From: Rick McCallister
Message: 63136
Date: 2009-02-19
--- On Wed, 2/18/09, Francesco Brighenti <frabrig@...> wrote:
. . .
>
> 1) Does the fact that, just to make an instance, many
> Irish, Germans
> and so forth were among the early colonizers of the east
> coast of
> the present U.S.A. have any bearing on the process of
> formation of
> the different varieties of English spoken in the U.S.A.
> today?
Definitely, American English probably kept final /r/ dues to the large Scots and Irish presence, as well as the Germans, who tended to learn prescriptive English at school --hence Midwestern English as the US standard
>
> 2) Ditto for the internal differentiation of the English
> spoken by
> the British colonists who settled in the east coast of the
> present
> U.S.A. in the 17th-18th century. Does it have any bearing
> on the
> process of formation of the different varieties of English
> spoken in
> the U.S.A. today?
So it is said. I've read that New England was initially populated by people in E England --E. Anglia, etc.
The Mid Atlantic was largely populated by Welsh --note all the Welsh names in and around Philly.
Appalachia was principally populated by people from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
I think that the Lowland South was settled by people from the West Country. There were also a lot of Huguenots and Irish early on --the Irish as captive indentured servants.