Specifically I’m wondering how the typical English accent became the typical western accent (Which sounds relatively country), and how did that become the modern accents on the West Coast? What factor was added in that made cowboys start sounding like the modern day Californian.
I’m assuming the typical NY accent comes from Italians coming over.
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Bonus question: Why are there no places in the US at all that kept the English accents????
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I suspect American regional accents were as varied (in the pre-broadcast era) as they are in Great Britain, and it depended on where in the UK people came from. For example listen to an English speaker say a word like ‘true’. In some areas the word curls to something like ‘truy’. That also happens in Australia and in southern states like North Carolina, where otherwise the accent sounds very different.
Around Boston, there isn’t just one accent, but you can tell south shore from north, and the Maine accent gets more pointed the further downeast you go.
The reason actors tend to get Boston accents wrong is that there’s two: the Brahmin, a totally phony ‘english’ put-on used by politicians like JFK (ex: Mayor Quimby), and the more blue-collar southie (ex: Casey Affleck in the fake Dunkin’s ad from SNL).
Everyone I’ve ever met in California speaks like the average network broadcaster, while the further north you go it starts sounding more southern.
Now the effect of technology on accents, that’s a can of worms. Listen to the stilted lilt of an old-time radio broadcaster, or a mid-century hollywood starlet. They spoke like that because microphones weren’t very good. Born of necessity, it became the style, and didn’t diminish until the 1970s.
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