Where Is This American Accent From

Is the American accent accepted in the UK?

I’m an American. I speak with the Mid-Atlantic accent primarily (also referred to as ‘Network American’), and I spent two years in England (Bognor Regis, to be precise), and my experience of the reactions of various British folk was very illuminating. I should add that I am not at all extroverted, socially. Unlike the “stereotypical American”, I am not loud or boisterous, but rather very laid-back and quiet most of the time - particularly when meeting new people.Firstly, as I’ve seen alluded to in other answers, the reactions I experienced weren’t based so much on the way I spoke English, but rather that by speaking and revealing my accent, I was disclosing the fact that an American was simply present among them. That, alone, produced a reaction.Secondly, there was a difference between male and female Brits in how they reacted, although not initially. The initial reaction was pleasant surprise (which the men expressed in a more subdued fashion, of course, but was still quite genuine and pleasant). I was received very warmly and made to feel very welcome. This changed dramatically, however, when British men learned that I had actually moved to Britain and was not merely visiting. At that point, they became very cold toward me, almost even resentful. (Feel free to speculate on that one as you will.)Lastly, there is another difference I noticed, and that is that when I had occasion to travel north of London, the warmth with which I was received was tremendous. In Newcastle, I was practically accorded celebrity status, which was actually a little embarrassing. I felt a lot of pressure to be worthy of such a reception and I couldn’t imagine how, being a ‘typical bloke’, I could pull it off. But it was certainly a refreshing change compared to how I was made to feel in the south.

Is it okay to learn american accent?

Hi,Based on my personal experience,  I absolutely agree with Tara that learning American accent will improve your social standing and job opportunities in America.  I summarized my challenges as a non-native speaker in learning American accent here:5 Challenges in Learning American Accent - American Business EnglishI also have the following suggestions, if you decide to improve your accent:5 Tips to Improve Your American Accent - American Business English1) Record your voice: Go to youtube and pick a speech or news clip which is spoken in American accent. Then try to repeat the same sentences and record your voice. You would be amazed how helpful this tip is.2) Speak slower: A lot of non-native speakers speak English too fast -- I know I used to do the same. Slow down. Compare your pace with native speakers. You will realize that you actually speak faster than they do.3) Enunciate: Pronounce words clearly and loudly. We (us non-native speakers) unconsciously lower our voice because deep down we do not feel confident about our English. This indeed adversely impacts our speech. Hold your head up and enunciate :).4) Correct Pronunciation: Pronounce words correctly. We (again non-native speakers) think we know the correct pronunciation of all words. But, we rarely learn to stress the right syllables. We also do not produce the correct vowels and consonants in some cases.5) American rhythm: English is a rhythmic language. In other words, it is has its own music. To put it another way, some words/syllable must be pronounced louder, clearer and longer than others. We (again non-native speakers) tend to discard this principal. As a result, our speech sounds very monotonous to native English speakers.Hope this helps. Good luck!

How was the American accent formed from the British accent?

One of the things that happens with ethno-linguistic migration is that the language is held on to more conservatively by immigrants to the new lands , while the same language changes more rapidly in the “source” country.This is true of European French and Quebecois (Canadian) French as well as British and American English. Many other examples exist.What we think of as standard British Received Pronunciation (RP) became “standard” in England well after the colonies in North America were settled. The descendants of the first English settlers in America (and the newer immigrants from other places) continued to speak the language pretty much as it was spoken in the 1600’s. That is, Shakespeare would be quite at home with the American accent.A good example is rhoticity - pronouncing the “r” at the end of a word like “leader”. This was very common throughout England during the settling of America ; but is no longer considered “standard” in RP whereas it is THE standard in American English.NOTE : My third paragraph has created a bit of confusion or controversy whichever way you look at it. I apologise. I did not mean literally that (a) American English = Shakesperean/Elizabethan English or (b) that Shakeapeare sounded American English. There are elements of Elizabethan English ; or to be more precise the predominant English accents in use in England at the time, that are well preserved in American English. Rhoticity is the most obvious one but there are others. When Shakespeare is performed in the Original Pronunciation (OP) audiences can easily hear sounds which are present in West Country English (Cornwall, Devon etc), Irish English and American English.

Is the American accent descended from the Irish accent?

Not exactly. It did influence American English varieties significantly however.Irish had more of an adstrate influence. At the time Irish immigration began in the 1820s, the United States already existed and Americans had been already talking differently from Brits since before 1700.Irish is not the only adstrate influence. Scots also had a very large influence on East Coast and Appalachian dialects of American English.Interestingly, Irish English and Scots English affected the consonants of Canadian and American English a lot more than the vowels, but for Australian English, it seems the opposite is true and the vowels were affected but not so much the consonants. I speculate that for American English varieties and Australian English varieties /u/ fronting partly originates in Irish influence, but Australian English has many diphthongs that also appear vaguely Irish.It is hard to say for certain because we do not have a time machine, and English vowels are shifting around everywhere regardless of outside influence. The vowels may be a coincidence.Prior to massive immigration from Ireland however, the US was a fairly even mix of rhotic and non-rhotic dialects. After mass immigration, rhotic dialects dominated and were the only ones to spread west. In many American English dialects [θ] and [ð] are also pronounced as identical to Irish [tʰ] and [d] rather than the more pan-dialectally common [f].One influence Irish might have had on all dialects of English is informal [n] instead of /ŋ/ for -ing suffixes. Some Irish speakers do not pronounce the -ing suffix as [ŋ] in any circumstances. I find it suspicious that we really only start seeing -ing words spelled -in’ after the 1820s:There’s a small blip prior to the 1800s, but absolutely nothing prior to 1750. Irish English did not start coming into contact with other English dialects until Irish people started moving to the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc. There was not very much Irish emigration prior to 1750.