Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? (Suprising answer)
Nick Patrick blog via Fark.com ^ | 10/09/2010 | Nick Patrick

Posted on 10/09/2010 8:08:47 AM PDT by prisoner6

The typical English accent didn't develop until after the Revolutionary War, so Americans actually speak proper English. Here comes the science.

Did Americans in 1776 have British accents?

Reading David McCullough’s 1776, I found myself wondering: Did Americans in 1776 have British accents? If so, when did American accents diverge from British accents?

The answer surprised me.

I’d always assumed that Americans used to have British accents, and that American accents diverged after the Revolutionary War, while British accents remained more or less the same.

Americans in 1776 did have British accents in that American accents and British accents hadn’t yet diverged. That’s not too surprising.

What’s surprising, though, is that those accents were much closer to today’s American accents than to today’s British accents. While both have changed over time, it’s actually British accents that have changed much more drastically since then.

First, let’s be clear: the terms “British accent” and “American accent” are oversimplifications; there were, and still are, many constantly-evolving regional British and American accents. What many Americans think of as “the British accent” is the standardized Received Pronunciation, also known as “BBC English.”

The biggest difference between most American and most British accents is rhotacism. While most American accents are rhotic, the standard British accent is non-rhotic. (Rhotic speakers pronounce the ‘R’ sound in the word “hard.” Non-rhotic speakers do not.)

So, what happened?

In 1776, both American accents and British accents were largely rhotic. It was around this time that non-rhotic speech took off in southern England, especially among the upper class. This “prestige” non-rhotic speech was standardized, and has been spreading in Britain ever since.

Most American accents, however, remained rhotic.

There are a few fascinating exceptions: New York and Boston accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region’s British connections in the post-Revolutionary War era. Irish and Scottish accents are still rhotic.

If you’d like to learn more, this passage in The Cambridge History of the English Language is a good place to start.

Sources:
■American English, Rhotic and non-rhotic accents, Received Pronunciation - Wikipedia
■The Cambridge History of the English Language - Google Books


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: dialect; english; godsgravesglyphs; language; linguistics
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-183 next last
To: JimRed

I was born in Texas, but we left when I was a baby. After that, I never ventured below the Mason/Dixon line.

When we moved to Georgia in the mid-90’s, I was horrified to find that I couldn’t understand *anybody*. For the first two weeks, my mom took on the role of translator as I tried to get our electricity turned on, phone hooked up, garbage collected, etc.

It only took me a couple of months to get the hang of it, now I can barely hear a difference. Weirdly, I occasionally slip and let loose a Southern accent myself. Without even realizing it, I was involved with “language immersion”.


81 posted on 10/09/2010 9:53:28 AM PDT by Marie (Obama seems to think that Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since Camp David, not King David)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: FrankR

“But then, if you had gotten the point, you wouldn’t have changed into Captain Spellcheck...would you?”

Touchy, touchy, your humor meter is not turned on this morning, is it. Are you suffering from the Obama thin-skinned syndrome?


82 posted on 10/09/2010 9:54:23 AM PDT by flaglady47 (When the gov't fears the people, liberty; When the people fear the gov't, tyranny.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]

To: sinsofsolarempirefan

I pronounce it in the good ole American way - Julius Caesar. Not with a hard C. But like most Americans I tend to pronounce foreign words as they are said in the language of origin, although I tend not to use Latin pronunciation.

My favorite Brit-speak: the Italian film director Pasolini (Pass-O-Lini) is pronounced Pass-AHL-oni in Great Britain. Truly dreadful.


83 posted on 10/09/2010 9:56:51 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: achilles2000

But think of all the translator’s jobs that would be lost!
Ebonics translators or, something this classic “accent” translator from “Bananas”

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF-AcR14Km8

The problem in all “proper” English definitions is the “useage” in dictionaries. It’s like people using the word
“floundering” when they mean “foundering” Because it’s used it’s there- due to social purists in the dictionary world. Doesn’t mean it’s very intelligent per se, just commonly used. Ebonics unfortunately could become “useage”
and trash talk accepted. I regard all of this like entering a foreign country.


84 posted on 10/09/2010 9:56:57 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: prisoner6
Adding my two cents ... something I find annoying is listening to these cutesy reporterette types on TV with their modified ‘valley girl’ speak. Must be something they work on at journalism school ... they all sound alike.
85 posted on 10/09/2010 9:58:06 AM PDT by BluH2o
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oh8eleven
someone with a mouthful of marbles makes more sense

That's exactly the way I describe South African English.....very tough to understand.

86 posted on 10/09/2010 10:01:08 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (It's not the Obama Administration....it's the "Obama Regime".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek
"I think various American accents are converging to some extent. The southern accent seems to be merging with the midwestern accent in my area.

Largely the result of mass media. There are still certainly pockets with deeply rooted accents, but we all watch the same TV shows.

87 posted on 10/09/2010 10:02:34 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: driftless2

American actors now do brilliant British accents; just check out all the David Hare plays that come to B’way with American actors playing Brits. The training for accents in both the USA and Great Britain has improved drastically over the last few decades. We’ve come a long way, baby since the days of Dick Van Dyke (Mary Poppins) and Laurence Olivier’s awful American accents!

Unfortunately, in my past actor days I was truly terrible at accents. No ear.


88 posted on 10/09/2010 10:02:41 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Let's Roll

Ahhsss hooole! BBC twitlet personage


89 posted on 10/09/2010 10:04:10 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: oldsalt
The funny thing is that I can't think of an American actor who can do a convincing British accent...go figure.

Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Nannie McPhee Returns" did fairly well.

90 posted on 10/09/2010 10:04:49 AM PDT by thecodont
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: ErnBatavia

That’s because it’s Dutch Boer accented English. Like listening to German expats who haven’t spoken German in a while, speak English.


91 posted on 10/09/2010 10:06:04 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Marie
Weirdly, I occasionally slip and let loose a Southern accent myself.
I was born and raised in NYC, but lost my accent after moving away at 17.
Years later my NY accent would pop up when I yelled at my kids.
Weird is right.
92 posted on 10/09/2010 10:11:31 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: prisoner6

The article makes the mistake of assuming there was/is a single British accent and a single American accent.

The pirate accent (heavy on the “r”) is alive and well in the small towns of Devon and Cornwall, UK. (Well, 20 years ago it was).

Hear various English accents recorded from the 1950’s through the ‘70s:

http://sounds.bl.uk/Browse.aspx?category=Accents-and-dialects&collection=Survey-of-English-dialects


93 posted on 10/09/2010 10:13:58 AM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (Obama promised a gold mine, but will give us the shaft.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: John S Mosby
Ahhsss hooole! BBC twitlet personage

I once heard a radio interview with the British actor Patrick Stewart. They asked him something about his younger days and he said, "Ah, yes, I was an assle then."

94 posted on 10/09/2010 10:15:27 AM PDT by Nea Wood (Silly liberal . . . paychecks are for workers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: John S Mosby
Ahhsss hooole! BBC twitlet personage

I once heard a radio interview with the British actor Patrick Stewart. They asked him something about his younger days and he said, "Ah, yes, I was an assle then."

95 posted on 10/09/2010 10:15:36 AM PDT by Nea Wood (Silly liberal . . . paychecks are for workers!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: VA_Gentleman
English and Spanish are converging in America

Beat me to it.

I have no clue what the author means by an American accent. Cross state lines, or for that matter from inner city to suburbs, and you're listening to a different accent.

96 posted on 10/09/2010 10:17:51 AM PDT by bgill (K Parliament- how could a young man born in Kenya who is not even a native American become the POTUS)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: miss marmelstein

If you don’t pronounce it ‘Yoolius Kayser’ you are guilty of perpetuating one of those English mispronunciations you are railing against.
The only way I can think of that this mispronounciation could have come about is if some English person who had never heard Latin being spoken just read the name as he thought it looked and passed this error on to others. The change in pronounciation could only have come about as a result of confusing the hard and the soft uses of the written letters ‘j’ and ‘c’...


97 posted on 10/09/2010 10:22:18 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: dr_who; prisoner6

And BBC types and humorists like to make fun of internal regional accents as well, as in this bit of fun from the old
UK TV’s the Fast Show-—”We’re Cockneys!”

Link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BV8KfpE3BA


98 posted on 10/09/2010 10:23:10 AM PDT by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: prisoner6

LOL!

The United States of America, and the United Kingdom, two nations separated by a common language.

Where opportunities for confusion abound.


99 posted on 10/09/2010 10:25:11 AM PDT by warm n fuzzy (Really)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

The reference in the article about the upper classes adopting the non-rhotic speech makes me think of NPR. Why do they use so many people with “British” accents? Do they think it lends credence to their propaganda?


100 posted on 10/09/2010 10:26:04 AM PDT by white17x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 181-183 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson