What are the roots of American accents? Where did the English accents go?

Question

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????

In: 613

Answer 1

American English and British English diverged a good while ago, and have since gone their separate ways. Different American dialects (including General American) show features that were unique to where in the British Isles they came from; these may have been lost or overwritten since in the UK. Modern mainstream British English is much more innovative than modern General American English, actually.

Appalachian English is one of the most conservative dialects of English still spoken, and sounds much more like English on both sides of the pond during the 1700s than either General American or your average modern Southern England English.

> I’m assuming the typical NY accent comes from Italians coming over.

There is a bit of Italian influence, but almost all of it is a mix of changes that had already happened in England when it was brought over (e.g. the r-loss) and natural language change.

> Why are there no places in the US at all that kept the English accents????

There are places that brought over innovations we associate with England. Parts of the US South and New England have the same r-loss change as much of England and Oceania, though in the US this is a stigmatised pronunciation and has been receding as people try to sound more like more educated and wealthier Americans. The same change is expanding in the UK as people try to sound more like more educated and wealthier Englishmen.

(Fun fact, pronunciations like *warsh* for *wash* are hypercorrections due to speakers who have this change not knowing where to revert it and where it was never there at all!)