My understanding is that prior to radio the uk had like 300 mutually unintelligible “dialects” of “english” and it was bbc broadcasts that turned English English in to something resembling a single language. And we ended up with the “received pronunciation” dialect or something. Like if Americans settled on Mid-Atlantic as the correct way to talk.
Imagine a beautiful world where Americans adopted a universal accent from 1930s gangster movies and everyone went around saying “now see” and “you’ll never take me alive, copper.”
Isn’t there a thing that Bostonians sound more like old English than the English?
Yeah i read that too, where the accent we yanks associate with British today grew from an upper-class affectation that developed after the war?
My understanding is that prior to radio the uk had like 300 mutually unintelligible “dialects” of “english” and it was bbc broadcasts that turned English English in to something resembling a single language. And we ended up with the “received pronunciation” dialect or something. Like if Americans settled on Mid-Atlantic as the correct way to talk.
Imagine a beautiful world where Americans adopted a universal accent from 1930s gangster movies and everyone went around saying “now see” and “you’ll never take me alive, copper.”
Maybe a few decades ago. Idk how much of the old dialect is still around. Try looking up “boston brahmin dialect”