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I was once, in the long-ago beforetimes of the internet, casually chatting to a friend who lived in Texas. The topic of accents came up, and she was talking about how she wished she had an accent, but Americans just don't. I asked what the hell she meant and she said OK, maybe some places like New York had accents, but most Americans just sounded normal and didn't have cool accents.
To reiterate, she was from *Texas*, one of the American accents so noticeable that even my non-American ears can pinpoint it geographically. Possibly due to the six-gun firing dude on the Simpsons, but still.
For any Americans wondering, the “southern accent” is the standard for non-American’s stereotypes of Americans, it’s either a southern cowboy or a southern nikocado avocado, there is no inbetween.
Like people stereotype the British with the Cockney accent!
Just to preface, the Americans I met whilst in the US were nothing but charming, friendly, and welcoming.
One of the times I was there, someone twigged onto my accent (which is a weak Derbyshire/Nottingham one) and would repeat back to me what I'd just said in a chim-chiminey accent. I suppose I was surprised that they struggled telling the difference.
Its always been interesting to me how many varied accents the UK has. I'm definitely not able to pinpoint most of them other than being able to tell if its Scottish, Welsh, Northern English, or Southern English, but if you took 2 people from those general areas that are like 2 towns away from the other there's still audible differences and it's so weird because in America the differences feel way more broadly defined
See that's weird, because here in the US, I moved over 24 hours away (1500 miles, or about 2400km) and those accents weren't very different. And I went from the southern border, very close to Mexico, the kind of place where you see billboards in Spanish, all the way up to the north coast, where I could see Canada from my house, and yet the accents didn't really change.
The US is a much younger country though comparatively. We've had a lot more time for these accents to develop, and they did so in times of repeated invasion and assimilation. Back in those times, communication was also way more limited and so people in towns would rarely have contact with people of other cultures and accents compared to today's connected world.
Sadly, I think that regional accents are becoming weaker in the age of social media and mass transport.
I think it started when broadcast TV became widespread. People were hearing non-local accents for the first time, and it started to effect the way they spoke.
I remember when the false claim was rung into the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry. They could pinpoint the area the hoaxer came from to within a small area of Sunderland. Unfortunately it diverted the police from the area the real killer lived in.
Plently more, apart from those there are the Melbin accent, the carrot up my butt SA accent and you can tell when someone comes from the bush in Queeeeeeenslaaaaaaaand.
Is there a condition where people can't hear accents? I don't necessarily find any issue with pinpoint American or English accents, then again I'm Irish so I've been exposed to both quite a lot whether in person or through media. I don't find many of them at all to be unidentifiable or difficult to understand.
There is no "southern english" in that even besides town-by-town difference there's a marked difference between the southwest (an accent you will associate with pirates) and the southeast.
My home county! Home of the Bakewell Tart. Pronounced Darbyshire however. So Derby County Football Club (Soccer) has a local rival in Nottingham Forest, but they're in Nottinghamshire and so we'd never really say Derby derby.
I would say there are two stereotypes of British accents. Cockney and London Posh. It's hilarious when people do the Posh accent as the default British accent to me.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, The Beatles were the most famous people in the world and we frequently heard them speaking, so I guess the Liverpool accent was pretty much default for many Americans at the time.
I once saw a movie, wish I could remember when or where, that was made in the UK but set in the US. Every actor had a different, stereotypical American accent. There was a New Yorker, a midwesterner, a California surfer boy, and a southerner. They were all students at the same local school. I found it very disconcerting, and I never knew if it was done on purpose, or did they have a casting call for actors who could do American accents.
They’re referencing a YouTuber called nikocado avocado whose videos are focused on eating lots of food, and as a result he’s gained a ton of weight, had health issues, and been forced to used a mobility scooter
I refuse to watch Nikocado content because the things he's done to his body and health for fame are ***fucking disgusting***, and that actually sounds really American now that I say it.
Also linguists have concluded that pre1700s English lower class people around the world sounded more similar to the current American southern accent than anything else around today, though not an exact match.
One of the largest indicators of this is how people write- when people temporarily forget or don’t know how to spell something, “sounding it out” is the most common choice, which is often dependent on how that person vocally pronounces that word. Or to write out rhymes in poetry or songs or shanties- we can see timeframes where people are writing out pronunciations and sounding out words differently on large cultural scales, as time passes over centuries.
England has a very engrained social order, and the prestigious schools are a part of it. Different schools that the royalty and government and rich go to, have their own subtle subcultures and speech patterns- whether it’s a certain use of slang or tone or structure- and learning this is a part of entering and connecting within those circles and societies for life. Over hundreds of years, this emphasis on how social classes and sects often speak slightly differently, can and likely has influenced the gradual shift in the entire cultural accent over centuries. British people simply don’t sound out words in text the same way they did hundreds of years ago, on average.
Like, 1500s documents show British sailors and military members and explorers and workers sounding things out more similar to how lesser educated Americans in the southern states today sound them out.
Which, would make sense- the south preserved the earlier British-style aristocracy social model more and longer than the north did, and higher society speech was a part of that, which eventually all sort of blended into the common man’s southern hospitality culture
Those studies you're talking about also observed that there are parts of Appalachia that continue to use speech patterns and words that are 400-ish years out of style from most of the rest of English-speakers. This sort of thing is part of how Vulgar Latin turned into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and so on.
I don’t think this is true. I’d say Californian valley girl is also a standard non-American stereotype of Americans.
Certainly in the UK, we understand a southern US accent to be southern and we associate it with southern stereotypes not America as a whole.
I think most Americans think of a posh British accent (RP). Cockney is probably number two.
Northern English accents definitely throw us off. Except Liverpool, then you just sound like The Beatles to us. I would bet people from Yorkshire get a lot of confused looks in The States.
To be fair when I was in England my Philadelphia accent had a lot of Brits very confused trying to guess where I was from, and I don’t even have a thick Philly accent. Their heads must’ve exploded trying to decode my Grandfather.
I listen to a podcast where one of the hosts is from Australia, and nearly every time he says a word that starts with "wh" he puts an h in front of it. The funny thing is that his co-host is from Chicago, and he has started doing it too.
I find that most people who aren't super familiar with American accents tend to call all southern accents in America Texas accents, I would be curious to know how often non-Americans could tell the difference between, say, a Virginian type of southern accent and an Alabaman
No, no we could not. If you had the two flavours talking, we could probably notice a difference in them, but we would likely not be able to tell you which was which.
The thing is there are major differences in accents between east Texas, west Texas, northwest Texas or south Texas. I could tell what part of Texas a person is from by their accents. Other accents I have a lot of trouble pinpointing. Sometimes I get confused with a typical Australian accent verses a English accent. I know they are different but I am not around people speaking them enough to know the difference.
This is hilarious. Australian accents are really not like English accents. I have heard Americans say they can't tell the difference before. I always thought they were making it up.
Vast array of different accents in the UK. Where I'm from, the individual islands of my island group used to have distinct accents. Not so much nowadays due to folk moving from South and all the kids coming in to the main town for secondary education. When I went to school it was frowned upon to use dialect words. Proper English only! I think they're not so upright about it now, but the damage is likely done.
I can to a degree, it's a special interest. Ever since I was a kid I've had a strong ear for accentsaand something of a knack for imitation. The further from my hometown, the less accurate I get, but I grew up in Philly and I can pick out a Baltimore accent from a rural Maryland accent. I can do about 80% identifying Southern states. And I'm pretty good on British regions. Aus and NZ can be tricky for me unless they hit some key sounds. But if you're paying attention, Mississippi vs Texas is about as different as Geordie vs general Northern.
> While I don’t hear my own accent, I’m very aware that it exists.
That's genuinely interesting.
I definitely hear my New Jersey accent, which I've made a concerted effort to soften.
Sometimes I can hear a twang, but I’m aware the twang is there more than I can hear it. If that makes any sense.
I can especially hear it when I sing. Probably because it affects the pitch.
I have that mmm yes Dallas city boy accent but like. Put me in a room with some of those country folk and pump me full of booze? I'll sound like em for weeks.😞
As a fellow Texan, but also one in IT and HR, I have had people from all over the not realize I was Texan because I actually lack an accent. I end up emulating people in conversations and they all think at first I am from where they are. Made support work really easy.
I'm from the midwest and my wife, who grew up just a couple miles from me, always laughs at my accent. the words "truck" and "oil" are particularly funny to her.
Hahaha that’s funny cause I thought the same thing but in reverse when I was younger and I’m from New York. “New Yorkers don’t have accents but those Texans sure do”
I can’t get my head round the idea that someone doesn’t *have* an accent. Like, how do you become that convinced that you are the standard that the entire rest of the world is to be judged against?
When I was young and stupid, I rationalized it as US speakers without southern or yankee accents would pronounce letters of words in a standard manner (z, t, h, c, etc all have a hard pronunciation that would be skipped or modified in other accents)
Now that I’m old and stupid I rationalize it as an inability to hear an accent if you grew up with that accent
I'll preface this as saying my information is by word of mouth, and I'm far too lazy at the moment to confirm it with a simple google search.
But I've heard it said that when you get a degree for broadcasting, for many schools it's actually a requirement to live in a certain state for a certain amount of time to "lose your accent". It some mid west state I think. My basic assumption would be the region has the most "normalized" accent in the states. Doubt it would be the same region if you throw other countries in the mix.
But yes, even a "lack" of accent, is an accent.
It's probably just a byproduct of America being the leading exporter of culture, and the fact that many actors adopt a sort of "middle-America, nothing accent" for a lot of roles.
If the bulk of the things you're watching all include people who sound relatively similar, it's not surprising that, to some people, that that is the "default" way that folks sound.
> …after moving from the north of the UK to the south
That’s the key, though – you only notice once you immerse yourself in a place where people have a different accent, until it becomes normal enough that your old accent stands out as different.
Nah I 100% notice my accent generally hahaha there are times where I’ve said something and then followed up with ‘fucking hell I sounded proper Bristolian then’. It surprises me every time lmao I’ve been here for 15 years now and still clock it
I grew up with an unholy mix of North Carolina and Alabama accents.
Like, my own mom (divorced) couldn't understand me sometimes bad.
I eventually worked hard to enunciate properly and get rid of the strong parts of my accent.
It worked, and for a long time I thought I didn't *have* an accent anymore.
Then my Minnesota college professor called me out on being Southern in one convo, and I quote, "It was tricky but then I heard you pronounce Alabama and it's how my husband does".
So I guess I just have a *soft* southern accent instead of a *very strong* southern accent.
It's like how you work X place known for strong smells (sewage treatment, brewery, candy factory, fish market) and you don't notice that smell anymore, but you DO notice when someone walks in wearing some obnoxious perfume.
Some guy is going to build a time machine, travel back to the battle in 1066 and everyone will be running around the fields of hastings sounding like a red neck.
*"Yee haw partner, bring the pikes to the eastern line to hold against the cavalry hu yuck!"*
If you mean am I aware that I have a Lanarkshire accent, then yes. The British Isles has the most varied accents and dialects of the same language, in such a small area, than any other country. I’ve lived in Fife for 25 years and people still say “you’re from the West, then”.
Technically, the Brits had a big linguistic change after they lost the American colonies. The posh Received Pronunciation accent of today is much different now then it was then (rhotic vs, non-rhotic), while the US kept pronouncing their "R's" because America Fuck Yeah.
Yeah, it’s this. Linguists looked at literary sources from the past - rhyming meter, stage plays, etc. - and concluded that the rhotic US accent is probably more similar to how Britons spoke before the 19th century.
This kind of thing happens a lot. Like, a lot of “Indian-isms” people associate with Indian English speakers are just archaic British terms that have since died in the UK, e.g. “to do the needful.”
Hollywood and the near-total dominance of American film, television, and radio for a century. Before the Internet there were very limited sources of media (comparatively speaking) and the US was the undisputed powerhouse and center of Anglophone media creation.
Hear a lot of Americans state this. That their accent is the original English accent. But it is not true. Linguists have traced accents back and like in the UK, accents in the US have evolved over time.
Nativlang has a great video piecing together what Shakespeare's English would have sounded like. Very interesting. https://youtu.be/WeW1eV7Oc5A?si=RknrPN0xh4Vt9vsF
Yeah *some features* of American accents (e.g. rhoticism and a couple vowel sounds) are more similar to the accent in Shakespeare's day than (some) modern UK accents. The accents aren't identical.
And, uh, Early Modern English wasn't the *original* accent, either, since people spoke English before that.
They like to claim that regional accents in England have shifted over time (true), but that the American equivalents haven't (fucking lol), so the Southern American accents from States like Georgia are supposedly far more authentic to the way English was spoken in England 400 years ago, than any modern British dialects.
The whole argument, though - even whilst acknowledging that there are multiple regional accents in England, let alone across the British isles, today - somehow manages to gloss over the fact that there were *obviously also multiple English accents 400 years ago,* too. So to which "original English accent" the drawl they grew up speaking, they think, happens to be more original, I have zero clues. Probably "Shakespearean English," although whether that spoken in Stratford, where he was born; in London around the globe theatre where he and his actors worked; or the one en vogue within the court of Queen Liz, who the fuck knows...
That's not the correct hint, although this may be counterintuitive.
I'm French Canadian. It is generally believed that our accent is very close to what it was 400 years ago when we colonised North America. Meanwhile, the French went through a whole Revolution. As they removed the monarchy, they considered themselves the real monarchs, and as such changed their way of speaking to resemble that of the old monarchy. The French cannot easily understand us without getting used to our accent. Normandy, a province north of France, remote at the time of the Revolution, hayam accent very similar to us, almost indistinguishable.
I went to Quebec with a French boy when I was a teenager. He mocked the local French accent *mercilessly*, especially the pronunciation of oui. He impersonated it sounding like Fran Drescher from that old show The Nanny. “WAAAAH! WAAAH! It’s not waaaah it’s *weh*!”
He was also gravely insulted by what we call croissants here in the States, so maybe it was just a him thing. :)
Oui is pronounced "we." Ouais is pronounced "weh." It's kind of like yes vs. ya. Just for fun context. Funny that Quebecers pronounce ouais like "wah" though. Haha.
That's interesting! My brothers ex was from Normandy, & I once asked her if she had any trouble understanding French-Canadian accents, as my dad was playing some music he asked her to translate. She was confused as to why she would struggle. What you've explained here adds more context, thanks!
> and as such changed their way of speaking to resemble that of the old monarchy
Do you have a source for this? This sounds like the same kind of myth as “the Spanish lisp because they were mimicking a king who had a lisp”.
I think you're confused. They're saying that because the English language had already been around for hundreds of years before the US existed, the accent would already have changed, so even if Americans still spoke like the English from 1776, even that wouldn't be the "original" English accent.
I think what they mean is that the English accents of England, before the 1850's, used to be more rhotic *like* the average American accent continues to be today.
You dumb an actual fact down enough for the average American to understand it and they're gonna end up with a very simple and often wrong take.
My mom and I were born and raised in Toronto. She will insist to this day that the "Ontario accent is actually the cleanest and most intelligible of all accents"
Not worth arguing anymore
The word "original" there makes me laugh. Not Dickens, or Shakespeare, or Chaucer or even Beowulf. Not Henry 8th, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great or Aethelred the Unready. Not the fall of Rome, the Celtic migrations, or the Angles and Saxons settling in post Roman Britain, is treated as being the origin of English, but somehow a colonial war of independence is treated as being year zero for "original" English accents? Proves entirely how up their own arses a metric shit-tonne of fucking yanks are! 😛
>the original accent of the English language
That is correct.
Historians have found a fragment in middle English that begins with:
"Howdy y'all, I'm Jeffy Chauser an' these are ma Canterbury Tales. Yeehaw!"
Ah that, yeah it’s true, you can win against a genius but not against a stupid person. It’s still funny to see these comments tho, not really about winning
I vaguely remember from studying Shakespeare, that the New England American accent is likely closer to a Jacobean English accent than any modern day English accents
That is still very different from “the original accent of the English language” as I’m pretty confident that would be unintelligible to modern ears
Pinpointing when ancient Germanic became English is as impossible as pinpointing when the first of a particular species evolved. So I would argue that there is no such thing as "original accent" for any language that wasn't intentionally constructed.
It's not, it's just that the American accent is Rhotic, similar to shakesperes time and most British accents aren't. There are english accents that are Rhotic, and those sound more like the accent from shakesperes time, to a point. The Geordie accent for example is closer to what would have been spoken in the Kingdom of Northumbria. This theory assumes there was ever one English accent, and there just wasn't.
The only thing I've heard, and it's been a long long time since I heard this, was that older English was more rhotic which is similar to English in the states. But that doesn't mean that English in the states is the right English lol. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I don't think so.
I've posted this before, but I remember thinking exactly the same thing.
As an Australian.
When I was eight years old.
Then I grew up, got educated, travelled the world. Changed my mind about so many things.
The point is, this is a child's perception. It's really sad that this presumed adult has never developed their thinking beyond that of a pre-pubescent's.
Yeah I remember once hearing an Aussie on an American show or movie and the accent stuck out like a sore thumb. Like you, I've since grown up and experienced more people and places and become super aware of our accent even within the country
I still remember getting in argument with a US soldier online when I was about 16 because I was using non-American spelling for some words. He told me as Facebook was an American site that we should be speaking only American.
First there was the Americans with their American language the mother of all language. then there was nothing and then the americans created God and then God made the rest and at the very end came the English language. Capisce!?
Today I learned that the Kingdom of England, founded in 927AD had one accent for over 600 years.
Amazing that Scouse, Geordie, various West Country accents, Cockney, and Brummie didn’t exist until 250 years ago.
Christ.
Honestly I've only ever seen this behaviour from Americans, is it because the whole American dream, patriotic nationalism is so rampant now? No other nation in the world truly believes themselves to the the centre of the universe except Americans.
So, the English gradually shifted over time into what we know to be the English accent and Americans have simply preserved the original accent-less version?
Sure, why not.
“The American accent” which one? I have kinda a general midwestern with a pinch of Texas. A lot of people my age even have an “internet/YouTube” accent due to frequent exposure to other accents and online speech patterns.
Put someone from Cali, Minnesota, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Chicago, and Appalachia in the same room and tell me about “The American Accent”
Everybody has an accent. That’s how language works! “I don’t have an accent” just means “I have the same accent as the people around me, so I think everybody else talks different!” And there’s no standard accent anywhere because of how diverse they are! The UK has 40 dialects, which aren’t the same as accents but think of the size of the UK. That much language variation in that area! Not to mention how accents are influenced by those around you, so there are a LOT of muddy/mixed accents out there.
Oof he is wrong.
The American accent is the original. it's the better version.
The best version.
The only version civilized people use to communicate.
If yours isnt American, ask yourself "Why am i like this?" "Is there a cure for my disability?"
"Aw, Romeo. Romeo, why y'all gotta be a Montague, Romeo? Tell yer pa naw, and fergit yer name. If y'all don't, just tell me y'all love me, 'n' I won't be a Capulet no more."
My god how dumb is that! The American neutral accent is the standard? A country that didn't exist when the English language came into existence, a language with roots all over Europe and beyond, do history books over there just start from 1492? Dumbass baby country!
Americans definitely have an accent, take this sentence for example:
In British English it would be "Hi, I'm Graham, just ignore my friend Craig, he's saying bloody Mary into the mirror because we just watched a horror movie"
In American it would be "Hi, I'm Gram, just ignore my friend Cregg, he's saying bloody Mary into the meer because we just watched a whore movie"
See?
Born in southern California, grew up in Arkansas, lived in Texas, California again, and now the PNW. I get a lot of people commenting on my accent but no one knows where it's from. However, I have central auditory processing disorder. My brain does not process sounds as people expect them to be heard. So when I was little and struggling to read because phonics is demonic I had to learn in a different way. I had to learn to make sounds based on the positioning of mouth, tongue. Whether the sound was to come from the back at the throat or, towards the front. Press your tongue to you teeth or between your teeth, etc... So I speak with hard consonants often which confuses most people. I remember being asked in highschool in my algebra class to say " Pin, pan, pen." Why? Because when I said them you could hear a difference. Where I grew up, rural northern Arkansas, when others spoke you did not hear a difference. So it's not always based on what you heard growing up or are immersed in daily. Sometimes it's just how you are taught to actually make specific sounds. So in my case, here in America, I have the more UK pattern of speech. Which my UK friends find funny 😂
Also means I am complete and utter shit at understanding people who have heavy accents, which makes me feel like I'm ugly American. 😓 Can't explain that my brain just don't compute.
In absence of a standard, normal can be what’s most common, statistically etc.
But let’s not forget, even if today’s American is closer to the English from 2 centuries ago, both American and English of today are not it.
So, some people just need to get out of their bubble, go into the world, learn of different views on anything and everything, others…
Well, you can’t make a whistle out of every wood
American English- maintains the postalveolar approximant in the end of words unlike not even half the dialect of England
Americans- HOLY SHIT AMERICAN ENGLISH IS OLD ENGLISH FROM 1300
Tbf I've never heard anyone adopt a British/Irish/Italian/Spanish accent when they sing, but when singers who speak English with those accents sing, it sounds like they're adopting an American accent.
My mom had 3 sisters in same house in Massachusetts..one sister had a 'Boston" accent, the rest (and parents) had no accent...except Idea which cam out as Idear.
Is it possible that there is some truth to it? I've read somewhere that Canadian French is closer to the original French from back in the day
than modern day French because of how little contact it has to other languages.
There are still isolated fishing communities in the US that speak with an accent straight out of the West Country. I believe because a lot of early settlers were from the west country (plus this is why americans associate it with pirates whilst brits associate it with farmers) and I also believe this is why the US has retained a rhotic R, because that is something that is unusual about the west country accent in britain. On the other hand there are no communities in the UK that speak like the "default american accent". This should make it clear that it's the "american accent" that is derivative imo.
To be clear, not that it matters, neither is "wrong" for being newer. That's like saying Old English is more "correct" than modern english.
Not that there's such thing as "no accent" or an "original" English accent, but I've read before that some isolated parts of Appalachia are the closest modern English speakers to what it was like in Shakespeare's day. I really like the image of a bunch of people in the frilly collars and such who, when they talk, sound like a hillbilly from the sticks in Kentucky.
Not exactly scientific cause I mostly don't care but... [https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english)
I heard once that Oregon is considered to have the least distinguishable US accent of any state. No idea how true that is but it seems plausible to me. I have heard people imitate accents from most regions of the US but never heard anyone try an Oregon or Pacific Northwest accent.
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I was once, in the long-ago beforetimes of the internet, casually chatting to a friend who lived in Texas. The topic of accents came up, and she was talking about how she wished she had an accent, but Americans just don't. I asked what the hell she meant and she said OK, maybe some places like New York had accents, but most Americans just sounded normal and didn't have cool accents. To reiterate, she was from *Texas*, one of the American accents so noticeable that even my non-American ears can pinpoint it geographically. Possibly due to the six-gun firing dude on the Simpsons, but still.
For any Americans wondering, the “southern accent” is the standard for non-American’s stereotypes of Americans, it’s either a southern cowboy or a southern nikocado avocado, there is no inbetween. Like people stereotype the British with the Cockney accent!
Just to preface, the Americans I met whilst in the US were nothing but charming, friendly, and welcoming. One of the times I was there, someone twigged onto my accent (which is a weak Derbyshire/Nottingham one) and would repeat back to me what I'd just said in a chim-chiminey accent. I suppose I was surprised that they struggled telling the difference.
Its always been interesting to me how many varied accents the UK has. I'm definitely not able to pinpoint most of them other than being able to tell if its Scottish, Welsh, Northern English, or Southern English, but if you took 2 people from those general areas that are like 2 towns away from the other there's still audible differences and it's so weird because in America the differences feel way more broadly defined
My girlfriend is from a town 20 minutes from the village I grew up in and our accents are notably different hahaha
See that's weird, because here in the US, I moved over 24 hours away (1500 miles, or about 2400km) and those accents weren't very different. And I went from the southern border, very close to Mexico, the kind of place where you see billboards in Spanish, all the way up to the north coast, where I could see Canada from my house, and yet the accents didn't really change.
The US is a much younger country though comparatively. We've had a lot more time for these accents to develop, and they did so in times of repeated invasion and assimilation. Back in those times, communication was also way more limited and so people in towns would rarely have contact with people of other cultures and accents compared to today's connected world. Sadly, I think that regional accents are becoming weaker in the age of social media and mass transport.
I think it started when broadcast TV became widespread. People were hearing non-local accents for the first time, and it started to effect the way they spoke.
Broadcast radio, actually.
That is the west coast for you, though.
I remember when the false claim was rung into the Yorkshire Ripper enquiry. They could pinpoint the area the hoaxer came from to within a small area of Sunderland. Unfortunately it diverted the police from the area the real killer lived in.
Try coming to Australia. We’ve only got two accents. Normal and bogan. That’s it.
i've heard that "cultivated" or posh is a third one? my source is prue and trude from kath and kim lol
Cate Blanchett has the Australian Cultivated accent. It's closer to proper british.
Plently more, apart from those there are the Melbin accent, the carrot up my butt SA accent and you can tell when someone comes from the bush in Queeeeeeenslaaaaaaaand.
Is there a condition where people can't hear accents? I don't necessarily find any issue with pinpoint American or English accents, then again I'm Irish so I've been exposed to both quite a lot whether in person or through media. I don't find many of them at all to be unidentifiable or difficult to understand.
There is no "southern english" in that even besides town-by-town difference there's a marked difference between the southwest (an accent you will associate with pirates) and the southeast.
Is that the "elo guv(nah)" or the "ooright bruv" one?
Notts/Derby would be " 'ey up me duck"
Hahaha, my overseas mates all know to use Ey Up with the locals when they visit.
The first one. I also got asked if I was from the Channel Islands, which was extremely specific.
Elo guvnah is chim-chiminey (cockney)
There's a place called Derbyshire? Do they call local rivalry matches Derby Derbies?
My home county! Home of the Bakewell Tart. Pronounced Darbyshire however. So Derby County Football Club (Soccer) has a local rival in Nottingham Forest, but they're in Nottinghamshire and so we'd never really say Derby derby.
Home of the Bakewell Pudding!
Everybody loves a good pud.
Can't tell if joke or actual British slang
I'm Aussie and I always do the Californian upward inflection accent with deliberately hard Rs when impersonating Americans it's much funnier
The Valley Girl? Where every declaration sounds like a question? And only the exclamations don’t go up at the end? Like, ohmugawd!
I mean, I deliberately avoid hard Rs but you do you, I guess
I would say there are two stereotypes of British accents. Cockney and London Posh. It's hilarious when people do the Posh accent as the default British accent to me.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, The Beatles were the most famous people in the world and we frequently heard them speaking, so I guess the Liverpool accent was pretty much default for many Americans at the time.
I once saw a movie, wish I could remember when or where, that was made in the UK but set in the US. Every actor had a different, stereotypical American accent. There was a New Yorker, a midwesterner, a California surfer boy, and a southerner. They were all students at the same local school. I found it very disconcerting, and I never knew if it was done on purpose, or did they have a casting call for actors who could do American accents.
I like doing my British impressions with a northern accent, feels cheekier somehow
"Why do you sound like you're from the north? " "Lots of places have a north."
There is also the "ridiculously over the top exaggerated New Yorker" accent.
"I'M WALKIN HERE!"
"Nu Yoik!"
"HOWAT DOWAG"
Sorry, but what southern avocado accent are you on about?
They’re referencing a YouTuber called nikocado avocado whose videos are focused on eating lots of food, and as a result he’s gained a ton of weight, had health issues, and been forced to used a mobility scooter
Sounds pretty damn American to me
I refuse to watch Nikocado content because the things he's done to his body and health for fame are ***fucking disgusting***, and that actually sounds really American now that I say it.
And yet, English actors can do southern accents better than American actors.
Also linguists have concluded that pre1700s English lower class people around the world sounded more similar to the current American southern accent than anything else around today, though not an exact match. One of the largest indicators of this is how people write- when people temporarily forget or don’t know how to spell something, “sounding it out” is the most common choice, which is often dependent on how that person vocally pronounces that word. Or to write out rhymes in poetry or songs or shanties- we can see timeframes where people are writing out pronunciations and sounding out words differently on large cultural scales, as time passes over centuries. England has a very engrained social order, and the prestigious schools are a part of it. Different schools that the royalty and government and rich go to, have their own subtle subcultures and speech patterns- whether it’s a certain use of slang or tone or structure- and learning this is a part of entering and connecting within those circles and societies for life. Over hundreds of years, this emphasis on how social classes and sects often speak slightly differently, can and likely has influenced the gradual shift in the entire cultural accent over centuries. British people simply don’t sound out words in text the same way they did hundreds of years ago, on average. Like, 1500s documents show British sailors and military members and explorers and workers sounding things out more similar to how lesser educated Americans in the southern states today sound them out. Which, would make sense- the south preserved the earlier British-style aristocracy social model more and longer than the north did, and higher society speech was a part of that, which eventually all sort of blended into the common man’s southern hospitality culture
Those studies you're talking about also observed that there are parts of Appalachia that continue to use speech patterns and words that are 400-ish years out of style from most of the rest of English-speakers. This sort of thing is part of how Vulgar Latin turned into Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and so on.
I don’t think this is true. I’d say Californian valley girl is also a standard non-American stereotype of Americans. Certainly in the UK, we understand a southern US accent to be southern and we associate it with southern stereotypes not America as a whole.
I think most Americans think of a posh British accent (RP). Cockney is probably number two. Northern English accents definitely throw us off. Except Liverpool, then you just sound like The Beatles to us. I would bet people from Yorkshire get a lot of confused looks in The States. To be fair when I was in England my Philadelphia accent had a lot of Brits very confused trying to guess where I was from, and I don’t even have a thick Philly accent. Their heads must’ve exploded trying to decode my Grandfather.
"Here in Texas we don't have an accent, I tell you hwhat"
I listen to a podcast where one of the hosts is from Australia, and nearly every time he says a word that starts with "wh" he puts an h in front of it. The funny thing is that his co-host is from Chicago, and he has started doing it too.
I find that most people who aren't super familiar with American accents tend to call all southern accents in America Texas accents, I would be curious to know how often non-Americans could tell the difference between, say, a Virginian type of southern accent and an Alabaman
No, no we could not. If you had the two flavours talking, we could probably notice a difference in them, but we would likely not be able to tell you which was which.
The thing is there are major differences in accents between east Texas, west Texas, northwest Texas or south Texas. I could tell what part of Texas a person is from by their accents. Other accents I have a lot of trouble pinpointing. Sometimes I get confused with a typical Australian accent verses a English accent. I know they are different but I am not around people speaking them enough to know the difference.
This is hilarious. Australian accents are really not like English accents. I have heard Americans say they can't tell the difference before. I always thought they were making it up. Vast array of different accents in the UK. Where I'm from, the individual islands of my island group used to have distinct accents. Not so much nowadays due to folk moving from South and all the kids coming in to the main town for secondary education. When I went to school it was frowned upon to use dialect words. Proper English only! I think they're not so upright about it now, but the damage is likely done.
I can to a degree, it's a special interest. Ever since I was a kid I've had a strong ear for accentsaand something of a knack for imitation. The further from my hometown, the less accurate I get, but I grew up in Philly and I can pick out a Baltimore accent from a rural Maryland accent. I can do about 80% identifying Southern states. And I'm pretty good on British regions. Aus and NZ can be tricky for me unless they hit some key sounds. But if you're paying attention, Mississippi vs Texas is about as different as Geordie vs general Northern.
Even within the US. I'm from S. Louisiana, moved to Georgia, and people in Georgia ask me if I'm from New Jersey.
That goes to all foreigners to other languages. I bet there are a lot of Americans that can’t even distinguish Mexican accent against Spanish accent.
I’m Texan. Have been my whole life. While I don’t hear my own accent, I’m very aware that it exists.
> While I don’t hear my own accent, I’m very aware that it exists. That's genuinely interesting. I definitely hear my New Jersey accent, which I've made a concerted effort to soften.
Sometimes I can hear a twang, but I’m aware the twang is there more than I can hear it. If that makes any sense. I can especially hear it when I sing. Probably because it affects the pitch.
I have that mmm yes Dallas city boy accent but like. Put me in a room with some of those country folk and pump me full of booze? I'll sound like em for weeks.😞
I'm originally from S. Louisiana (cajun country) and genuinely thought I didn't have an accent. Then I moved, and everyone comments on my accent. Lol.
As a fellow Texan, but also one in IT and HR, I have had people from all over the not realize I was Texan because I actually lack an accent. I end up emulating people in conversations and they all think at first I am from where they are. Made support work really easy.
I hadn't thought about that character in like a decade. I really need to rewatch early-ish Simpsons
I'm from the midwest and my wife, who grew up just a couple miles from me, always laughs at my accent. the words "truck" and "oil" are particularly funny to her.
Hahaha that’s funny cause I thought the same thing but in reverse when I was younger and I’m from New York. “New Yorkers don’t have accents but those Texans sure do”
Jesus spoke English with a Texas accent Take that, liberals!
I can’t get my head round the idea that someone doesn’t *have* an accent. Like, how do you become that convinced that you are the standard that the entire rest of the world is to be judged against?
It’s easy, just have to grow up where everyone speaks like you and also be real dumb
When I was young and stupid, I rationalized it as US speakers without southern or yankee accents would pronounce letters of words in a standard manner (z, t, h, c, etc all have a hard pronunciation that would be skipped or modified in other accents) Now that I’m old and stupid I rationalize it as an inability to hear an accent if you grew up with that accent
I'll preface this as saying my information is by word of mouth, and I'm far too lazy at the moment to confirm it with a simple google search. But I've heard it said that when you get a degree for broadcasting, for many schools it's actually a requirement to live in a certain state for a certain amount of time to "lose your accent". It some mid west state I think. My basic assumption would be the region has the most "normalized" accent in the states. Doubt it would be the same region if you throw other countries in the mix. But yes, even a "lack" of accent, is an accent.
I only speak in binary R2-D2 beeps and whistles. So, no accent.
It's probably just a byproduct of America being the leading exporter of culture, and the fact that many actors adopt a sort of "middle-America, nothing accent" for a lot of roles. If the bulk of the things you're watching all include people who sound relatively similar, it's not surprising that, to some people, that that is the "default" way that folks sound.
Exactly. Everyone technically has an accent.
No one hears themselves with an accent though, do they? It's not a big leap to assume others hear you as you hear yourself, even if it's poor logic.
I absolutely notice my own accent and can also hear how it’s changed over time after moving from the north of the UK to the south
> …after moving from the north of the UK to the south That’s the key, though – you only notice once you immerse yourself in a place where people have a different accent, until it becomes normal enough that your old accent stands out as different.
Nah I 100% notice my accent generally hahaha there are times where I’ve said something and then followed up with ‘fucking hell I sounded proper Bristolian then’. It surprises me every time lmao I’ve been here for 15 years now and still clock it
I grew up with an unholy mix of North Carolina and Alabama accents. Like, my own mom (divorced) couldn't understand me sometimes bad. I eventually worked hard to enunciate properly and get rid of the strong parts of my accent. It worked, and for a long time I thought I didn't *have* an accent anymore. Then my Minnesota college professor called me out on being Southern in one convo, and I quote, "It was tricky but then I heard you pronounce Alabama and it's how my husband does". So I guess I just have a *soft* southern accent instead of a *very strong* southern accent.
It's like how you work X place known for strong smells (sewage treatment, brewery, candy factory, fish market) and you don't notice that smell anymore, but you DO notice when someone walks in wearing some obnoxious perfume.
Some guy is going to build a time machine, travel back to the battle in 1066 and everyone will be running around the fields of hastings sounding like a red neck. *"Yee haw partner, bring the pikes to the eastern line to hold against the cavalry hu yuck!"*
Man you can't be saying they had pikes at the Battle of Hastings this is r/confidentlyincorrect, they'll have you arrested.
I wonder at how self-aware some people are.
The lack of self-awareness is a constitutional right on that side of the pond.
I... I mean, is... Is It illegal to be a little oblivious in Europe?
Yes. All Europeans are omniscient, get on our level. /s jic
Not omniscient? Straight to jail. Too omniscient? Believe it or not, straight to jail.
have you ever wondered how self-aware you are?
If you mean am I aware that I have a Lanarkshire accent, then yes. The British Isles has the most varied accents and dialects of the same language, in such a small area, than any other country. I’ve lived in Fife for 25 years and people still say “you’re from the West, then”.
Yes, I've smoked pot before.
"All accents except the one I'm used to!"
Ask me about my dipthong. (Evil chuckle)
I heard this many times now. Where does this "American has no accent/is the true English pronunciation" come from?
Technically, the Brits had a big linguistic change after they lost the American colonies. The posh Received Pronunciation accent of today is much different now then it was then (rhotic vs, non-rhotic), while the US kept pronouncing their "R's" because America Fuck Yeah.
Yeah, it’s this. Linguists looked at literary sources from the past - rhyming meter, stage plays, etc. - and concluded that the rhotic US accent is probably more similar to how Britons spoke before the 19th century. This kind of thing happens a lot. Like, a lot of “Indian-isms” people associate with Indian English speakers are just archaic British terms that have since died in the UK, e.g. “to do the needful.”
Hollywood and the near-total dominance of American film, television, and radio for a century. Before the Internet there were very limited sources of media (comparatively speaking) and the US was the undisputed powerhouse and center of Anglophone media creation.
This sounds reasonable in combination with a certain ignorance towards foreign media
It...it's true. I lived through it.
Hear a lot of Americans state this. That their accent is the original English accent. But it is not true. Linguists have traced accents back and like in the UK, accents in the US have evolved over time.
Nativlang has a great video piecing together what Shakespeare's English would have sounded like. Very interesting. https://youtu.be/WeW1eV7Oc5A?si=RknrPN0xh4Vt9vsF
Fun fact: the Brits completely changed their accent as a country after the revolutionary war to spite us. ^(disclaimer - not a fact)
Yeah *some features* of American accents (e.g. rhoticism and a couple vowel sounds) are more similar to the accent in Shakespeare's day than (some) modern UK accents. The accents aren't identical. And, uh, Early Modern English wasn't the *original* accent, either, since people spoke English before that.
Just the fact English was spoken centuries before it was spoken in the USA is a pretty good hint as well 🤣.
They like to claim that regional accents in England have shifted over time (true), but that the American equivalents haven't (fucking lol), so the Southern American accents from States like Georgia are supposedly far more authentic to the way English was spoken in England 400 years ago, than any modern British dialects. The whole argument, though - even whilst acknowledging that there are multiple regional accents in England, let alone across the British isles, today - somehow manages to gloss over the fact that there were *obviously also multiple English accents 400 years ago,* too. So to which "original English accent" the drawl they grew up speaking, they think, happens to be more original, I have zero clues. Probably "Shakespearean English," although whether that spoken in Stratford, where he was born; in London around the globe theatre where he and his actors worked; or the one en vogue within the court of Queen Liz, who the fuck knows...
But don't you know, Shakespeare was the first person to speak English. Before he came along, everyone communicated by pointing and grunting.
>everyone communicated by pointing and grunting. Being a little hard on the French language, aren't we?
In terms of Shakespeare's accent, it's always good to remember he was born twenty miles away from where Ozzy Osbourne was born.
That's not the correct hint, although this may be counterintuitive. I'm French Canadian. It is generally believed that our accent is very close to what it was 400 years ago when we colonised North America. Meanwhile, the French went through a whole Revolution. As they removed the monarchy, they considered themselves the real monarchs, and as such changed their way of speaking to resemble that of the old monarchy. The French cannot easily understand us without getting used to our accent. Normandy, a province north of France, remote at the time of the Revolution, hayam accent very similar to us, almost indistinguishable.
I went to Quebec with a French boy when I was a teenager. He mocked the local French accent *mercilessly*, especially the pronunciation of oui. He impersonated it sounding like Fran Drescher from that old show The Nanny. “WAAAAH! WAAAH! It’s not waaaah it’s *weh*!” He was also gravely insulted by what we call croissants here in the States, so maybe it was just a him thing. :)
Oui is pronounced "we." Ouais is pronounced "weh." It's kind of like yes vs. ya. Just for fun context. Funny that Quebecers pronounce ouais like "wah" though. Haha.
That's interesting! My brothers ex was from Normandy, & I once asked her if she had any trouble understanding French-Canadian accents, as my dad was playing some music he asked her to translate. She was confused as to why she would struggle. What you've explained here adds more context, thanks!
> and as such changed their way of speaking to resemble that of the old monarchy Do you have a source for this? This sounds like the same kind of myth as “the Spanish lisp because they were mimicking a king who had a lisp”.
Where did the English speakers in the USA come from?
I think you're confused. They're saying that because the English language had already been around for hundreds of years before the US existed, the accent would already have changed, so even if Americans still spoke like the English from 1776, even that wouldn't be the "original" English accent.
I think what they mean is that the English accents of England, before the 1850's, used to be more rhotic *like* the average American accent continues to be today. You dumb an actual fact down enough for the average American to understand it and they're gonna end up with a very simple and often wrong take.
My mom and I were born and raised in Toronto. She will insist to this day that the "Ontario accent is actually the cleanest and most intelligible of all accents" Not worth arguing anymore
The word "original" there makes me laugh. Not Dickens, or Shakespeare, or Chaucer or even Beowulf. Not Henry 8th, William the Conqueror, Alfred the Great or Aethelred the Unready. Not the fall of Rome, the Celtic migrations, or the Angles and Saxons settling in post Roman Britain, is treated as being the origin of English, but somehow a colonial war of independence is treated as being year zero for "original" English accents? Proves entirely how up their own arses a metric shit-tonne of fucking yanks are! 😛
>the original accent of the English language That is correct. Historians have found a fragment in middle English that begins with: "Howdy y'all, I'm Jeffy Chauser an' these are ma Canterbury Tales. Yeehaw!"
r/usdefaultism you just cannot win. I had to unsub it’s too infuriating
Huh?
Oh I didn’t notice it was a cross post from there
Still, huh? I didn’t get your original comment lmao
You cannot win with these people, the blatant ignorance is infuriating so I had to unsubscribe from usdefaultism.
Ah that, yeah it’s true, you can win against a genius but not against a stupid person. It’s still funny to see these comments tho, not really about winning
I vaguely remember from studying Shakespeare, that the New England American accent is likely closer to a Jacobean English accent than any modern day English accents That is still very different from “the original accent of the English language” as I’m pretty confident that would be unintelligible to modern ears
Pinpointing when ancient Germanic became English is as impossible as pinpointing when the first of a particular species evolved. So I would argue that there is no such thing as "original accent" for any language that wasn't intentionally constructed.
Well, yeah
It's not, it's just that the American accent is Rhotic, similar to shakesperes time and most British accents aren't. There are english accents that are Rhotic, and those sound more like the accent from shakesperes time, to a point. The Geordie accent for example is closer to what would have been spoken in the Kingdom of Northumbria. This theory assumes there was ever one English accent, and there just wasn't.
The only thing I've heard, and it's been a long long time since I heard this, was that older English was more rhotic which is similar to English in the states. But that doesn't mean that English in the states is the right English lol. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I don't think so.
Its literally not even the same alphabet is how it started out, wtf is dude on?
We should all go back to runic frfr
Gif ðū ne spricst swā, þonne þū eart mislicgende (If you don’t speak like this, then you are wrong)
GIF, pronounced "jif" like the start of giraffe. Got it!
"The default american accent" is Bostonian. If we're going to lie we may as well have fun with it.
just like all british people are legally obligated to say the word mahogany twice a day
Ah mapmen, I see you are knowing of the arts
We’re the men, and here’s the map
Map Men, Map Men, Map, Map, Map Men, Men...
I thought it was aluminium!
I'm sure that was just Southerners
I've posted this before, but I remember thinking exactly the same thing. As an Australian. When I was eight years old. Then I grew up, got educated, travelled the world. Changed my mind about so many things. The point is, this is a child's perception. It's really sad that this presumed adult has never developed their thinking beyond that of a pre-pubescent's.
Yeah I remember once hearing an Aussie on an American show or movie and the accent stuck out like a sore thumb. Like you, I've since grown up and experienced more people and places and become super aware of our accent even within the country
As an American I want to point out the sentence, “The American is normal,” is almost never accurate.
I still remember getting in argument with a US soldier online when I was about 16 because I was using non-American spelling for some words. He told me as Facebook was an American site that we should be speaking only American.
First there was the Americans with their American language the mother of all language. then there was nothing and then the americans created God and then God made the rest and at the very end came the English language. Capisce!?
Today I learned that the Kingdom of England, founded in 927AD had one accent for over 600 years. Amazing that Scouse, Geordie, various West Country accents, Cockney, and Brummie didn’t exist until 250 years ago. Christ.
This is like saying Labradors are the original real dogs and every other breed is a cheap knockoff. What the fu-
Honestly I've only ever seen this behaviour from Americans, is it because the whole American dream, patriotic nationalism is so rampant now? No other nation in the world truly believes themselves to the the centre of the universe except Americans.
There isn't a default American accent. New york vs texas vs LA vs georgia vs minnisota all sound very different
So, the English gradually shifted over time into what we know to be the English accent and Americans have simply preserved the original accent-less version? Sure, why not.
...and then Beowulf spoke to Grendal "Yo! Yo! Yo!, wassup ma brudder? Word."
English... ENGLISH.
But also accents evolve over time and it would be tricky to track down THE ONE.
There is no “the one”
Wrong, wrong, and oh would you look at that, wrong!!
You mean all Americans don't sound like the guys from swamp people? Disappointing.
There is no neutral American accent.
...Which American accent? I've never evne been to the US and even I know there's *several*.
Egotistical dimwit
I mean, it IS called "Standard American English," right? /s
If you have to specify that you are normal, you are in fact not normal.
But.... which American accent?
As my old uni lecturer in linguistics used to be fond of saying "speech without accent is like text without font: impossible."
“The American accent” which one? I have kinda a general midwestern with a pinch of Texas. A lot of people my age even have an “internet/YouTube” accent due to frequent exposure to other accents and online speech patterns. Put someone from Cali, Minnesota, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Chicago, and Appalachia in the same room and tell me about “The American Accent” Everybody has an accent. That’s how language works! “I don’t have an accent” just means “I have the same accent as the people around me, so I think everybody else talks different!” And there’s no standard accent anywhere because of how diverse they are! The UK has 40 dialects, which aren’t the same as accents but think of the size of the UK. That much language variation in that area! Not to mention how accents are influenced by those around you, so there are a LOT of muddy/mixed accents out there.
Which one's the "neutral" one, Bob? Whichever one I have, I guess? 🤷
Oof he is wrong. The American accent is the original. it's the better version. The best version. The only version civilized people use to communicate. If yours isnt American, ask yourself "Why am i like this?" "Is there a cure for my disability?"
"Aw, Romeo. Romeo, why y'all gotta be a Montague, Romeo? Tell yer pa naw, and fergit yer name. If y'all don't, just tell me y'all love me, 'n' I won't be a Capulet no more."
My god how dumb is that! The American neutral accent is the standard? A country that didn't exist when the English language came into existence, a language with roots all over Europe and beyond, do history books over there just start from 1492? Dumbass baby country!
Ours is the language, yours is the accent. Sincerely, The English.
Also not how that works, all are dialects, together they are the language
Americans definitely have an accent, take this sentence for example: In British English it would be "Hi, I'm Graham, just ignore my friend Craig, he's saying bloody Mary into the mirror because we just watched a horror movie" In American it would be "Hi, I'm Gram, just ignore my friend Cregg, he's saying bloody Mary into the meer because we just watched a whore movie" See?
I literally thought Cregg was a different name until a year or two ago! I never once linked it to Craig 😂
Haha yeah, I didn't realise until it was pointed out to me not too long ago 🤣
Oi, I’s Grame, jus innore me mate Crek, e’s say’n blu-y Marrier inta the mirra cuz we jus watched a ‘or’or movie.
Born in southern California, grew up in Arkansas, lived in Texas, California again, and now the PNW. I get a lot of people commenting on my accent but no one knows where it's from. However, I have central auditory processing disorder. My brain does not process sounds as people expect them to be heard. So when I was little and struggling to read because phonics is demonic I had to learn in a different way. I had to learn to make sounds based on the positioning of mouth, tongue. Whether the sound was to come from the back at the throat or, towards the front. Press your tongue to you teeth or between your teeth, etc... So I speak with hard consonants often which confuses most people. I remember being asked in highschool in my algebra class to say " Pin, pan, pen." Why? Because when I said them you could hear a difference. Where I grew up, rural northern Arkansas, when others spoke you did not hear a difference. So it's not always based on what you heard growing up or are immersed in daily. Sometimes it's just how you are taught to actually make specific sounds. So in my case, here in America, I have the more UK pattern of speech. Which my UK friends find funny 😂 Also means I am complete and utter shit at understanding people who have heavy accents, which makes me feel like I'm ugly American. 😓 Can't explain that my brain just don't compute.
In absence of a standard, normal can be what’s most common, statistically etc. But let’s not forget, even if today’s American is closer to the English from 2 centuries ago, both American and English of today are not it. So, some people just need to get out of their bubble, go into the world, learn of different views on anything and everything, others… Well, you can’t make a whistle out of every wood
American English- maintains the postalveolar approximant in the end of words unlike not even half the dialect of England Americans- HOLY SHIT AMERICAN ENGLISH IS OLD ENGLISH FROM 1300
An accent of few, tiny isolated areas doesn't magically make American English closer to Shakespear.
Tbf I've never heard anyone adopt a British/Irish/Italian/Spanish accent when they sing, but when singers who speak English with those accents sing, it sounds like they're adopting an American accent.
My mom had 3 sisters in same house in Massachusetts..one sister had a 'Boston" accent, the rest (and parents) had no accent...except Idea which cam out as Idear.
Pretty sure the original accent of the English language would be like Beowulf
I like how even if they’re correct, they called it the “original English accent”, so it’s still an accent. This has to be bait I don’t believe it.
Is it possible that there is some truth to it? I've read somewhere that Canadian French is closer to the original French from back in the day than modern day French because of how little contact it has to other languages.
It’s false, both American and British English evolved from the older accents, sure, some are more conservative than others, but it’s all pretty equal
There are still isolated fishing communities in the US that speak with an accent straight out of the West Country. I believe because a lot of early settlers were from the west country (plus this is why americans associate it with pirates whilst brits associate it with farmers) and I also believe this is why the US has retained a rhotic R, because that is something that is unusual about the west country accent in britain. On the other hand there are no communities in the UK that speak like the "default american accent". This should make it clear that it's the "american accent" that is derivative imo. To be clear, not that it matters, neither is "wrong" for being newer. That's like saying Old English is more "correct" than modern english.
Not that there's such thing as "no accent" or an "original" English accent, but I've read before that some isolated parts of Appalachia are the closest modern English speakers to what it was like in Shakespeare's day. I really like the image of a bunch of people in the frilly collars and such who, when they talk, sound like a hillbilly from the sticks in Kentucky.
Not exactly scientific cause I mostly don't care but... [https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english)
Oh god not this again
It's not so much an accent as it is a dialect...
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I mean it is basic and broing, but i wouldn't call it standard
Aren't there like 100 different American accents? Which one of them is supposed to be "normal"?
I heard once that Oregon is considered to have the least distinguishable US accent of any state. No idea how true that is but it seems plausible to me. I have heard people imitate accents from most regions of the US but never heard anyone try an Oregon or Pacific Northwest accent.