How does the modern American English accent differ from that of the original British colonists in the 1600s?

I suppose the original mus influence what we hear today but are there any records of what it might have sounded like? Is any particular regional modern american accent more like the original?

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Asked in America, accent, speech asked on: 04/23/2006 08:38pm

closed on: 04/24/2006 07:21pm

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Baobab2090

Rank: Doctorate (1,718) | history (91), Linguistics (8), America (5)

4 minutes after the question was opened (04/23/2006 08:41pm)

For an interesting and amusing account of this see Bill Bryson's book 'Made in America'.

The modern US accent developed from the 1600s British dialect that was more like some 'regional' ones we may hear in Cornwall and the northeast of England today.

Interestingly, many of the US words like trash (rather than rubbish) and bug (rather than insect) and others are the ones that would have been used in the 1600s and have since fallen out of use in Britain.

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Rank: Professor (5,211) | history (792), origin (40), Linguistics (16)

16 minutes after the question was opened (04/23/2006 08:54pm)

I would imagine that the early settlers via the Mayflower and the Pilgrim Fathers would probably have had an accent similar to Baobab2090's explanation. Bit of regional dialect, Devon & Cornwall with a bit of old English thrown in for good measure.
Who was it who said something about two English speaking countries separated by a common language? Something like that anyway:<}

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How does the modern American English accent differ from that of the original British colonists in the 1600s?

2 Answers