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To Hilary (just in case you're still interested:-)


 Posted by Andrea Jutson on April 24, 1998 at 05:47:15:


In response to American accents..., written by Hilary on April 21, 1998 at 21:07:39


To L and T indexI don't know about the American accent in the Regency period, but I do know about the Kiwi accent in the twentieth century.  
How is this relevant?- well, New Zealand was settled by the English (and some other European nations) only just over 150 years ago, and already we Kiwis have a very dufferent eksent from the Ing-lish (as well as the Amerricans and the Ostrahlians:-)  Actually, just as a point of interest, linguists say that the Aussies will have an accent just like ours within the next fifty years... what do you think of that, Linden!!
ANYWAY... what I'm trying to say is, if America was settled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it's more than probable some sort of accent existed by the Regency, even if emmigrants from all over were pouring in.  It's two hundred years, after all- more than we've had!
But still, the accent might not be the same as you know it today.  I don't know whether I'm being incredibly stupid and it's just the different recording technology they had a few decades ago, but every time I hear news clips from say, the sixties, even, the accents of the newsreaders are still more English-sounding than now.  That could be because they were trained to talk that way, or something, but I still think it's worthy of note that our accent could have changed so much in 30-odd years.
Apparently, English-born parents were complaining as early as the turn of the century that their children were talking in strange, "horrible" accents!:-)
Hope this helps- sorry it's so late!
-Andrea Jutson  
  





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