🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <01bc1634$39bf9aa0$bac32299@default>,
Bobbieboy <bobbieboy@msn.com> wrote:
>Hi, folks.  I have a question for anyone who might now the answer.  An
>English friend told me today she thinks the standard American accent is
>derived from Irish speech intonations.  I have read that the New York
>accent, the Brooklyn or Bronx accent is derived from the Dutch Hugenots who
>were the first major colonizers of the region.  Did Jefferson, Washington,
>Madison et. al. speak with the intonation of what is now the Queen's
>English or Received English.  
>
>Just how did we get the accent that prevails in the upper tier of this
>country, and in the Far West.  
>

's a cinch they didn't speak RP because that's an invention of the
19th century, based on the pronunciation of the "public" = private
schools for the rich.  Most likely the colonists spoke more or
less like the educated people in those areas speak now, but a bit
differently, how different?  Not sure anyone knows.
                                                   
The most coherent explanation of American Engish pronunciation I've
read is in Joseph Williams Origins of the English Language p357.   
Basically he suggests that east coast pronunciation comes from southern
England, and the interior pronunciation, the basis of AE TV and radio  
English comes from northern England, especially the Scotch-Irish.      
(Those people of Scotch ancestry who imigrated to Irland, many of whom
left Irland for America.)  But no one knows for sure.