“Should they talk in a British accent?” was the question asked of me about my characters who migrated from England to Virginia in the 1600s. Seems logical, but what I found out what interesting.
Our language has been influenced by the native people who inhabited America before us as well as the numerous immigrants coming from all over the world. So, new words were introduced and our language evolved (and it continues to). The same goes for any country as new people and languages are introduced.
However, apparently, the British accent at that time sounded more — get this — American. That charming accent we all love to hear? Well, Britons adopted the dropped r sound later on, and the trend was spread to Boston and other ports after my novel’s time frame.
Yeah! My characters can talk more like regular Americans — which is closer to the original English accent.
Now, before any of you that speak with a British accent start leaving negative comments, let me just say: I realize this is just a small difference of our speech. And, like most Americans, I like your accent. Besides, I’m not certain I could do it justice, even though I wondered about the question of accent anyway, since the words we say so differently are spelled the same, and I’m writing a novel, not doing a podcast.
I also found out that, at the time my story takes place, most people from London would have used the word you instead of thee or thou. Even contractions in speech were becoming common in the early 17th century (although writing lagged behind).
Therefore, writing my characters to speak in a more modern-sounding language style may be more correct than not, although perception matters. How would you expect someone in the 1600s to speak?
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