I know this is a weird topic, but I have been wondering...there are region specific accent's across the US, but what made the original settlers lose their native accents in the first place? I mean an accent is gained and lost through hearing other people speak(I think?) So I mean, shouldn't the children of just listened to their parents and other townsfolk and just continuously just kept passing it on from generation to generation? Shouldn't the majority of Americans still have British accents(or wherever their ancestory comes from)?

Probably the same reason people on the British Isles stopped speaking German and Gaelic at some point. It's just d/evolution of the language.

When you're apart from the area where the native language is spoken, you lose the accent associated from that area.

When you're apart from the area where the native language is spoken, you lose the accent associated from that area.

 

 

I get that, but if eveyone else is still speaking with that accent shouldn't it of still stuck around?

I think weather affects accents in the long run also. Cold areas vs warm areas and things like that (humidity, or hours of daylight things like that). Maybe you should ask an expert (someone in the languages department at your University).

Because we didn't want to sound those damn feminine tea-sipping British hippies!

From what I've learned this is what happens:

 

England/New England example...

 

What usually happens when people emmigrate from a country is that they (tend to) keep their traditions/culture and accents from which they came. So when the settlers from England came over they had the 'british accent' (duh)...

Over time a language evoles. So the 'English language' in England changed over time to what it is now. The NE accent people have while speaking English more closely resembled the English -(from England)- of the 1600s and 1700s - but of course with the cultural diffusion that takes place in all societies the English in the NE has evoled also