Ever wonder why we associate british accents with high intelligence or "upstandingness" or societal prowess? Well one reason may be because that's pretty much why it originated in the first place. A new study says that Brits and Americans, around the time of the Revolution, all spoke much more like Americans do today than present day Brits.
The change came when former lower class, made rich by the industrial revolution, tried to distinguish themselves from the "commoners" that they once were. They simply created the "non-rhotic" speech (rhotic being the current American way of speaking.) so that they would be obviously different from the lower-class. More and more wealthy began to speak in that manner and apparently, the rest of the classes followed suit. You can even see evidence of quasi-non-rhotic speech in Boston and New York due to the much larger influence of Britain in those cities at the time..
Interesting stuff...and it's backed up by a guy from Cambridge so it's not all Yankee BS...
http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2047-americans-brits-accents.html
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