Originally Posted by Pulaski

I have long suspected that the usage of English in the US and the UK reached its widest divergence early in the twentieth century, before the advent of the "talkie" films and later television. I think that timescale goes someway to explaining why many car-related words are different, because that was exactly the time that cars appeared and became relatively widespread.

Obviously the impact of mass media has grown steadily ever since with the rise of television and popular music in the 60's and cable television in the 80's and then the internet in the late 90's and into the 21st century, and everything I see suggests progressive convergence of the two largest divisions of English language usage.

Originally Posted by Michael

Even the US southern accent has pretty much disappeared in the south.

Originally Posted by Michael

Even the US southern accent has pretty much disappeared in the south. Other than Haley Barbour, I can't think of a politician with a southern accent. If I didn't know better, it would never cross my mind that Joe Scarborough, Trent Lott, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and many others were from the south.

Even when southern local newscasters are on the national news because of an event, I don't hear the accent.

About the only way I sometimes recognize they may be from the south is the use of words such as "ya-ll".

Originally Posted by RoadWarriorFromLP

I deal fairly often with Southerners, and I find that the accent remains distinctive compared to other regions of the country.

But in any case, all of us speak with some sort of accent, and accents change over time.

Originally Posted by Pulaski

Please excuse me for pointing out that you are close to as far from "the south" as it possible to get in the contiguous 48 states, and therefore, I would contend that you are not, er, well positioned, to comment on the current extent of southern accents.

That said, perhaps you have just got used to hearing it more often, so it doesn't stand out quite the same way it used to?

Originally Posted by paul32x

Ha, ha, we were my wife's parents for thanksgiving dinner yesterday (wife is a USC) we've been married nearly 20 years, and the unanimous opinion was that she has picked up a bit of a British accent and I have hardly any Americanisms!

Originally Posted by Danoz

It is quite interesting how English is spoken differently in different parts of the world. I grew up in Aus, and our language is a strong hybrid of American and English. We use many of the words that Americans use, but pronounce and spelling is a bit of both.

What is interesting though, is if you go back to my Grandparents era (so post WW1 and Pre WW2),they are very English in how they speak, use words etc... and comes from the Heavy UK influence that had dominated the country up to that point in time. If you then go the baby boomers of post WW2, it is very heavily influenced by America as a result of the US influence that dominated the country post WW2

Originally Posted by paul32x

Ha, ha, we were my wife's parents for thanksgiving dinner yesterday (wife is a USC) we've been married nearly 20 years, and the unanimous opinion was that she has picked up a bit of a British accent and I have hardly any Americanisms!

Originally Posted by HDWill

On a tangential note, a British officer who visited the States during the US Civil War (Col Arthur Fremantle), reported that all the Southern officers spoke exactly like English gentlemen (he said only the women had a hint of an American accent). Strange to think about, especially since all the Confederates in movies about the civil war have stereotypical southern accents.

Originally Posted by Pulaski

I have long suspected that the usage of English in the US and the UK reached its widest divergence early in the twentieth century, before the advent of the "talkie" films and later television. I think that timescale goes someway to explaining why many car-related words are different, because that was exactly the time that cars appeared and became relatively widespread.