Tex
Corporal
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2007
- Messages
- 416
I realize this is a bit of an out-of-the-norm question.
Often when reading about the early post-revolutionary years of the US, especially the incidents leading up to the War of 1812, I read that, at the time, it was difficult, though possible, to dicern the American accent from an English accent. I was wondering if any history-minded linguistic experts out there knew what we sounded like back then; what our Founding Fathers sounded like. Did we have something like an Australian accent, perhaps? I know New Englanders have trouble pronouncing an American "r" sound and often add r's where they don't belong, like Kennedy's "Cubar." The stereotypical southern aristocrats of the Civil War had the same almost-British sounding lack-of-an "r" sound.
What did we sound like?
Often when reading about the early post-revolutionary years of the US, especially the incidents leading up to the War of 1812, I read that, at the time, it was difficult, though possible, to dicern the American accent from an English accent. I was wondering if any history-minded linguistic experts out there knew what we sounded like back then; what our Founding Fathers sounded like. Did we have something like an Australian accent, perhaps? I know New Englanders have trouble pronouncing an American "r" sound and often add r's where they don't belong, like Kennedy's "Cubar." The stereotypical southern aristocrats of the Civil War had the same almost-British sounding lack-of-an "r" sound.
What did we sound like?