I've been watching the excellent series on A&E about the American Revolution, and although it obviously can't be verified, the actors portraying the "Americans" always talk with an American accent (Every movie I've ever seen does the same thing). But, I mean, up to that moment in time, "Americans" were all British subjects, so wouldn't everyone, including George Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Everybody, have spoken with a British accent? It would put a very different spin on the thing in my opinion.

It doesn't seem logical that in the relatively short time the colonists were "separated" from England by distance that the fully formed American English would've formed.

Anybody else wonder about that?

Barry

This is a rather obscure disease called "Bumfuzelment" which seems only to strike actors and musicians.
It has something to do with "string theory" and the space-time continium.

This is a mysterious condition which also causes all German military personel in war films to speak with a purely British accent.
Madona also suffers from this ailment as witnessed when she moved from California to England and a week later gave a press conference in which she spoke as a born and bred Brit.

Hope this cleared things up. And please, don't take this disease lightly....it could happen to you some day.

Hermon

I don't have anything to back this up but I believe that by the time of the revolution most people in the American colonies had develouped at least some type of regional accent. After all there were people in the colonies for what, a couple hundred years? That's long enough to develop a regional accent.

I doubt they'd sounded exactly like they do now, but I doubt the British would have sounded the same either.

I suspect this was done, in part, to help differntiate the differnt characters. But, surely, there would have been regiaonlization. Just consider how different British and Amarican English are today, even when dealing with things developed in the last century or so, lorries vs. trucks, bonnets vs. hoods, etc.

That is a good question. I think it kind of goes in hand with accents in general - like how did we get our elegant drawl down here in the South y'all? :-)

And have you ever noticed how actors from the United Kingdom always get roles playing Americans, but it never is the other way around. Band of Brothers is a good example...

My thought was well they were Americans not British. As Rodger point out...regional differences. Look at Great Britain, Irish, Welsh, Scotland and English. major reginal differences that even as an American I can identify. What about Cockney vs downtown London. In the US- Boston- NY- Virginia - Deep south- Texan.

Kinda

About 12 years ago I worked down in Biloxi - Gulfport Mississippi for about 2 months. No word of a lie, I needed a translator to decipher that local drawl!.... Listening to me, most of them would politely ask where I got that strange accent?!? They kept asking if I was a northerner! :-) I didn;t dare say I was a first generation Canadian with Swiss and Spanish roots!

Well I think that at least George Washington would have kept his English accent. After all he did serve as an officer in the British Army in the French and Indian War.And you don't become an officer without the "right accent ". And the first two presidents were born in England.But more importantly they were part of the colonies upper class.While a regional was probably what most people spoke I don't think that the wealthy would have.IMHO.

What about the early influence of German.. I recently read something about it having been a close call when the early European settelers had to decide on a common language. Is it the Hamish who still speak German? Just imagine if the settelers would have picked German or French... or even Dutch...afterall New York was Dutch untill we swapped it to you for Suriname...

Cheers
Henk

Fraid not...From Whitehouse.gov
George Washington-First President
1789-1797
Born: February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia
Died: December 14, 1799 in Mount Vernon, Virginia
John Adams-Second President
1797-1801
Born: October 30 1735 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts
Died: July 4, 1826 in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts
Thomas Jefferson Third President
1801-1809
Born: April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia
Died: July 4, 1826 in Monticello in Virginia

I stand corrected on the fist two presidents(thats what I get for watching the History Channel) as far as accents within the U.K. it only makes sense that four different countries would have four different accents and languages.But I stand by what I said about Washington speaking with the right accent as his ancestors were wealthy in England. Their ancestral home is open to the public in Washington-New-Town.

Hey! Stop taking the American out of my American heros!!! :-) :-) :-) Crykee!

If they was from Joisey, they talked like Joisey..... da native americans said "badda bing", and taught it to da white guys and the weehawken indians' chief was named tony...... and da meadowlands are sacried burial grounds. We all bless ourselfs passing over exit 15E.

We had a great show here in Canada on the CBC that focused on how the English Canadians speak is very different from that of Americans.

I don't remember everything about it but one of the examples was the word Caught.

Canadians on the whole will say Cot and Caught exactly the same way while most Americans will pronounce each word differently.

There were many more examples given but the basic gist was that even though we share a long border and have so much in common Candians have their own way of speaking.

Now of course the way the folks down east like to speak is a whole thread in itself. Esp the people from Newfoundland.

This is an amusing question that we will probably never answer. Like everything else that makes this country great or quirky, I'll blame it on the Scotch-Irish.

PBS had a great series "Do You Speak American?" a few months ago -- the website is still up: http://www.pbs.org/speak/

The "cot/caught" thing is in there, as well as lots of other gems.

Bill Bryson writes about this in "Made in America" English was spoken very differently then on both sides of the Atlantic than the way it is spoken today. It's a very good read as well even if it does neglect the military history of the USA