When did Americans lose the British accent?

I find there are even differences within Oz. For instance, in the west we say 'Beer, here, steer etc' the way the queen would say it 'Bee-er'. In the east people don't say it with the tone drop in the middle of the word...its beee, heeer (almost without the r). My eastern states friends ALL do that.

Queenlanders are way more broad than most states as well. My mum is from NSW and she says Basic with an 'a' as it cat. My father doesn't. I say dance and france as in 'cant' because my pop was english and he spoke that way.

I can tell what state someone is from in the US and generally what city someone is from in the UK too.


As I said earlier - read Bill Bryson's book "Made in America" if you are interested in this stuff. He goes into they way words and accents came about in great depth.

double post

[edit on 3-8-2009 by swinggal]

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


I had the chance of visiting Boston a couple of years ago, I found their accent similar to ours and a wee bit different from what we think american accent is. After all there is no standard brit accent, it changes all along the isles and even in the same city you can here different accents like here in Glasgow. I also heard the theory that Irish immigrants played a important role in the development of "bostonian" accent. However if you think about Canada, where lots of scottish immigrants moved to in the past you can't barely tell any scottish influence in their accent. For us it is just a North American accent.
Regards

Originally posted by swinggal
I find there are even differences within Oz. For instance, in the west we say 'Beer, here, steer etc' the way the queen would say it 'Bee-er'. In the east people don't say it with the tone drop in the middle of the word...its beee, heeer (almost without the r). My eastern states friends ALL do that.

Queenlanders are way more broad than most states as well. My mum is from NSW and she says Basic with an 'a' as it cat. My father doesn't. I say dance and france as in 'cant' because my pop was english and he spoke that way.

I can tell what state someone is from in the US and generally what city someone is from in the UK too.


As I said earlier - read Bill Bryson's book "Made in America" if you are interested in this stuff. He goes into they way words and accents came about in great depth.

Hi Swinggal

See I don't notice that at all- but admittedly I haven't spent that much time in the West but have had mates from there and I've never noticed the difference
Am on the border here of NSW/QLD and can say I haven't noticed any difference with Queenslanders either- they maybe say 'hey' alot! more than we do but that's the only thing I've noticed with them

We all rise at the end of our sentences, some do it more than others but it's the Aussie way- we make everything a question LOL- I do it when I get excited

I guess we will eventually form different accents as other countries have done, given time maybe?

I get what you're saying about the pronouciation of beer, will check that out! see if I notice it as well

Originally posted by scone
reply to post by Anonymous ATS

 

I had the chance of visiting Boston a couple of years ago, I found their accent similar to ours and a wee bit different from what we think american accent is. After all there is no standard brit accent, it changes all along the isles and even in the same city you can here different accents like here in Glasgow. I also heard the theory that Irish immigrants played a important role in the development of "bostonian" accent. However if you think about Canada, where lots of scottish immigrants moved to in the past you can't barely tell any scottish influence in their accent. For us it is just a North American accent.
Regards

Canadians sound VERY different to Americans. I had a Canadian boyfriend so I noticed a lot of things. He was from Vancouver and there is a very distinct way in which they pronounce, 'house' (hoose), 'out' (oot), 'about' (aboot) so I can see the Scottish influence there easily. Any words with 'ou' were pronounced as oo. Very easy to tell a Candian from an American.

It's kind of like New Zealanders and Aussies. The same in many ways but totally different in others. We say 'fish' they say 'fush' (u as in up). So kiss is kuss, this is thus etc. Their 'i' is 'u'. The 'a' is different in some areas too. 'Haven't' becomes heven't. 'Hat' becomes het. This is broader in certain areas though.

All influenced by a mix of maori and english settlers. maybe they had more Scottish immigrants than we did.

1. I lived in Germany for 11 years.

2. I lived in the US for 7 years.

3. My father is French.

4. My mother is Irish.

5. I was born in the Netherlands.

6. Outside of the Netherlands, Germany and the US, I lived in the UK for 3 years, and now live in Taiwan 3 years.

What's my accent like?

People say my accent sounds like a mix of German, Irish and maybe British with a touch of American.

I can give three reasons for picking up the accents:

1. Inherited.

2. Communicating with people in the language every day, and automatically picking up their accent.

3. Growing up in that country at a very early age and picking up the language/accent like it's your mother tongue

It is correct that the Irish pronouce "a" more like the Americans than the British, in for example "APPLE" or "CAN".

The US accent probably comes from a mixture of many accents that developed over time. I've wondered about the American accent myself a lot, and just think it's a collection of dialects mixed into one. Or maybe the first settlers were Aussies. They sound more like Americans than British :-) So then how did they get their accents?

Regarding music, British singers used to feel it sounds better to sing with an American accent rather than the common British accent which does not sound as musical.

Nowadays, it's cool to sing with a British accent, and the Americans love British accents, don't they?

[edit on 4-8-2009 by MightyAl]

This is a wonderful thread! I am completely fascinated by different accents and where they come from.

I live in central Illinois. Within my state there are 3 seperate accents -
CHICAGO - think of Blues Brothers
NEUTRAL- in the middle section of the state- like broadcasters and tv journalists (me)
Southern- ya'll and you'uns & You's.

My Stepfather and his parents are from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When I first met my Stepfather's parents I totally though they were German!

My stepdad has definitely lost a lot of that northern influence over the years, but still says SOORY instead of sawry like most do around here.

I have traveled all over the U.S. and lived in other states for periods of time and I find it very easy to pick up accents from anywhere. Southern drawl is probably the easiest for me to pick up on and it stays with me...

Fun topic!!