Word on the street is that American English is actually closer to the English spoken by the British when they first landed and colonized the Americas. After the war they went back to their lil island and forgot how to pronounce their Rs.
Americans repeatingly say this in the vague hope that if they say it enough times it will rewrite history and become true. There’s absolutely no evidence that that is the case.
Realistically when you think about it it makes no sense, why would American English be closer to old English than British English? By the time of the colonisation no one spoke old English anymore anyway, so American English is no more likely to be like it than British English. Even if it was why would the current American form not have changed, if apparently the British form has changed?
Their source is linguistic history. The English decided that the letter R only exists if it’s surrounded by vowels in the late 18th/ early 19th century.
Word on the street is that American English is actually closer to the English spoken by the British when they first landed and colonized the Americas. After the war they went back to their lil island and forgot how to pronounce their Rs.
Yo my dude! Me and the Boston Boardwalking Composite got your fuckin back.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english
Americans repeatingly say this in the vague hope that if they say it enough times it will rewrite history and become true. There’s absolutely no evidence that that is the case.
Realistically when you think about it it makes no sense, why would American English be closer to old English than British English? By the time of the colonisation no one spoke old English anymore anyway, so American English is no more likely to be like it than British English. Even if it was why would the current American form not have changed, if apparently the British form has changed?
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Yo you should read this article by the Boston Broadcasting Company. Kinda disagrees with ya.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english
No evidence? Are you sure?
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20190623-the-us-island-that-speaks-elizabethan-english
You would think the BBC, of all outlets, would agree with you if you were right.
It’s not unheard of, Icelandic is much closer to Old Norse than Norwegian is.
There are many reasons why this could be the case: pure chance, less outside influence of other languages, a smaller group of people, …
Not all of these apply to the US and I have no idea whether English in the US has less changed than in the UK.
Americans parrot this point. Its not true but sounds like it could be, so it sticks.
Simply not true, nonsense made up by a journalist when they had some column inches to fill.
Their “source” was the way Bostonians pronounce one single word
Their source is linguistic history. The English decided that the letter R only exists if it’s surrounded by vowels in the late 18th/ early 19th century.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoticity_in_English
You should never trust the word on the street, it is prone to lying.
You are lying!