revolutionary war
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- was
ok so,
why is it that every single movie that was ever made about the revolutionary war, or that time period in general.. that the colonials (americans) have american accents and not english ones?
they'd only been there for like, a blink of an eye. how could they possibly have "lost" their accents that quickly.
- dog_opus0
Some knowledge is not meant for the minds of mere mortals.
- ukit0
Because Briitish accents sound wussy and we don't want to imagine that the people who founded our country talked like that
- was0
so when in fact did americans spontaneously lose their english accents? like. wtf. england is full of immigrants, but never lost it.
we WERE english. nothing changed except time.. and yeah, immigrants. but it didnt affect england. so why us? wtf.
- What sparked this question in your head, i'm curious?locustsloth
- locustsloth0
Plymouth colony was founded in 1620. American Revolution started in 1774. i'd say 154 years is long enough for a people to lose an accent (yes i know it's not that cut and dry, but still there's the potential of a few generations of separation from jolly ol' England)
- was0
so why didnt england lose its accent between 1620 and 1774.
- ukit0
Well not all were English. There were many Irish, Scottish immigrants, as well as non-English speakers. So Americans accent is probably a mixture of all of these.
I've also heard speculation that English accent actually has evolved since then, it may have been closer to American accent at the time they came over. It's an interesting question though.
- ukit0
Most American white lower class are descendants of the Scots Irish.
- locustsloth0
A more practical reason for movies is to give the audience an easy point of distinction between who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. Football jerseys would work too, but would be a tad anachronistic
- ukit0
Yeah British accent lends itself to bad guy. Ever seen Die Hard?
- was0
actually, english accent is usually either a calculating bad guy or a frail bumbling idiot
- Right, like Mr. Bean or John Cleeseukit
- John Cleese is quite the baddie in Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kittieslocustsloth
- A little bit of both the calculating and the bumbling foollocustsloth
- Fish Called Wanda is classicukit
- indeedtimidpigeon
- ...or Winston Churchill.TheBlueOne
- boobs0
I don't think anybody has a clear idea what sort of accent the everyday Englishman had 250 years ago. I mean, there aren't any tape recordings from the period, are there? And you can't trust written records, because most people write more properly than they speak.
Chances are the English themselves speak substantially differently now than they did then. Plus they're more likely to have teeth now, and that can aid pronunciation.
- robotron3k0
I've always noticed space aliens have always had English accents.
- MrOneHundred0
Actually there are a number of diary/journals from that period where the numerous misspellings give a very clear insight into what the accents may have been like. Many everyday people who were keeping these diaries lacked formal education and wrote phonetically. If you are interested in this kind of thing, you should check out “Mother Tongue” and “Made in America” by Bill Bryson, The American Language by L H Mencken, or The Amercianization of Benjamin Farnklin by Gordon S. Wood, ffs.
- ...or if you just want to talk about silly aliens, you can go fuck yourself. ;-)MrOneHundred
- boobs0
That's funny. All the aliens I've met sound like Andy Devine.