Myths
and Legends about English
The fact that English was first spoken in England should not mislead us either to the quality or origin of standards spoken outside of England. Though no longer providing the basis for RP, Shakespeare’s English (and that of the Elizabethans) - close to the dialect currently spoken in the North of England (a branch of Northern English) – was the basis for American English.
In this dialect, the R is burred in all positions as in Scottish or Spanish. The A of can, cast, palm, half, path, now /a/ (far from broad A anyway), was much closer to /e/ in the 1600s. Americans also prefer to say neither, either with /i:/ rather than /ai/, as if they were spelled 'neether', 'eether', as in Northern and Scottish English.
In time, although the southward shift was already in progress at Shakespeare's times, the influence of the Kentish dialects dramatically changed the phonetic landscape of English English. Many a word or phrase familiar to the Elizabethans is still colloquial among Americans, but sounds old-fashioned or even totally unfamiliar in U.K.
English: ‘I guess’ or ‘I have gotten’, ‘fall’ in the sense of ‘autumn’, “mad” and “sick” in the sense of “angry” and “twisted” are sometimes qualified as Americanisms. They should be, more correctly, identified as archaisms of British English. We'll see more about it in the next chapters.
The fact that English was first spoken in England should not mislead us either to the quality or origin of standards spoken outside of England. Though no longer providing the basis for RP, Shakespeare’s English (and that of the Elizabethans) - close to the dialect currently spoken in the North of England (a branch of Northern English) – was the basis for American English.
In this dialect, the R is burred in all positions as in Scottish or Spanish. The A of can, cast, palm, half, path, now /a/ (far from broad A anyway), was much closer to /e/ in the 1600s. Americans also prefer to say neither, either with /i:/ rather than /ai/, as if they were spelled 'neether', 'eether', as in Northern and Scottish English.
In time, although the southward shift was already in progress at Shakespeare's times, the influence of the Kentish dialects dramatically changed the phonetic landscape of English English. Many a word or phrase familiar to the Elizabethans is still colloquial among Americans, but sounds old-fashioned or even totally unfamiliar in U.K.
English: ‘I guess’ or ‘I have gotten’, ‘fall’ in the sense of ‘autumn’, “mad” and “sick” in the sense of “angry” and “twisted” are sometimes qualified as Americanisms. They should be, more correctly, identified as archaisms of British English. We'll see more about it in the next chapters.
Next: U.S. vs British English