Opera on 3 - Live from the Met

[kernelbogey]

So are you suggesting that the Americans are "in charge" of the English language?

Mais non: I'm saying that we're likely to hear a lot of English with vocabulary, accent and intonation - e.g. from presenters at the Met - which is different from the English dialect (and I think we're now speaking just one of many dialects). It behoves us, IMHO, not to be too snooty about other dialects.
My answer to your question, therefore, is that the rest of the world (alas) is in charge .

[Estelle]

How we speak our native language is so much a function of our environment--our family, our immediate friends, and the place in which we live. The quality of our language is determined by the education level of our family and, later, by our own education and values.

American, Canadian, Australian, and British English (to name a few) all come in a variety of pronunciations determined by education, values, and localion within the country. As an individual American, I may find certain pronunciations of American English rather unlovely; I might also find certain pronunciations of British English grating to the ear. It's a cultural thing. As I matured, I learned to overcome the irritation of hearing my native tongue spoken in a way different from my way and to attend to the message.

Mr. Wonnacott, you should take notice that you are writing on the internet.

[marthe]

Estelle, thank you for your very sensible post. I quite agree. I am always intrigued by, rather than repulsed by, the variety of accents in the English-speaking world. In my own small community we've got English spoken by locals and English spoken by people from England, South Africa, Australia, NZ, India, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Guatemala, Germany, France, Canada etc. I agree, the message is much more important than the packaging. There is no need to be snooty about accents. Perhaps it's more important for native English speakers, of whatever persuasion, to become bilingual or multilingual...and more open-minded.

[Don Basilio]

And thank you from me as well, estelle.

[Estelle]

You are welcome, Marthe and Don Basilio. It is understandable how one might be irritated by a pronunciation which sounds unattractive, but it is quite another matter to express it in such a hostile way on an international forum.

[Flosshilde]

And thank you from me, as well, Estelle. There are American accents that I like, & some that I don't, just as there are some English (& Scottish, & Irish) accents that I likie & some that I don't like. Actually, there are some that I find very seductive, & could listen to for hours

[StephenO]

To criticise American English is to criticise the language of Shakespeare since, as far as we can tell, Elizabethan vowel sounds were far closer to their modern American equivalents than to present day British English. That goes for much of the vocabulary too. Shakespeare would have had no qualms about a word like "gotten".

[marthe]

Thank you StephenO. The purest form of Elizabethan English is said to exist in remote parts of Appalachia. Whenever I hear Appalachian folk singer Jean Ritchie sing a ballad, I feel that I'm hearing a voice that belongs to another time. Many of the first European settlers of New England were from East Anglia. I'm sure the famed,and much parodied, Boston accent (pahk the cah in Havahd yahd) retains traces of the accents of 17th-century settlers such as John Winthrop (Groton Manor, Suffolk), and Anne Hutchinson (Boston, Lincs.) Other parts of the US were settled by immigrants for whom English was a second language. Up until WW1, German was the second language in the US and there were almost as many German-language newspapers as there were English papers. Now, Spanish (Latin-American Spanish) is the second language and ambitious parents in wealthy suburbs are pushing for Mandarin classes in public (tax-supported) schools!

[Flosshilde]

"the famed,and much parodied, Boston accent (pahk the cah in Havahd yahd) "

Don't know about East Anglian - it sounds more like the Sloane Ranger & Hooray Henry. Purest Chelsea

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Most world English accents are to be found in the British Isles. American English is basically Irish, while South African, Australian and N.Z. English are broadly Cockney.