The difference between the majority of accents is due to vowel rotation. Meaning that in point of fact a typical British accent (and there are of course many) will sound all five vowels differently to an American accent. This is true for all accents.

If you want to hear this in action, do you best English accent and your best American and say a sentence like 'Harry is in Paris.' Then say 'Henry is in Hendon.' And so on for all vowels. If you have an ear for accents you will find all of the vowels sounds are different. This is chiefly what distinguishes accents.

With regard to when the changes occurred, surely it would have been gradual. As the English language speakers became separated by distance and immigrants poured into America. Each arriving group would have brought their own influence to bear on pronunciation. To my ears many American words, including 'God' and 'arse/ass' for that matter, have an Irish sound and they turned up in large numbers after the Irish famine of the 1840s.

The difference between the majority of accents is due to vowel rotation. Meaning that in point of fact a typical British accent (and there are of course many) will sound all five vowels differently to an American accent. This is true for all accents.

If you want to hear this in action, do you best English accent and your best American and say a sentence like 'Harry is in Paris.' Then say 'Henry is in Hendon.' And so on for all vowels. If you have an ear for accents you will find all of the vowels sounds are different. This is chiefly what distinguishes accents.

With regard to when the changes occurred, surely it would have been gradual, as the English language speakers became separated by distance and immigrants poured into America. Each arriving group would have brought their own influence to bear on pronunciation. To my ears many American words, including 'God' and 'arse/ass' for that matter, have an Irish sound and they turned up in large numbers after the Irish famine of the 1840s.

The difference between the majority of accents is due to vowel rotation. Meaning that in point of fact a typical British accent (and there are of course many) will sound all five vowels differently to an American accent. This is true for all accents.

If you want to hear this in action, do you best English accent and your best American and say a sentence like 'Harry is in Paris.' Then say 'Henry is in Hendon.' And so on for all vowels. If you have an ear for accents you will find all of the vowels sounds are different. This is chiefly what distinguishes accents.

The difference between the majority of accents is due to vowel rotation. Meaning that in point of fact a typical British accent (and there are of course many) will sound all five vowels differently to an American accent. This is true for all accents.

If you want to hear this in action, do you best English accent and your best American and say a sentence like 'Harry is in Paris.' Then say 'Henry is in Hendon.' And so on for all vowels. If you have an ear for accents you will find all of the vowels sounds are different. This is chiefly what distinguishes accents.

With regard to when the changes occurred, surely it would have been gradual. As the English language speakers became separated by distance and immigrants poured into America. Each arriving group would have brought their own influence to bear on pronunciation. To my ears many American words, including 'God' and 'arse/ass' for that matter, have an Irish sound and they turned up in large numbers after the Irish famine of the 1840s.