Myths about American and British English

Polyglot and phonetician Dave Huxtable busts myths about American and British English. Did 16th century English live on in the USA. Do Americans speak like Shakespeare? Was the British accent invented in the 1800s? Find the answers to these and other questions, with a unique blend of facts and humor/humour.


00:00 Scope of myths
00:56 Senseless Americanisms
02:22 American inventiveness and flexibility
03:22 American English is fossilised 16th century English
04:04 Where did the first settlers come from?
06:13 Factors that accelerate language change
06:34 Dialect levelling
08:28 Charleston and an African majority
08:47 Ulster Scots
10:12 Benjamin Franklin's accent
11:33 R sounds
11:51 R-loss in 15C
13:38 The Queen's ban
14:29 Is US English lazy?
15:00 Simplified English
16:39 Not an accent
18:06 General American
19:16 New England Elite accent
19:28 William McKinley
20:24 Theodore Roosevelt
21:55 Transatlantic accent in Hollywood
22:30 Taft
25:05 The ascendency of General American
26:25 Was UK English deliberately changed?
28:49 Generic brand names
31:32 AE is informal
32:44 RP artificially created
37:04 How do Brits speak when noone else is around?




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