How did the American accent come about?

Question

when this country was established, there were native americans and people from ireland, england, etc. why don't we have an irish accent or english accent or whatnot? and how did the different american dialects come about?

Answer 1

words in any language have a root that are mixed with suffix and prefix's. The Americans have a lot of Greek, Latin and English (from Europe) words on them. If a place such as US, has mixtures of different cultural backgrounds and at some point they all came together to work and live among each other (even if they didnt agree with it), it all mixes together forming different communities. Lets say an Irish men fell in love with a Greek woman, and they had babies together, of course that the two of them will show their baby the two different languages and then that baby will pick up both languages and maybe later on mix it to form his own words, then later on that Irish and Greek baby grows and falls in love with a Native American, there you have a mixture of Irish, Greek with Native American, then that baby with different heritage background learns all different ddialectsand mixtures of words change, and so on...later that Native American, Greek and Irish baby grows and marry and Italian person, ttheregoes Greek, Irish, Native American and Latin words, they all from different dialects and then forming what is called English (in an American way) and accent has to do with the formation of the pronunciation of words that are being mixed together to form one word.

Answer 2

yea dats a good question!

Answer 3

We DO have a version of British accent - but only a trace remains beyond the mere fact that (by and large) we DO speak the English language.

Remember, it was not the well-to-do Brits who settled this country.  First it was Puritans and other religious sects who wanted away from the Church of England  (then it was one immigration after another.  Italians, Irish, Dutch, all settled here.)

The English who settled here did not speak with a British accent as we know it today. - but more of a rural vernacular.  (Today's Queen's English was more or less the creation of Miriam Webster when he comprised his Pronunciation Guide for Gentle English People thus establishing a new "sound" for the aristocrats.)

Now, 225 years later, the American Sound varies from territory to territory but is recognized as "American" by outsiders because it does not sound like today's Queen's English that most educated people speak across the Pond.

Answer 4

Most areas are influenced by one or more accent from the people who originally colonized said region. While today those accents aren't strong in those areas, especially because people have experienced a mix of accents from people who came from all over, the different regions are still influenced by them.

Good site: http://www.geocities.com/yvain.geo/diale...

Answer 5

I'm guessing that after awhile, when there was so many accents and dialects, it just gradually adjusted.

It's a really good question...I'll have to read the other answers on this one!

Answer 6

I probably would've guessed that the accents merged together over a certain period of time.