The real American civilisations

When it comes to real American civilisations, one could look no further than in Mesoamerica and to some extent, the Incas of parts of South America proper. The biggest problem with most American countries is that as colonies they’re offshoots of European empires like Britain and Portugal. Brazil for awhile was known as United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves.

Canada’s still ruled by Britain as are New Zealand and Australia. Mexico’s also subjected to Spanish colonisation but prior to that, it already had its own civilisations like Mayans and Aztecs. Incas were like that in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. There could be several more within America itself, the biggest problem most of the Americas is that whatever Native American cultures they hosted were practically marginalised by colonisation.

But the same can be said of any country subjected to an empire to varying degrees.

 

The English Shakespeare spoke

There’s been a lot of debate over what the English accent used to sound like in Elizabethan times but there’s some consensus that it would’ve sounded closer to that of contemporary Irish English but also those of more isolated communities like in Tangiers and Appalachian mountains which were Westernised in the 17th century.

 

Being kept apart made it easier to preserve such features. Someone had an anecdote about an anthropologist studying the accents of its people who occupied that place since the 1600s and 1700s prior to the popularisation of television.

 

Given that America and Ireland were subjected to English colonisation in the 16th to 18th centuries, it wouldn’t be surprising that those dialects retained the Elizabethan rhoticity to a greater extent than in much of Britain.

 

There are some exceptions but it’s consistent with how changes in English coincided with the rise of the British Empire. Both Australia and New Zealand were founded at a much later date and are as non-rhotic as present day Britain is.

 

Which explains why they speak the way they do.