The American/Canadian twang.

Where does the American/Canadian accent get it's twang? Logically the accent itself must come from the various European/native influences, but does that unique twang sound come from the American/Canadian natives themselves? With the Australian/New Zealand accents you can hear a distinct British influence; With the South-African Accent you can hear the Dutch influence.

perhaps this might help. This was a response given by Carl Mills of the University of Cincinatti regarding the origins of North American accents on another forum

How did all this come about? Well, to untrained American ears, the
pronunciations of Australians tend to sound like those of the lower classes
of London from about a century ago. Perhaps, a clue? It appears that
transplanted varieties of a given language depend crucially on what part of
the mother country the bulk of the original colonists came from--and when.
Thus, it should not be surprising that most American dialects sound a lot
(but not completely) like Irish dialects. Initial big settlements in both
North America snd Ireland by English settlers began in the 16th Century, for Ireland, and in the early 17th Century, for the US. In addition, colonial
dialects tend to be conservative with regard to language change compared to motherland dialects. Hence, it is not surprising that the English of most
Americans sounds more like that of Elizabeth I than that of Elizabeth II.

Also, American/Canadian English developed earlier than Australian and NZ English. Hence, maybe one of the reasons why Australian and NZ sound closer to British English in pronunciation.

I would like to recommend David Hackett Fischer's "Albion's Seed" . It discusses how the four basic accents of the East Coast of the United States relate to the 4 different parts of England the original settlers came from. Order it on Amazon.

A lot "Americans" who've done "research" on this subject, have come up with a conclusion that the Americans sound like the English of the past.

When basically, if you take an Irish accent, and an accent from South West England (cornish).....get people from Holland and Germany. Give it over 200 years of isolation, get them talking out of their nose.....you'll get something like sounds like an American accent.

Oh JAH VEE ZOUND LIEK DEUTSCH . AHR JU OHN KRAHK OR ZOHMZING, Fraulein Ade . And it is not just American scholars who say so but British linguists agree also. Besides, it was a british linguist who came up with the idea in the first place that American sounds more like the English of Southern England from 300 years ago than "ENGLISH" English does today .

It was 226 years ago that America got it's independence wasn't it? You telling me that the American accent with so many many many immigrants over 200 years didn't change one bit, while the British accent was the only one that changed?

Give me a break.

It isn't that the accent hasn't changed, but rather that it has changed in different ways. The 'twang' was a feature of English speech in the past, but was subsequently lost everywhere else. In the same way Americans have lost some features that modern British speech maintains.

Twnag...what does this mean. I guess as a speaker of the American West Coast dialect, I cannot here this twang. When I think of "twang" I think of someone from Oklahoma or Kansas. Other than that, I do not think of any English-speakers with a twangy accent.

I think it is the nasal sound.

J, do Americans sound nasal to the British? I do not understand this as I speak French; if you want to talk about nasal, then talk about French.

Ever heard Bob Dylan? Sounds like his nose is going to fall off (I think he is pretty good though). Americans pronounce everything in at least a slightly nasal way, the French only nasalize certain vowels.

Interesting about the Dutch and German influence on our speech. I have not heard about that theory yet. I would like to read more on it. I know the Pennsylvania Dutch have a sharp German accent. I also know of a town in upstate New York where their speech is "dutchified" whenever they speak English.

J, I have heard Bob Dylan, but that is when he is singing when he sounds "nasal."

I think that any place where there was a sifnificant German/Dutch migrant population, you will find a different accent spoken today in the same areas.

Most Americans sound nasal, bar some East-coasters, but they sometimes pronounce their 'r', and have rather different accent, cf. Bostonian. I know it must be hard to hear the nasal sound but it is there!