Makoto Taniguchi wrote:
> I was wondering, why does the North American accent (mainstream, not
> ebonics) differ so much from the British? when you look at other
> countries like New Zealand or Australia, you can clearly see a British
> element to their accent. So why does the North American accent differ
> so much from the other Anglo-occupied countries?
> 
What's all this?  As a Brit, I think you foreigners all sound the same.

My guess is that there is variation in the origins of the British 
immigrants, and this may have made a large difference.  Certainly, 
Australian English has a large cockney influence (i.e. from working 
class London).

Another point to bear in mind is that accents in Britain are much more 
varied than in our former colonies, so what you may think of as sounding 
British may be very different to what I think sounds British.  The film 
Trainspotting springs to mind as an example of a very different accent.

Bob

-- 
Bob O'Hara

Rolf Nevanlinna Institute
P.O. Box 4 (Yliopistonkatu 5)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
Telephone: +358-9-191 23743
Mobile: +358 50 599 0540
Fax:  +358-9-191 22 779
WWW:  http://www.RNI.Helsinki.FI/~boh/
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