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In some parts of the deep south, there are people that are in their 80s and 90s that sound like they are British. These people were born and raised in the south. Well some of them are actually British too.
Which American accent is closer to the English accent?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hypnosis
Northern accent, or Southern accent, and which uses more accurate grammar, etc...
I voted SOUTHERN because I believe the Northern accents have been more affected during the 1700s-1800s by immigration from other countries; German, Dutch, Irish, Italian, Jewish etc.
Its a really hard question to answer because there is more than one English accent. Not to mention more than one Southern and Northern accent as well.
As others have mentioned, this is an impossible question to answer because of the sheer variety of accents within the United States and England.
Let's get a few things straight first. Dialects on both sides of the Atlantic have evolved and diverged over time. Some have changed more or less than others.
As was mentioned earlier, there are a couple of American dialects in the coastal southeast - mainly on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and isolated islands like Tangier Island, VA - that have changed very little over time. These dialects have preserved many features of the original English dialect that was brought to this region. To this day, there are similarities between the Outer Banks dialect and the English spoken in southwestern England.
While the Outer Banks have preserved an older English dialect, another part of the country - Eastern New England - embraced many of the changes that occurred on the other side of the Atlantic, bringing the accent closer to that of southeastern England. This is because London and its environs were involved in a direct, lucrative trading relationship with eastern New England in the 1700s and 1800s, moreso than any other part of the country. Furthermore, some features were preserved from the original settlers, who came from East Anglia.
During the research I conducted for my Master's thesis, I interviewed many people in New Hampshire. Here you can listen to a 94-year-old woman from Ashland, NH reading a phrase out loud, demonstrating many of the shared pronunciation features between New England and southeast England: Barry was a farmer who lived with his aunt Mary half way up the road to Sanbornton. Every morning...
Sadly, many of these "English-sounding" pronunciations have given way to more standard American variants.
To return to the original question, we cannot simply answer in terms of "North" and "South." However, recent dialectology research has suggested that there are three American dialect areas whose pronunciations have evolved more than any other. These are 1) the Upper Midwest, 2) southern Appalachia, and 3) north central Texas.
Although the accents in these regions have diverged dramatically from those of the original settlers, they may still be conservative in some features, like grammar or vocabulary. For example, the stereotypical Appalachian structure of a-huntin' and a-fishin' is a relic of Elizabethan English.
I would definitely say the Eastern New England. Eastern Massachusetts especially. The Boston accent as it is referred to. I grew up in the area and have been to Ireland and England many times. Many of the words I grew up with are also used and prounouced the same in those countries. the words can't, half, water, bubbler, aunt all pronounced the British way. A number of words are. Any word that ends in r that r is automatically dropped as in many of the UK accents.
There is a reason New England is called New England and much of the area retains the English influence in speech. Its dying out somewhat thru the generations, but it very much is still part of the regional speech pattern.
Everyone beat me to it, I was gonna say Eastern New England accent.
It originated in East Anglia [Norfolk & Suffolk Counties, England]. It most closely resembles the Received Pronunciation we most associate with the British English accent. It's not exactly RP-which is the Queen's English, but it follows the same conventions.
vowels are elongated [mother becomes mo[h]ther, father becomes fa[h]ther]
'r's are dropped unless followed by a consonant [mo[h]th[ah], fa[h]th[ah], c[ah]
sounds are made more in the front of the mouth, whereas, in RP, they are made further back.
English and Irish accents are more tolerable than the New England accent in my opinion maybe because New England is not as original as England and Ireland and their accent in New England sounds half assed compaired to English and Irish accents.
"The tiny island community has attracted the attention of linguists because its people speak a unique English Restoration era dialect of American English, hypothesized to be nearly unchanged since the days of its first occupation by English colonists. Each of the original surnames and several of the present surnames on the island originated in the United Kingdom, predominantly from Scotland."
We should keep in mind that the British accent itself (London, i take it we are talking about (cockney)) has been changing much over time, and does not sound much like it did in, for example, Shakespeare's time much at all.
My grandmother was a native of Hopewell (tidewater), VA. Her accent was very similar to this.
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Which American accent is closer to the English accent?
