So, in my guise as “David Rittenhouse” for Historic Philadelphia, I meet all sorts.  One prevalent of the query, however, “why, if you are part of British North America do you not speak with an accent?”  I find this interesting for two reasons.  Firstly, what was the accent in 1770?  It clearly was NOT what these people are expected.  They want me to speak with “Received Pronunciation” as if I were a BBC commentator.  That accent is 20^th Century invention and not an accent Americans EVER spoke with (unless they immigrated from the modern UK).  Secondly, where do these people think the American dialect came from if not an evolution of the speech of the VARIOUS PEOPLE and diverse languages spoken in America?  Yeah, American English (like Australian, Indian, and Singaporean English) is radically different from what is spoken on the British Isles because we have a different heritage and history from Britain. 

The reality is that Americans never “lost” their British accent because after the first decade or so (we’re talking 1610 here) everyone spoke a language distinct from what was spoken in England.  From there we formed their own, distinct language (not just the accent but to a lesser degree word choice and usage as well as grammar).  By 1770, the speech, although easily understood by both sides, was clearly not the same. 

Oh, by the way, Britons didn’t speak the same dialects and with the same accents in 1770 as they do today either!  It’s tempting to think of British English as an older version of spoken English but it, too, has been evolving over the centuries. One need only read Shakespeare to see that the word choice and speech patterns have changed.  It’s foolish to think the articulation of these words has stayed the same over the centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, spoke English on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean were growing apart and continuing to evolve and the slow pace of travel and communication during these centuries created sort of a linguistic isolation. Like birds on the Galapagos Islands our language adapted to the unique needs of our local environment as did British English.  Even though we have the same roots for our languages, “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language.[i]

The evolution of the “British Accent” is driven by class conflicts of the 18^th and 19^th Centuries.  This gives rise to both “Received Pronunciation” and dialects like the “retroflex R” like you hear in Scots and Welsh dialects as well as dialects like Cockney.  In America, different pressures were put on the language as the country expanded west.  The accents that formed in the United States were impacted by waves of immigration, annexation of lands where people spoke other languages, and native languages.  All of these different accents, speech patterns, and even whole words and phrases began mixing into our version of English creating a distinctly American version of English. 

Another element in the American English was deliberate.  After the Revolutionary War, there was a desire to contrast American English with British English. Noah Webster, through his new dictionary, began codifying spelling (previously not standardized) and he deliberately changed the spellings of certain words like “colour” and “centre” in his dictionary.  This gave WRITTEN American English the same unique quality as spoken American English, further separating us from England. 

Today, with mass telecommunication, the language has begun to lose some of its diversity.  Spoke English in the UK, Australia, and the US are beginning to migrate back together.  After WWII, American English became sort of the new lingua franca of the world.  The forces that separated allowed our languages to migrate apart are now beginning to force them back together.  Soon we will all speak as if we are from Bangalore 😊.

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[i] George Bernard Shaw

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