Here is a standard explanation. North America was settled by 17th Century English speakers. Australia was settled (in earnest) by 19th Century English speakers. Over those two centuries, two major changes occurred. English speakers in southeast England lost the “r” sound after vowels (they became non-rhotic) and the short “o” sound in words like “pot” changed. Most American accents retain the older pronunciations lost in much of England.
Many English-speaking immigrants of course came to all of these places after the initial settlements, but 2nd generation immigrants born in a country tend to grow up accents of their peers, not their parents.
I have an American-standard accented friend who's been working in New Zealand for quite a while and complains about "Superfluous Commonwealth R's!"
Southern accents are often non-rhotic, even with all the mass communications of the past 100 years. Particularly older Cajuns, for which we do blame the French. Because I think everyone who comes from an English-majority country/culture blames the French wherever possible.
Americans and Canadians kept the original pronunciation. It's the English who stopped saying the R's that are clearly there in the vowel-adjacent spelling, and then added them back where there aren't any! We're the ones who braved the ocean and lived in a less-fertile land of much greater climatic swings -- it was the stay at homes in the green and pleasant land who changed.
Don't let Canadians hear you say they sound just like Americans, though; the US and Canada have plenty of various accents too. It really annoys our kind* northern maple-syrup producing neighbors who shouldn't have to put up with or be mistaken for us. I've a fairly good ear for accents and I can tell the difference between Maritime, Ontario, and BC accents. And Quebec, of course, for which we CAN blame the French.
Canadians don't actually say "aboot"; it's partway between "abowt" and "aboot". Rather a lot of "Americans" you've seen on TV or in movies are really Canadian. Most of the "Americans" on low-budget UK TV are actually Canadian, especially on "Doctor Who".
*Mostly. North of the border, the Geneva Conventions are referred to as "The Things Canada Isn't Allowed To Do Any More".
I never understood how the “aboot” exaggeration arose. To me, the Canadian “about” sounds more like “a boat.” Bostonians with heavy Boston accents say it the same way.
And it is true the average Canadian sounds closer to an average American than do Americans who have strong regional accents. Dan Rather, Jim Carrey, Michael J Fox and many others are as all-American sounding as it gets.
Dan Rather's from Texas and still has a bit of that accent. Fox is mostly from near Vancouver, where the accents are closer to American with only the occasional "a boat". Carrey and Fox have both lived in the US for decades so that affects it, plus they grew up near the border.
Why "Doctor Who" keeps hiring Canadians with identifiably Canadian accents to be Americans is a mild source of irritation to me.
A young man just came to my door handing out home repair business cards; I spotted the Estuary English accent and upon inquiry he was from Essex.
The origin of Canadian "about" is a really interesting question. One theory is that it represents an earlier stage of the "ou" sound in English, as if the Great Vowel Shift had not fully completed for just those words. Another theory is, as you suggest, Scottish influence.
The first four years of my life were spent in East Anglia. Until adulthood I lived in Southern Ontario, where I apparently developed an “Ontario Mutter”. A couple years in Newfoundland and the rest of my working life in Nova Scotia, married to an Acadian with all her French speaking family. Back to Ontario for twenty years before a move to Maine. Everywhere I visit people ask about my accent. “Can’t place it.”, they say. My answer, said with tongue in cheek, “I don’t have an accent”
Thank you for this very interesting article. I was familiar with the GVS, but I had never encountered this possible explanation. I appreciate the clarity of your writing!
Did other European languages go through vowel shifts at the time? I imagine there would have been some linguistic impact with the influx of people from the hinterlands
It's really fascinating how the Black Death had such an impact on society in all sorts of ways that you wouldn't expect! Hard to imagine what it would feel like if it happened now, to have a society suddenly so denuded of people.
Reading about the prestige argument and linguistic overcompensation I can’t but think of the “Boston” accent or more accurately the “Kennedy” accent especially as imitated by non Bostonians. Being from the Boston suburbs I cringe at hearing what is assumed to be a Boston accent but is really an imitation of the Kennedy accent. The Kennedys were definite social climbers in a time and place that relegated poor immigrants to the bottom of the social ladder. That they were Catholic put them on an even lower rung. So it seems they began speaking in a manner that they thought sounded like the Boston Brahmans and voila, the perceived Boston accent.
FWIW, I’ve never heard anyone from here speak that way other than the Kennedys and in the movies.
There is a Boston accent -- I have friends with Boston accents -- but none of them sound like the Kennedys. It's in the vowels and occasionally forgetting to be rhotic.
I seem to remember when I was a student in the early '80s, studying English Language & Literature there was a diagram in a text book showing the cross-section of a mouth with a large circular arrow in it and the positions of all the vowel sounds before and after the Great Vowel Shift. It made it easy to understand, but I can't find the diagram anywhere on the internet and don't remember the name of the text book.
I wonder whether we can see this phenomenon (e.g. a regular vowel shift) in action today, or whether the pace of such a change is such that it would only be evident over the course of, say, a century, and in the meantime it just sounds like, well, an accent.
I like this but find it hard to believe. Simply because it would have happened in all the major cities of Europe if that were the case. The black plague decimated not only London but also most capitals, cities and towns in the 1300s. Some losing up to 70% of their population. Great book about it is Pale Rider
So by 'English' you mean only the dialect of the cultural elites centred on London. It doesn't seem possible that there was ever a time when everyone spoke the same dialect....quite the opposite, there must have been a greater variety than today. So which dialects does the great vowel change belong to? I grew up pronouncing 'hoose' in the 20th century, not the 14th!
"Can we blame the French?"
Silly Colin, it doesn't matter if we *can* — we most certainly will, regardless!
Great article, as always 😉
Thanks, Evan! Nous faisons ces choses non pas parce que nous le pouvons, mais parce que nous le voulons!
Blaming the French is the proud common historical heritage of all English-majority cultures.
Great post, Colin. I have a question about accents. Why don't Americans and Canadians sound like Aussies and Kiwis?
Thanks, Jack! I've got a longer, more in-depth article about the origin of North American English in the works right now, so watch this space :)
Here is a standard explanation. North America was settled by 17th Century English speakers. Australia was settled (in earnest) by 19th Century English speakers. Over those two centuries, two major changes occurred. English speakers in southeast England lost the “r” sound after vowels (they became non-rhotic) and the short “o” sound in words like “pot” changed. Most American accents retain the older pronunciations lost in much of England.
Many English-speaking immigrants of course came to all of these places after the initial settlements, but 2nd generation immigrants born in a country tend to grow up accents of their peers, not their parents.
I have an American-standard accented friend who's been working in New Zealand for quite a while and complains about "Superfluous Commonwealth R's!"
Southern accents are often non-rhotic, even with all the mass communications of the past 100 years. Particularly older Cajuns, for which we do blame the French. Because I think everyone who comes from an English-majority country/culture blames the French wherever possible.
Americans and Canadians kept the original pronunciation. It's the English who stopped saying the R's that are clearly there in the vowel-adjacent spelling, and then added them back where there aren't any! We're the ones who braved the ocean and lived in a less-fertile land of much greater climatic swings -- it was the stay at homes in the green and pleasant land who changed.
Don't let Canadians hear you say they sound just like Americans, though; the US and Canada have plenty of various accents too. It really annoys our kind* northern maple-syrup producing neighbors who shouldn't have to put up with or be mistaken for us. I've a fairly good ear for accents and I can tell the difference between Maritime, Ontario, and BC accents. And Quebec, of course, for which we CAN blame the French.
Canadians don't actually say "aboot"; it's partway between "abowt" and "aboot". Rather a lot of "Americans" you've seen on TV or in movies are really Canadian. Most of the "Americans" on low-budget UK TV are actually Canadian, especially on "Doctor Who".
*Mostly. North of the border, the Geneva Conventions are referred to as "The Things Canada Isn't Allowed To Do Any More".
I never understood how the “aboot” exaggeration arose. To me, the Canadian “about” sounds more like “a boat.” Bostonians with heavy Boston accents say it the same way.
And it is true the average Canadian sounds closer to an average American than do Americans who have strong regional accents. Dan Rather, Jim Carrey, Michael J Fox and many others are as all-American sounding as it gets.
Dan Rather's from Texas and still has a bit of that accent. Fox is mostly from near Vancouver, where the accents are closer to American with only the occasional "a boat". Carrey and Fox have both lived in the US for decades so that affects it, plus they grew up near the border.
Why "Doctor Who" keeps hiring Canadians with identifiably Canadian accents to be Americans is a mild source of irritation to me.
A young man just came to my door handing out home repair business cards; I spotted the Estuary English accent and upon inquiry he was from Essex.
I had always thought that the Canadian 'aboot' came from a Scottish influence.
Does anyone know the statistics as to whether more Scots ended up in Canada, due to the more familiar climate.
The origin of Canadian "about" is a really interesting question. One theory is that it represents an earlier stage of the "ou" sound in English, as if the Great Vowel Shift had not fully completed for just those words. Another theory is, as you suggest, Scottish influence.
The first four years of my life were spent in East Anglia. Until adulthood I lived in Southern Ontario, where I apparently developed an “Ontario Mutter”. A couple years in Newfoundland and the rest of my working life in Nova Scotia, married to an Acadian with all her French speaking family. Back to Ontario for twenty years before a move to Maine. Everywhere I visit people ask about my accent. “Can’t place it.”, they say. My answer, said with tongue in cheek, “I don’t have an accent”
I've known about the Great Vowel Shift for ages, but never read such a succinct explanation. Thanks!
Thank you!
Thank you for this very interesting article. I was familiar with the GVS, but I had never encountered this possible explanation. I appreciate the clarity of your writing!
Thank you very much, Mark!
Did other European languages go through vowel shifts at the time? I imagine there would have been some linguistic impact with the influx of people from the hinterlands
It's really fascinating how the Black Death had such an impact on society in all sorts of ways that you wouldn't expect! Hard to imagine what it would feel like if it happened now, to have a society suddenly so denuded of people.
Reading about the prestige argument and linguistic overcompensation I can’t but think of the “Boston” accent or more accurately the “Kennedy” accent especially as imitated by non Bostonians. Being from the Boston suburbs I cringe at hearing what is assumed to be a Boston accent but is really an imitation of the Kennedy accent. The Kennedys were definite social climbers in a time and place that relegated poor immigrants to the bottom of the social ladder. That they were Catholic put them on an even lower rung. So it seems they began speaking in a manner that they thought sounded like the Boston Brahmans and voila, the perceived Boston accent.
FWIW, I’ve never heard anyone from here speak that way other than the Kennedys and in the movies.
There is a Boston accent -- I have friends with Boston accents -- but none of them sound like the Kennedys. It's in the vowels and occasionally forgetting to be rhotic.
I seem to remember when I was a student in the early '80s, studying English Language & Literature there was a diagram in a text book showing the cross-section of a mouth with a large circular arrow in it and the positions of all the vowel sounds before and after the Great Vowel Shift. It made it easy to understand, but I can't find the diagram anywhere on the internet and don't remember the name of the text book.
I wonder whether we can see this phenomenon (e.g. a regular vowel shift) in action today, or whether the pace of such a change is such that it would only be evident over the course of, say, a century, and in the meantime it just sounds like, well, an accent.
I like this but find it hard to believe. Simply because it would have happened in all the major cities of Europe if that were the case. The black plague decimated not only London but also most capitals, cities and towns in the 1300s. Some losing up to 70% of their population. Great book about it is Pale Rider
Great article! Appreciated your comprehensive analysis!
Gorie's description seems to support the "social change drives changes in pronunciation" story. I suspect that it's rather more complicated than that.
So by 'English' you mean only the dialect of the cultural elites centred on London. It doesn't seem possible that there was ever a time when everyone spoke the same dialect....quite the opposite, there must have been a greater variety than today. So which dialects does the great vowel change belong to? I grew up pronouncing 'hoose' in the 20th century, not the 14th!
Dumb question.
Isn't this also the beginnings of London theaters?
What's the chance actors' accents influenced what the newly arrived thought a London accent was.
I am thinking about how most Americans think they know what an Irish brogue sounds like based on 1940s movies.