American vs. British Accents
Last Modified: 13/07/2017
The difference between American and British accents is in the letter R.
- 1One of the most notable differences between the two accents is the way we pronounce the letter R.
- 2In America, most of us pronounce the R in words like hard, card, ever, water, and dare,...
- 3...but Brits say, "hard, card, ever, water, and dare".
- 4This is the difference between what's called "rhotic" and "non-rhotic" speech.
- 5The interesting thing is that the first British that came to America did pronounce their Rs...
- 6...and it wasn't until later in Britain, around 1800,...
- 7...that the non-rhotic speech became popular among the upper classes in the south of England...
- 8...and eventually became the pronunciation that was taught in schools.
- 9Of course, there are some accents in the UK like those of Ireland and Scotland, which are rhotic,...
- 10...and there are those in America, like in Boston, "pack your car, Harvard yard" for example,...
- 11...and in the south that are non-rhotic and don't pronounce the R.
- 12So the interesting thing here is that...
- 13...the Brits may have more to do with the difference in accents than the Americans do.
- 14In other words, it's not our fault
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