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I also find that American accents have changed considerably since the 50s.. it used to sound semi-English whereas now they are growing apart even more.
Yes, accents have evolved...I would say they've come together more. Back then you had a lot of toffee people with the posh RP accent, and more 'true blue' Cockneys, whereas now a lot of Londoners have more of that 'Estuary' accent, which is like a blend of the two.
I also find that American accents have changed considerably since the 50s.. it used to sound semi-English whereas now they are growing apart even more.
Based on what, old movies? There's a clear difference between how Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly spoke. Kelly was given elocution lessons to get rid of her strong Philly accent, so her accent isn't 'natural.' It's because they wanted to portray her as an urban sophisticate, and Stewart's characters as rustic all-Americans.
During the heyday of the studio system yes, elocution lessons could and did totally erase traces of an actors or actresses past via speech.
An excellent example of this is in Now Voyager starring Bette Davis and Gladys Cooper. From either you'd never guess they weren't proper Boston Brahmins. Miss. Davis of course was a Yankee, but Miss. Cooper hailed from South East London (Hither Green).
I don't think American accents have changed very much. Some expressions have changed though.
If you're judging accents by what you see on old tv shows or in old movies, those are phony accents and no one really spoke that way. We talk just the same as we did then. We've dropped a lot of expressions like Golly and Gosh and That's swell, even Gee whiz.
Yes, accents have evolved...I would say they've come together more. Back then you had a lot of toffee people with the posh RP accent, and more 'true blue' Cockneys, whereas now a lot of Londoners have more of that 'Estuary' accent, which is like a blend of the two.
The Cockney inner London accent that you find in the OP video has been shifted to Essex and Kent (to the east of London).
Inner London has a new local accent/dialect, named 'MLE':
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