The Absence of an Accent. - Page 3 - Historum

poser765 · July 6th, 2010, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjadams

Dialects develop locally and can be carried away, but not make an impact on their new environment. I know my aunt from Mississippi has a definite twang to her accent, but must have been developed in Miss. as she is from Louisiana.
My brother, when growing up, spent a week in Louisiana and came home speaking their slang and twang. We're from Texas.
Local speak of "I'm fixin to leave now" opposed to "I"m about to leave now"
comes with the territory and as the OP wrote, surely any left over British accent was gone in a short generation.

Yeah...you get a lot of that down here.

Ya'll
Gunna
idn't
awda

to name a few.

Hey, ya'll idn't bout time you awda get dressed? We're gunna be goin to tha store in a bit.

deadeyealex · July 6th, 2010, 07:50 PM

There are certain regional accents such as Minnesotan accents. Being from Minnesota myself we speak with prolonged o's and nasally sounding a's

**crossroadclarence** · July 9th, 2010, 11:09 PM

~ 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.”

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 New England accents became non-rhotic, perhaps because of the region’s British connections. Irish and Scottish accents are still rhotic.~

Or so says Nick Patrick.

Jordoom · July 15th, 2010, 07:35 AM

I love Southern accents. Haha, all of 'em, be it Texan, or Louisianan. If I could choose an accent to have, it'd probably be a Virginian or Northern Louisianan one :P

There are definitely even some minor accents here in Canada. My girlfriend is from Southern Ontario and I'm from Nova Scotia, and we have fairly different accents. Ontarians say "house" like it is spelled; most Nova Scotians, myself included, often say it kind of like "hoase," I guess. Don't really pronounce the U sound, so its like "hose" with a soft S. Or, she pronounces "about" and "a boat" differently. For me, "about" sounds identical to "a boat" when I say it. And I don't know any Canadian who says "a boot"! :P

Nova Scotians also don't pronounce gerunds. "I'm goin' swimmin'." For me, I kind of alternate. If I'm in a formal setting, I generally try to remember my gerunds. But when I'm excited, in a rush, angry, drunk, or anything like that, its always, "goin'"

augustus · July 15th, 2010, 08:34 AM

'ey, I grew up in New Yawk an' when I moved down Sout' wit my fam'ly in de oily '70s, deeze ass***** couldn't undastan' wtf I wuz sayin'...know wut I mean? Friggin' hicks...

buncha #%@*! hillbillies iz wut dey ah.

JimR-OCDS · July 15th, 2010, 11:02 AM

I never knew I had an accent until I went into the Marines and as soon as I spoke with people they'd say, "you're from Bawston."

Even in New England, we have different accents. People around Springfield Massachusetts have an accent of their own as as people down in Maine have theirs, "ah yup."

Jim

augustus · July 16th, 2010, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimR-OCDS

I never knew I had an accent until I went into the Marines and as soon as I spoke with people they'd say, "you're from Bawston."

Even in New England, we have different accents. People around Springfield Massachusetts have an accent of their own as as people down in Maine have theirs, "ah yup."

Jim

Boston, eh? What say we "get in the cah and go to the bah?"

**Edgewaters** · July 16th, 2010, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordoom

There are definitely even some minor accents here in Canada. My girlfriend is from Southern Ontario and I'm from Nova Scotia, and we have fairly different accents.

Those aren't minor accents. These are minor accents:

Ottawa_Valley_Twang

Lunenburg_English

JimR-OCDS · July 16th, 2010, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by augustus

Boston, eh? What say we "get in the cah and go to the bah?"

And to make matters worse, I was raised in a French community. I wasn't taught to speak French, but ended up with a half-baked French accent inside the Boston Accent.

I catch myself saying tree and da, for three and the.

Jim

History Chick · July 19th, 2010, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Emporium

I'm curious as to when the settlers from England really started to lose their accents? I'm assuming that they carried it for at least a generation or two after they arrived. Were the accents just lost or was it just another attempt to seperate themselves even further from England. The only other thing I can think of is that the British used to have a simliar accent to americans today, but evolved differently. Everything thing has changed and evolved so when I say simliar to americans that is rather vague( I Know) seeing as there is multiple different dialects/accents among america....*sigh...Help me make sense of this

Thanks,
Dakota

Personally, I think the English probably spoke in a different way in the 17th-18th century than they do today. That doesn't mean they spoke more like Americans and Americans have actually changed less than the English. I think the accents in both cultures have probably changed a lot in the last few centuries so it's not a case of Americans "losing" an accent.

That is just my theory though - I don't know if anyone can really say for sure what kind of accent people spoke with prior to the invention of an audio recording device.