When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

Re:When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents? by jinushaun on Monday January 28, 2013 @04:25PM (#5130754)

IMO, no discussion about the loss of "British accents" in America can be complete without including Canada, Australia and South Africa in the mix. I always found it fascinating that the US and Australia have such dramatically different "standard" accents despite both being former British colonies.

Btw, anyone wanting to search for the "missing link" should visit Bermuda. Strange mix of GA and RP.

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Re:When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents? by wluu on Monday January 28, 2013 @07:35PM (#5131659)

Ah, Australian "English"... :)

I'd say (in Australia), our English was influenced to an extent by the local population (ie: Aboriginal Australians) to a degree in addition to British English.

Here's a few references: * "history & accent change" - http://clas.mq.edu.au/australian-voices/history-accent-chang... * "australian accent" - http://clas.mq.edu.au/voices/australian-accent * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English

Might also be a good idea (if you're curious) to contrast/compare Australian English with New Zealand English. Subtle differences, but they are there.

It's a mighty big topic if you really want to delve into it in any detail.

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Re:When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents? by toyg on Tuesday January 29, 2013 @10:00AM (#5134313)

"Subtle" is a relative term here: I'm Italian, not particularly trained in languages, and I can easily tell NZ and Aussies apart. NZ vowels are even crazier than the already-bonkers Australian ones.

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Re:When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents? by dmoo on Monday January 28, 2013 @06:16PM (#5131377)

Also interesting is how close the Newfoundland accent has stayed to the rural Irish one.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqLuIXwsLDw

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