Imagine a time traveler from London in 1700.
Who would they understand more easily today?
A polished BBC presenter...
...or someone from the American Midwest?
The answer turns one of the most common myths about the American accent completely upside down.
People love saying Americans "lost the British accent" after the Revolution.
History says the opposite.
Most 18th-century Americans and Britons sounded broadly similar. Then Britain's elites changed. They began dropping the "r" sound in the late 1700s, while most Americans kept the older rhotic pronunciation.
In other words, modern American English didn't suddenly become "less British." In one major respect, Britain moved away from the pronunciation its own colonists had preserved.
Language didn't split overnight in 1776.
It drifted for roughly 150 to 250 years.
Concerned Citizen
