is not an easy thing to talk of one accent. In different areas the immigration from different countries affected (or produced) different accents.

Answer 9

Its different from English accent . Whn thare R many races settled in one place everyting mixes togather.

Answer 10

It began in the early 1700's, its the mixture of mainly english, irish, Scottish, french, dutch, and spanish accents.

Answer 11

I honestly don't think there is one American accent. I'm sure the British would say there is not one British accent either.
I'm from Philly (YO) and many times people have identified my accent correctly. New Yorkers, 70 or so miles away, sound completely different.

In Britain, people in Liverpool sound idfferent from people in London. Even within London there are different accents.