What's the difference between an American accent in a British accent?

Answer 1

Originally, both the British and Americans spoke with a rhotic accent. Rhotic essentially means an accent where the letter 'r' is pronounced strongly after a vowel. Rhotic accents are strong in both the US and Scotland, but seem to have disappeared from British English and its derivatives, such as Australian and New Zealand English.

The dominant American accent (the typical accent of the mid-western US) is rhotic, and British English is, as a rule, non-rhotic. Typically, US speakers pronounce every "r", wherever they appear in a word. Most British speakers (and you will note that there are some British Isle accents that are strongly rhotic, like US) do not pronounce every "r". Americans emphasise the "r" at the end of words such as "teacher" or "neighbour", but in many non-rhotic British accents it is more of a "schwa" (an unstressed, neutral, toneless vowel sound) so it comes out as "teacha" (unstressed) or "neighba".

This main difference also varies across the country of origin. For example, the US has a clear distinction in the accents between inhabitants of the north and south, not to mention less clearly defined differences across the states. Similarly, British people have a different accent according to their locality. The "cockney" accent is vastly different to the middle and upper class accents.

Another common difference appears to be that Americans pronounce words such as 'herbal' without the 'h'. Syllables may be stressed differently, too. "Oregano" in the US tends to be pronounced "o - reg - a - no" whereas in British English it is more likely to be "o - reg - AH - no".

Answer 2

There is no single "American" accent, but the accent used by most newscasters (Mid-Western) is considered to be an "American" accent. Native New Yorkers tend to pronounce certain words differently from the rest of the country. For example "cawfee" (coffee), "owa" (hour), daw (door) and of course Noo Yawk (New York). New Yorkers also tend to say "a" at the end of words that end in "er" like "butta" (butter), speaka (speaker) and put "r" where it doesn't belong: "warta" (water). Some of the classic accents that you may hear in old movies like using "earl" for "oil" are not really prevalent any longer. Also, using "d" instead of "t" in the middle of words can also be heard "whaddya want? (what do you want?)

There are many sites on the internet that give full linguistic discussions on the differences that you may want to check out. Also, there are certain actors and actresses that have a native NY accent such as Robert Deniro and Rosie O'Donnell.

The various New York City accents are closely related to the various New England accents, deriving from the speech of certain parts of England as it was pronounced in the 17th Century. The dramatic difference is the "dropped R" before consonants and at the end of sentences. For example, some of us Northeasterners say say Pock ya cah heyah when the rest of America says Park your car here.

Answer 3

There is nothing different between the American and the British accents. The New England accent is different.