Origins of American English

Question: How European accents turn into American accents?
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Briefly:

Settlers from the British Isles originated from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Within each of these source regions there were (and are) a number of sub-regional accents. In America, people from these source regions settled in different permutations. In the colonial period the concentrations of populations were somewhat isolated from each other, and from the motherland. Where variations of accent exist, there is a tendency for differences to dissolve over time, with the most prominent accent having the most influence. So that America not only developed, generally, a distinctive mode of speech, but American regions developed their own variants, depending on the population mix.

 And there's more! Continuing waves of settlement and immigration have brought in influences from other languages. These influences include the adoption of loan words (how many Spanish words, for example, are in common use in the USA today?) and the application of non-English syntax (sentence construction) to spoken and written English. The influence of Dutch, German, Spanish, French syntax, etc., on American English is very apparent in different areas of the USA, depending on patterns of settlement; perhaps the best example is the influence of Yiddish, Irish or Italian on the New York vernacular.

So that there is no such thing as an 'American accent' any more than there is any such thing as an 'English accent'. Boston American differs from New York American, Texas American differs from West Coast American, and so on. In the same way West Country English differs from the dialects of the North East, or London, or the Midlands. And even within the British Isles there are distinctions where non-English languages have lent words and syntax to English, creating colourful and expressive regional variations; as an instance, consider the influence of the 'Celtic' languages of Wales, Scotland and Ireland on the spoken word.

The English language is continually enriched by contact with its neighbours.

For a good readable account of the development of English to its current status as a global medium of communication, see ‘The Adventure of English’ by Melvyn Bragg. Or for very serious study (at considerable cost) invest in the 'The Cambridge History of the English Language'.

More titles on the English language can be found on the England page of the History Unlimited Bookshop.