Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I suppose accents are changing rapidly everywhere. We recently found a recording of my parents talking to me as a baby in the late 1970s. They both sounded like the actors from "The Good Life".

The question is - is it happening more quickly than before. Almost certainly, I'd say, if you listen to examples of London accents across the centuries like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lXv3Tt4x20




> Almost certainly, I'd say, if you listen to examples of London accents across the centuries like these

MAJOR caveat there; to a large extent that's presumably based on people _guessing_ what a London accent was like 600 years ago. There's some evidence, but there certainly aren't recordings, and there'd be ~no information on the small details.


Yes, radio started flattening them out and ubiquitous video is only going to accelerate that process.


I really noticed this working in a school when I lived in Tennessee. A lot of the faculty had fairly heavy southern accents, but I don't remember ever noticing it with the students. It makes sense though when you realize that a huge chunk of the voices the students learned from were on YouTube, TV, etc., not just people from their own hometown.




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: