if everyone that came here did not have an american accent...?

Question

how did the american accent develop? is it a mixture of all accents?

Answer 1

That is a very good observation. The British came and settled this area, so shouldn't the majority of us have British accents? Well, the American accent is the product of generations of evolution and Americans originally came from a wide variety of countries. So these accents started to pick up on each other and blend. A modern example, would be my little sister. We are from the north, but when she came to a southern school when she was young, she picked up the southern accent, when before she had a northern American accent. So, people began to adapt to the different accents, until a single one was formed, without meaning to.

Answer 2

The various accents in the United States have a bunch of different contributers. The first thing you have to consider is that each of the colonies were made up of people from different parts of England. In some cases, they came from different parts of Europe as well! The other factor is isolation.

The two main colonies in Massachusetts were the Plymouth colony, founded by the Pilgrims, and the Mass Bay colony, founded by the Puritans. The Pilgrims were much more tolerant of the Amerindians and other people in general, so they probably interacted more with the French and other outsiders.

The Puritans were much more isolated, because of their strict religious practices. Their accent probably changed very little n comparison to the Pilgrims.

In the South, accents did not change a lot at all. This may best be explained by the fact that the colonists traded a lot with each other and visiting English.

New York was probably the most diverse colony, which is why it has such a unique accent. It is, as you said, "a mixture of all accents." They had the Dutch, Swedes, English, you name it.

Accents in modern America are based off of those in the colonies. Since they have different bases, they actually vary quite a bit region to region. Then there's the fact that there might be more immigrants from X country in Y location.

Hope this helped!

Answer 3

The largest single group of Europeans to emigrate (in the 16th & 17th centuries) to what is now the USA were Dutch speakers. They settled mostly in the north-east. English speakers gradually became the majority in that area, so Dutch (and other) speakers had to learn to speak English in order to make a life for themselves. The accent that Dutch speakers developed, when they spoke English, became the modern American accent. Listen to the next Dutchman whom you meet, and you will hear that he speaks English with an American accent, but he's not trying to be American - it's just the way the words come out.

Answer 4

You need to specify more. There is a Southern accent, a New York (City) accent, a Long Island accent that are all very distinct from one another.

Answer 5

American English comes from British English which surprises no one. The pronunciation variations that are found regionally are primarily caused by the influence of non-native English speakers learning the language and imparting their own speech patterns. (Dutch, German, Nordic, French, Spanish, Irish, Scot, etc.)

Spoken and written language is dynamic is changes and evolves as time and usage dictate. I'm convinced that in the not too distant future the possessive pronoun "your" will completely replace the contraction "you're" from "you are", due to common usage or mis-usage of the former in written English.

Answer 6

blacks and whites and different races that originated in usa of america don't have distinctive accents in line with distinctive race. distinctive areas have distinctive accents Like southerners(no count number what race) if that they had generations of ancestors originating from the south us of a they are going to all have southern accents same with anybody from the mid-west, north or west or east accessory develops out of your atmosphere, no longer your race, you're very ignorant in case you think of it would not EDIT Lorelei is right, in case you're speaking approximately Ebonics, that originates from slavery, blacks had to income English on their very own, they found out a distant places language without going to college, (maximum folk learn in college) maximum people who learn a distant places language have been taught it, they do no longer learn it on their very own BTW Ebonics isn't an accessory, look up the be conscious "accessory"

Answer 7

What accent?