On Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 11:37:30 AM UTC-5, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"David Billington" wrote in message
...
On 07/02/2019 06:52, Mike Spencer wrote:
"Jim Wilkins" writes:

"Mike Spencer" wrote in message

[I didn't write that; you did. :-]

Why do you think US and Canadian speech sounds almost identical
yet so
different from British?
To the extent that's true, I'd assume the influence of the media.
Lots of US TV here in Canada, not so much from the UK. I haven't
had
a TV for 40 years but I see it periodically over my dentist's
chair.
Last time to the tooth wrangler, I realized US TV can be
characterized
as "fat people yelling at each other". Unfair, I know, to programs
such as yoga classes but a fair first approximation?

But then...

Many up-scale folks in Toronto & Ottawa have inflections that sound
to
people from other provinces as "kinda British". Rural people in
Nova
Scotia didn't sound either Brit or Merkin 50 years ago, unique
Lunenburg (German influence) and Cape Breton (Scots and Gaelic)
pronounciation and usage. After moving here 50 years ago, I had to
learn that "C'mintha hice" was an invitation to enter. That's all
fading gradually away.

In 1980, I was on a bus filled with other blacksmiths proceeding
from
Ironbridge to Hereford. A guy in the seat behind me -- a certified
Brit whose normal delivery was what I took to be UK
upper-middle-class
urban -- was recounting a yarn to his seatmate in some particular
English regional dialect. It sounded exactly like the adults I
knew
in (Leftpondian) New Hampshire 65 years ago.

I think TV has an influence as a number of Dutch friends, especially
younger ones, speak English with a pronounced US accent and they
have a lot of US programs on Dutch TV.


The Germans who spoke English sounded American too. Generally the
well-educated foreign English speakers I've met, such as from
Argentina and Africa, had British accents. I don't expect American to
be the world standard.

A few decades ago, linguists were saying that the main influence that distinguished American English was that of German immigrants. The blended result was the general accent we Murkins have today.

I haven't checked to see if this opinion has remained the same in the years since.

Of course, there were many other influences as well, and a lot of regional differences that are slowly disappearing. For example, the area of New England from Providence to the north still tends toward non-rhotic ("r" is silent) pronunciations, except for those who came from southwestern England (like my ancestors).

--
Ed Huntress