Owen Lowe asks:

At what point did we U.S.-ians and Canady-ites lose the Brit accent?
Australia still has theirs, some folks in India still have theirs.
What/who influenced the changeover to American English and accent versus
the Brittish (Proper?) English and accent? Did the New World-born and
raised colonists of, say 1776, sound American or Brittish? When did the
transition take place and over how long a period of time?

Please, please, will someone answer my queries - the rattling is tooo
damn loud and is driving me crazy! Crazy I tell ya, CRAZY!

Pebbles? Tinnitus? I can tell you there are times when the latter can come
close to really driving you crazy.

IIRC, my readings in history indicate that the U.S. colonial accent already
differed from that in Britain. In other words, probably major changes had taken
place by 1700, possibly even earlier, and for whatever reason, those changes
were noticeable on both sides.

Now, we await the reactions from Oz because you say they retain a Pommy accent.

Charlie Self

http://hometown.aol.com/charliediy/m.../business.html