Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
As for us Americans butchering the English language, there was a TV documentary by Melvyn Bragg, an British historian and linguist and writer, called "The Adventure of the English Language" in 2003 and in one of the episodes he said that the southern states in the USA speak what is a lot closer to the English of the 17th century than is spoken in England today. It's those Brits that are butchering our English. 
Barry |
Appalachia and Newfoundland are the closest to 17th and 18th century English, which only makes sense since that is when they were colonized. Being mostly isolated for centuries they were spared the various pronunciation fads since then.
The "veddy proper" british version of today is mostly the product of the 19th century upper crust attempt to standardize away from the lower classes, with a dose of early 20th BBC style guide, based on the 1869 "Received Pronunciation" guide. Funny thing: even in England itself it isn't particularly common. Single digit use.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation
It was mandatory on the BBC until WWII when Nazi broadcasts forced a slight loosening.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_hRQq5e7Wi0
English is simply too widespread and too useful to be constrained by anybody's idea of what is and isn't proper.
(As for American English, the most prominent "official" accent is the flat Midwestern version adopted by TV broadcasters in the 50's and 60's. The BBC would be proud.)