12: The Printing Press and the Great Vowel Shift

What explains the difference between English and American accents? On this episode of Reasonably Sound, Mike Rugnetta explains that this spoken phenomenon starts with the written word.

-- On American versus English Spelling --

Why Do Brits and Americans Spell Words Differently?

http://www.livescience.com/33844-british-american-word-spelling.html

Americanize, Anglicise: Why Do Brits And Yanks Spell Words Differently?

http://io9.gizmodo.com/americanize-anglicise-why-do-brits-and-yanks-spell-wo-1671334487

Present Day American Spelling from The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 6

https://books.google.com/books?id=ia5tHVtQPn8C&pg=PA352&dq=american+and+english+spelling+differences&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KmWtVNOoEoLksATGpoDgCg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=american%20and%20english%20spelling%20differences&f=false

-- Main Sources for this Episode --

A History of the English Language by Elly van Gelderen

http://www.historyofenglish.net/

Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction by Kristin Denham, Anne Lobeck

http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/ISBN/1413015891?cid=GB1

Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?

http://www.livescience.com/33652-americans-brits-accents.html

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?

http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

Received Pronunciation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

-- Previous version of this episode contained --

- Hudson Cycle – Nico Muhly

- I’m Afraid of Americans (V1) – David Bowie

- Americans – Oneohtrix Point Never

- Paper Crumpling R – Sesame Street

- Messages Received – Cabaret Voltaire