The only reason so many languages - and accents and dialects within languages - exist today is that it is natural for language to evolve and all languages diverge in separated populations over time. Disliking an accent or dialect has nothing to do with what we hear or see written on a page, but is rather about those things being flags which we've attached to stereotypes.
I have a deep-seated dislike of the accents of those from the southern USA and Northern Ireland. Rationally, I know that the vast majority of people from those places are decent human beings, but we all instinctively stereotype people because that makes life a lot easier, so I have to work hard not to immediately think negatively of anyone who has one of those accents.
One of the major differences between American and British English is the pronunciation of the letter 'r' in words. Ironically, the way Americans voice the sound is actually closer to the English of Shakespearean times - which is about as close to "classic English" as you can get. Current British usage which doesn't sound the 'r' exists because the English upper classes in the 17th Century developed an affection of dropping the 'r' to differentiate themselves from the common people, and this spread as the middle classes tried to emulate their "betters".
The differences in spelling are interesting too. Many of these go back to Noah Webster's first American dictionary in the early years of the 19th Century. The way many words were spelled back then varied. Webster chose some spellings that were different from the British usage of the time because they were more logical (replacing the -ce ending of many words with -se, for example), but he also chose spellings that were different just for the sake of differentiating American English from British English.
It bugs me how the American people have
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The only reason so many languages - and accents and dialects within languages - exist today is that it is natural for language to evolve and all languages diverge in separated populations over time. Disliking an accent or dialect has nothing to do with what we hear or see written on a page, but is rather about those things being flags which we've attached to stereotypes.
I have a deep-seated dislike of the accents of those from the southern USA and Northern Ireland. Rationally, I know that the vast majority of people from those places are decent human beings, but we all instinctively stereotype people because that makes life a lot easier, so I have to work hard not to immediately think negatively of anyone who has one of those accents.
One of the major differences between American and British English is the pronunciation of the letter 'r' in words. Ironically, the way Americans voice the sound is actually closer to the English of Shakespearean times - which is about as close to "classic English" as you can get. Current British usage which doesn't sound the 'r' exists because the English upper classes in the 17th Century developed an affection of dropping the 'r' to differentiate themselves from the common people, and this spread as the middle classes tried to emulate their "betters".
The differences in spelling are interesting too. Many of these go back to Noah Webster's first American dictionary in the early years of the 19th Century. The way many words were spelled back then varied. Webster chose some spellings that were different from the British usage of the time because they were more logical (replacing the -ce ending of many words with -se, for example), but he also chose spellings that were different just for the sake of differentiating American English from British English.