If we all come from europe then where did the accents spoken in the south and New York come from?

Question

THE WAY THEY SPEAK SOUNDS NOTHING LIKE THE WAY THEY SPEAK IN EUROPE. SO WHERE DID THEIR ACCENTS COME FROM??

Answer 1

Southern accents are a mixture of Scottish, Welsh, Irish, German, French and all of the various and sundry accents that people from different parts of England brought. Throw in some Africans trying to speak the language into which they were thrust and you have the origins of the different Southern accents.

When you say New York I interpret that as New York City. NYC was orriginally New Amsterdam, a Dutch colony. After England took it over the "yankees" moved in and the "knickerbockers" stayed around for the most part. Here you get the mix of English accents and the Dutch accent trying to speak English. Later NYC received people from all parts of Europe and finally from all over the world, Africa, Asia, Mexico, Central America, South America.

So in the South you have a hodge-podge of British Isles accents mixed with German and French and African accents.

You have a hodge-podge of accents ofpeople from all over the world in NYC speaking a language that is foreign to them and succesive generations imitate the inflections and mispronunciations.

And you are right. People in the South and NYC speak nothing like the people in Europe. In America English is the Main language. In Europe most people's native language is something other than English.

Brennus, please note that not all of the Southern colonies were penal colonies; only Georgia was a penal colony. Also people eventually settled in Georgia who came of their own free will.

Answer 2

The English have historically had many different accents although some of this is vanishing as a result of things like radio, television and modern transportation ( trains, automobiles, jet airplanes etc.) .

Most linguists agree that the English accent of New York City derives from 17th century southern British English which, of course, was a little different than the English spoken in southern England today.

Nevertheless, some modern British-like characteristics can still be seen in New York English like r-dropping (e,g, drivuh, theatuh, Alexanduh for driver, theater, Alexander), and terminal r insertion (ideer, dramer, Cynthier, Californyer) for idea, drama, Cynthia, California etc.

During the colonial period, The American South was largely a prison colony and the British sent a lot of prisoners there. After the American revolution (1776 - 1781), the British no longer had the American South available so they started sending their prisoners to Australia instead.

Not all of the prisoners at that time were actual felons and criminals. A good many were debtors prisoners - poor people who simply couldn't pay their debts. But they were treated harshly by the system and sent to prison anyway.

So prisoners, who were mostly working-class and uneducated, would have had some influence on shaping English in these places.

Immigrants have had some influence on American English too but how much is controversial and hasn't been fully studied.

The best example seems to be the North Central dialect of Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas also called "Yopper." Its accent is based partly on the English of East Anglia, like Massachusetts, but it has also been influenced by the numerous Scandinavian, German and Polish immigrants who settled there.

In Mexico, Spanish has been influenced a lot by the native Nahuatl [ pronounced Nah-watt] (or Aztec) Indian language. Linguists have noticed many traces of Nahuatl vocabulary, syntax and stress patterns on the common Spanish of Mexico.

In the United States, however, the Indian populations were not large enough to have any permanent influence on American English. The only example I think I ever heard of "Indian English" was "I tol'choo gwæh'mah" ("I told you granma") which I once heard a Duwamish Indian boy say to his grandmother on a bus in Seattle.

Answer 3

#a million: the U. S. is "owned by utilising Europe"? What ever do you propose? #2: there's no such element as 'The English accessory'. English immigrants to united statesa. spoke with the accents from the multiple areas they got here from, merely like immigrants at present. progressively the variations melded and evened out to the factor the place you are able to now talk of a common 'American accessory', it particularly is fairly greater of a loss of extremes. so for you to declare human beings have an accessory it particularly is descended from the union of multiple English accents, plus in spite of lesser contributions have been made by utilising French, German, community languages, the slaves' African languages, and so on.. #3: i does no longer take the Adam and Eve tale too actually. #4. the U. S. is a huge place. evaluate how even an quite plenty smaller united states of america like the united kingdom has a good number of severe dialects, and the U. S. types actual variety little in conparison.

Answer 4

Words and pronunciations change over time. The English may have been the first ones there, but then other immigrants came over and the way they spoke English combined with the way the people who were already there spoke it. Accents and different pronunciations mixed and mingled to produce what we have now. In 100 years it could be different as well. However, changes like that are very gradual.

Answer 5

What!?
I've always thought that out of all the American accents, the South and east coast (inc. NYC) have the most similar type of English to that of the British Isles.

Answer 6

A lot is based on who settled where. Why don't we all sound like the british if we're speaking english? What happened to that accent?

Answer 7

Why are there difference in English accents on one rather small island?

Answer 8

We all come from Europe????? What country are you living in, Sweetie?

Answer 9

al pacino & jeff foxworthy