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I didn't know that the British originally spoke with an rhotic accent. The General American accent is supposedly how the British used to sound. Perhaps the titl
by vor_ 14y ago
I didn't know that the British originally spoke with an rhotic accent. The General American accent is supposedly how the British used to sound. Perhaps the title should be "When did the British lose their original accents?" as the Americans are the ones who (apparently) retained their original British accents.
- mpyne 14y agoThe title is good in that is always how we seem to see that question phrased on the Internet. That is, with the underlying assumption that the U.S. has once again deliberately gone out of their way to be different.
- jinushaun 14y agoThe whole notion is nebulous because both nations lost their original accents. Just watch videos of Americans speaking from a few decades ago and you'll see how much "General American" has changed in such a short period. Secondly, given the abundance of regional accents in the UK, I doubt there was even a dominant accent in the American colonies at the time unless you're only counting the upper class.
- JoeAltmaier 14y agoAmericans speak with wildly different accents. Oklahomans sound different from Arkansas natives; Georgians quite different from each. In New York there is more than one accent.
- eric_bullington 14y agoNot only from state-to-state (as you allude to). I'm from SC and can easily distinguish the accent spoken in Upstate SC (which sounds much like the stereotypical "Georgia peach" accent) from one spoken by older people in the Low Country area around Charleston, from the accent spoken by the rest of the state. And move up just a few miles from Upstate SC into the mountains of NC (and tip of SC), and you have an entirely different accent. I suspect that these differences are being lost in younger generations, as everyone moves toward a more standardized accent, but I can still distinguish the difference in accents among most South Carolinians.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoBeing from Georgia myself, I can identify accents within the state too. Natives of Athens, Savannah, Valdosta, Rome, Columbus all sound different from each other. Then there's Appalachia, which is a whole different thing. And Atlanta, which can be almost non-southern in some people.
- mc32 14y agoIf you are referring to TV and movies, those were adopted 'TransAtlantic' accents. It was never an organic accent, rather a made up one which would seem acceptable to everyone for TV, Movies, reportage, etc. It was cultivated via the Ivy league and such. In other words, that accent wasn't representative of any particular locale. It was adopted by the speaker. If you watch really old interviews of ball players from the early part of the 20th C. They pretty much sound like today's vernacular English (ball players being from lower strate would not be exposed to the accent in boarding schools/college/uni). They don't sund like Gore Vidal or Cary Grant. It was seen as 'cultured' as well.
- robotresearcher 14y agoCary Grant was born British and lived in England until he was 16.
- mc32 14y agoThat very well may be, but he did not sound 'British' either. But we can reference FDR, if you like. Here is a recording (performance) from 1908 http://www.authentichistory.com/1898-1913/3-consume-leisure/5-Baseball/19080000_Uncle_Josh_at_a_Ball_Game.html http://www.authentichistory.com/1898-1913/3-consume-leisure/... Ty Cobb interview 1930 http://archive.org/details/Coca-Cola_Top_Notchers http://archive.org/details/Coca-Cola_Top_Notchers (go to 11:20 mark) More ball player clips from '40s or so. http://archive.org/details/FiveOldMajorLeaguers http://archive.org/details/FiveOldMajorLeaguers Sounds a bit country, but not very unlike what one might hear in the country today.
- molf 14y agoRhotic vs non-rhotic accents is just a small part of the story. Listen to some rhotic British accents and it will be more obvious that General American is most likely just as different from 17th century British as contemporary British is.