[boop]

I remember reading an article about just WHEN new world Americans "lost" their British accent.

For instance, what did Ben Franklin sound like?

I can't recall what the final analysis was.

I wager that Ben had a "funny" accent to our ears, though.

And off topic, but I lived in Baltimore for years, and I still can't imitate that accent.

New Yawk, Boston, Dallas, Minnesota, easy to emulate.

Bal'mer?

Can't imitate, but I know it when I hear it.

[Fiji Hill]

For instance, what did Ben Franklin sound like?

Not sure about Ben Franklin, but Southern Partisan magazine made a case that George Washington spoke with a Southern drawl, y'all.

[Albion Wilde]

And off topic, but I lived in Baltimore for years, and I still can't imitate that accent.

If you rent the recent version of Hairspray, John Travolta had it down! "I got to do mah arnin!" (do my ironing)

[Big Red Clay]

I had a friend in college (University of Nebraska Lincoln) from Baltimore. That was the damnedest accent. I had never heard anything like it and I could not imitate it (and I am good at doing accents generally).
One of my nephews brought a guy he works with to family thanksgiving this year who couldn’t get home. As soon as I listened to him speak, I said “You’re from Baltimore!” He asked how the heck I knew and I told him that accent is unmistakable.