Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Older British Accents Actually Sounded More Like Americans Speak Today

Older British Accents Actually Sounded More Like Americans Speak Today
Photo by Ben Stansall - WPA Pool /Getty Images

It's no secret that English is a mutt language, originating from a mixture of the Germanic and romantic languages. But what's less appreciated is why Americans and Brits sound so different from one another.


The most distinct difference between American English and British English is how each culture pronounces their "R"s, which is known as rhoticity.

A dropped or unemphasized "R" is a trademark of British speech, while a voiced, or rhotic "R," is the typical American style.

Some regions of Northern England, Scotland and Ireland sound different because they kept the rhotic pronunciation. And some regions in the United States dropped it like Boston and New York and the American south, where "R"s tend to be nearly non-existent.

Would you believe that the American way is actually the older version of English?

Have you ever thought about why we don't all sound the same?

The first English came to North America in 1607. English settlers in the 17th Century sounded closer to today's Americans, according to the science website, Curiosity.

"...the modern American accent is a lot closer to how English used to be spoken than the [modern] British accent is."

What then, you ask, did the Brits do with their "R"s?

Simply put, the wealth boom of the Industrial Revolution prompted well-to-do English people to drop their "Rs" because voicing them "instantly marked them as a commoner."

"In order to distinguish themselves from their lowlier roots, this new class of Brit developed their own posh way of speaking. And eventually, it caught on throughout the country."

"It's called "received pronunciation," and it even influenced the speech patterns of many other English dialects — the Cockney accent, for example, is just as non-rhotic but a lot less hoity-toity."

This quirk developed by the English upper classes eventually found its way to the United States in the form of the Transatlantic Accent, which has been forever immortalized in recordings and films from the first half of the 20th Century.

However this time, the purpose was not to distinguish from the lower classes. The change had to do with changing technology, namely the rise of the "talkie" when silent films were phased out and motion pictures got voice tracks.

The Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic Accent is the familiar, quasi-British sounding twang used by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and many influential actors, such as Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Vincent Price, through the end of World War II.

Its popularity grew out of the clarity it provided on early audio recordings, on microphones and on the radio where rhotic speech could be difficult to understand.

For this speech evolution, the "R" is dropped and the "T" is highly articulated. All vowels are softened.

It was also a way to appeal to diverse English-speaking populations. It blended both the American and English accents of the time.

The accent fell out of favor after World War II however.

The Transatlantic or Mid-Atlantic Accent was a beautiful way of speaking and we should bring it back. Let's make Transatlantic Accents Great Again!

You're welcome.

H/T: Curiosity

More from Trending

Screenshot of Nick Fuentes
America First

White Nationalist Admits That Liberals Were Right About Trump Being A 'Demagogue'

Far-right pundit and white nationalist Nick Fuentes admitted on his show that "liberals were right, fundamentally" about President Donald Trump, acknowledging Trump's brand of authoritarian populism by referring to him as a "populist demagogue."

In its modern sense, a demagogue is a political agitator who seeks to advance their political goals or personal power by appealing to people’s emotions, prejudices, and hardships.

Keep ReadingShow less
scene from Disney's Pocahontas
Disney

'Based On A True Story' Movies That Aren't True At All

The entertainment industry has long been criticized for their creative license when it comes to retelling history or anything "based on a true story."

Going back to the silent film era and D.W. Griffith's ridiculously inaccurate White supremacist propaganda Birth Of A Nation to Mel Gibson's Braveheart to Disney's Pocahontas, some films go way beyond creative license and careen into total malarkey.

Keep ReadingShow less
A person holding a fan of cash.
person holding fan of U.S. dollars banknote

People Describe The Moment They Realized They Were Privileged

There is little more off-putting than when people flaunt their wealth and privilege in other people's faces.

On the flip side, not everyone takes kindly to wealthy people who act like they're "one of us".

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk
Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Musk's AI Chatbot Throws Republicans Under The Bus After Being Asked About Economy

Grok, billionaire Elon Musk's very own chatbot, threw Republicans under the bus after software engineer Alex Coke asked it if Democrats or Republicans have been better for the economy in the past 30 years, only for it to answer that yes, in fact, Democrats are the winners when it comes to economic policy.

Economic policy is certainly on everyone's minds these days. A new CNN poll conducted by SSRS shows that Americans are not pleased with President Donald Trump’s management of the economy, leaving him with unfavorable ratings on what is considered the nation’s most important issue.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Donald Trump
Fox 5 Washington D.C./YouTube

CNN Airs Brutal Reminder Of Trump's Previous Economic Predictions—And They Did Not Age Well

CNN came with the receipts, airing a supercut of clips from 2020 and 2024 of President Donald Trump making hilariously wrong economic predictions—a damning reel of evidence as financial markets decline and investor concerns grow over Trump’s trade policies.

In fact, Trump’s escalating trade war pushed the S&P 500 more than 10% below its record high set just last month. A drop of this size is significant enough that professional investors call it a “correction,” and the S&P 500’s 1.4% decline on Thursday marked its first since 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less