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I'd agree with the analysis that English is closer to how its spoken in the US today accent-wise. If you look at how people speak English in British colonies, t
by thinker 16y ago
I'd agree with the analysis that English is closer to how its spoken in the US today accent-wise. If you look at how people speak English in British colonies, the pronunciation isn't heavily accented to how its spoken in the UK today. For example, South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh).
- intellectronica 16y agoI don't think this is relevant, since speakers in Asia rarely speak English as their mother tongue. Whatever accent they have is due to the sources they've been exposed to. Well educated speakers in India and Pakistan, for example, usually speak with an accent that is quite closed to RP. Other speakers often learn their pronunciation from American movies.
- bbgm 16y agoAgreed. Many of us who do speak English as a first language ( or are very fluent in it) are definitely closer to RP but for those who pick it up TV etc have a huge influence and that is getting more American
- Scriptor 16y agoIt's interesting how South Asian English uses many British words as well (such as "dustbin" instead of the American "trashcan"). I was young enough to relearn the American words when I moved to the US. However, it's still the British words that I use when English occasionally pops up in my native language.
- andrewf 16y agoAustralians tend to use a funny mishmash. Cars have boots (not the American trunks), but they're smaller than trucks (not the British lorries).
- thinker 16y agoValid points. I was thinking of people like my grandfather (born 1920) who speak English fluently without a british accent, and wasn't influenced by American tv.
- Gormo 16y agoI've heard more than a few Indians speak in an accent that very close to Scottish. Caribbean English accents also remind me of Scottish. I wonder if there were certain areas of the British Empire that had disproportionate Scottish influence.