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sc94597 on 21 October 2009
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Final-Fan said:
sc94597 said:
starcraft said:
I once got into an argument with an American exchange girl over the spelling of various english words.

I was arguing that the UK and Australia employ English as it always has been and was designed. She looked at me and said "There's 500 million English speakers in the world and 300 million of them are from the USA, get your own fucking language."

I'd been trying very hard to sleep with her. Needless to say I decided to sleep with another of them instead.

Both of you are using fallacious arguments. Before the 15th century English didn't have a definate spelling. It wasn't ALWAYs that way. Also American English is much closer to early modern english than British or Australian English. Canadian English though can probably be considered the closest to that spoken in the Early times of the modern English.

I think I heard that some region in the Appalachians or southern Appalachians gets that honor.  

Well they are noted for sounding like Old English pronounciation-wise. That may or may not be the case for Early Modern English as well.

Either way though, American English as a whole hasn't progressed much in comparison to British and Austrailian.

There is a theory that tells about how the farther you go away from where the language was originally spoken, the slower it will change.

The only reason Austrailian sounds so much more like Standard British is that it is a much newer settlement than Canada and the United States and much after Modern English was developed in comparison.

The first and largest difference between the standard languages of those found in the Americas (and elsewhere) is the pronounciation of a "R"s by themselves and the focus toward consanants.

This is something that was present in Early Modern English(1500/1600s) and earlier. I think what you are talking about with the Appalachain dialects was due to not getting the  full effect of the "Great Vowel Shift" while British English and other American English dialects did.

Ever heard of "Crick" vs "Creek". Yeah it is very common to say "Crick" here in Northestern PA. This may be a stagnant progression, or it could just be the influence of Pennylvania Dutch and Swiss German speakers like the Amish.