<story><title>When did Americans lose their British accents?</title><url>https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>david_draco</author><text>I read somewhere that the American accent is closer to what British was like in the 1700-1800s. Later the Queen&amp;#x27;s family, which came from a corner of England, established its accent as the norm. So the American pronounciation is original, and the British one changed in the meantime. Not sure if this is true.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>toyg</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; the Queen’s family, which came from a corner of England&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;First time I see Germany classified as “a corner of England”, lol.&lt;p&gt;(To be fair, before the current crop, the English aristocracy spoke mainly French, and I guess France could be classed as “a corner of England” by people still a bit hung-up on the loss of Brittany...)&lt;p&gt;RP English is heavily influenced by French and Germanic tones. Local dialects are very different. I still find it hard to compare British languages with what developed in North America, where the influence of non-English-speakers was clearly massive. Isn’t it more interesting to look at Australia and South Africa, where direct links with English natives are way more recent, and still the language departed markedly...?</text></comment>
<story><title>When did Americans lose their British accents?</title><url>https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>david_draco</author><text>I read somewhere that the American accent is closer to what British was like in the 1700-1800s. Later the Queen&amp;#x27;s family, which came from a corner of England, established its accent as the norm. So the American pronounciation is original, and the British one changed in the meantime. Not sure if this is true.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragonwriter</author><text>&amp;gt; Not sure if this is true.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s true to the extent that, as the article notes, the dominant British accent used to be rhotic (probounced-r) like General American, but became non-rhotic as a result of upper class fashion (which was copied in some parts of the US, producing the modern Boston accent, among others.)&lt;p&gt;But both sets of accents have evolved considerably otherwise, so it&amp;#x27;s not really true broadly, as best I understand.</text></comment>