Thread: History Uk and America

Originally Posted by sarab

Contact between a variety of cultures always results in changes in languages and customs. The U.S. is not the only place where this happens...try studying some of the regional words and accents all over Latin America and you will see how the contact between immigrants and natives from a particular region has given each country a very different culture, language, etc.

In the case of the U.S. and U.K., you will find that both accents have changed over time...the British accent of today is likely extremely different from the accent of 150 years ago, and the same goes with U.S. English. Languages and accents constantly evolve, they are not "lost".

Good luck with learning Spanish Diablo, we are here to help!

I can see where you'r getting at.

Originally Posted by Scottj

The accent argument is similar for me to the evolution argument: the American English accent "comes from" the British accent as much as humans "come from" monkeys. The accent used in spoken English 400 years ago or 200 years ago in England is different than what is spoken today. It, too, has developed. So, the American branch and the current British branch could be linked to the same accent, but their modern forms are quite different from each other AND from the mother accent from 400 years ago.

Yes I understand that basic of knowledge, but I wonder how the affect of different cultures affected people like that.
I wonder how languages can affect people? I wonder how languages affected the peoples brain?

Ok, I thought this thread was about accents...so is the question now how regional differences in the same language affect people psychologically?

Hi Diablo, here are some links to other threads that you might enjoy that deal more or less with what you are getting at:

How languages reveal cultural identity, or vice versa..?

http://www.english-spanish-translato...filosofia.html

Chomsky...

Very interesting links Sara!

I've always wondered if people in the US had a kind of "British" accent 300 years ago. :-)

Ok, I thought this thread was about accents...so is the question now how regional differences in the same language affect people psychologically?

Hehe!! good one!

American didn't lost their British accent, they had some accent three centuries ago and that accent evolved to what is nowadays. In my little experience the difference between Canadian and USA's accents from Newfoundland to California are nowhere near as great as the different regional accents one can hear in Great Britain.

As in Latin America, the accent of a new country is developed departing from a mix of accents of the settlers and the adaptation aboriginal people can do with the new language and their own accent. With New England settlers there was little contact with aboriginal population, but many settlers came from Holland, Germany and France, where their Christian view was regarded harmful. Even English settlers used to belong to persecuted churches. The population of the colonies in the 172 years prior to independence included Irish white slaves, German protestants expelled from Catholic and Orthodox regions in Europe, and even Highlanders who didn't speak English but dared to back the wrong person during the Cromwell era and the Stuart restoration. There was even Dutch, Swedish, French and Spanish colonies, later absorbed in what happen to be USA and Canada. There was little contact with American aboriginals, but they brought African slaves that were about 20% of population in 1776. They forgot their African languages but contribute with their particular accent to the language pot.

151 years later, after a period (1800-1840) where British immigration was considered "Gastarbeiter" and lowest class, the Second War of Independence, and 32 millions inmigrants, when British, American and Canadian heard talkies in 1927, they felt like hearing a foreign language (Once I was watching a movie on TV and reading the Spanish subtitles, and I thought during 10 minutes that the movie was Polish or something similar because of the plot, how people looked and the sound of their talking, but I started to understand isolated words and I realized they were workers from York)

Originally Posted by ScottJ

Ok, I thought this thread was about accents...so is the question now how regional differences in the same language affect people psychologically?

Hmm... that could be a really interesting topic, ScottJ! Were you being forreal of sar..sar...sarcastic?

wow, all of these are interesting. thanks for the links!!!

I know! Nice reminders.

I heard a story on NPR's show called "to the Best of Our Knowledge" entitled "Making Words" availble for podcast, but broadcast 7/31/2010. A woman author spoke of a book she wrote explaining how its the other way around. The British evolved their posh accent after the "split", the American Revolutionary War. The Americans didn't lose their British accents, but the Brits acquired theirs! Before 1800, she said the Brits spoke more with an accent similar to Appalacians today! She explained that the Brits changed the pronounciation of their a's like in dance and half and dropped their r's after vowels after 1820.