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> although it is worth noting, despite the distance, the Newfoundland accent is absolutely indistinguishable from a genuine Irish accent That makes sense, beca
by leereeves 4y ago
> although it is worth noting, despite the distance, the Newfoundland accent is absolutely indistinguishable from a genuine Irish accent
That makes sense, because Newfoundland was settled by the Irish[1]. I guess the Irish accent in Ireland hasn't changed much since then, and the settlers accent didn't change either.
It's said that "Americans preserved British English" from the 1700s[2], and it's actually the British accent that changed.
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Newfoundlanders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Newfoundlanders
2: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-p...
- bartislartfast 4y ago> It's said that "Americans preserved British English" from the 1800s[2], and it's actually the British accent that changed. I might well believe that, but then the question is, which American accent is the British one? Alaskan? Texan? Mid-west?
- Avshalom 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangier,_Virginia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangier,_Virginia is the usual factoid
- paulette449 4y ago> That makes sense, because Newfoundland was settled by the Irish I did a walking tour when I visited St John's, Newfoundland. The history recounted during the tour was that the merchant ships would leave the Southern English coast (Southampton, Portsmouth etc) and stop off by the Southern Irish coast to fill the ships with cheap labour. At the end of the season, the merchants filled the boats with produce from the season (furs etc) and many of the Irish workers would be left behind rather than use up precious cargo space. I've no idea how close to the truth that "history" was.