[hugh4]

Just one of many pronunciation drifts that occurred between the UK and its American colonies at some point between 1620 and 1788. Largely it seems the Americans kept the old pronunciations while the mother country changed theirs, which is why the English of Shakespeare's time sounds a bit American.

[_ak]

It's not quite like that. American pronunciation change as well. Here's an example of how linguist reconstruct the original pronunciation of Shakespeare plays: http://youtu.be/gPlpphT7n9s

It really has more elements that sound like West Country accent, Irish English, or even Scots/Ulster Scots.

[panglott]

This claim is generally made less about Standard American or General American and more about regional Appalachian dialects. Even this is a myth. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002699.h... http://lrc.ohio.edu/lrcmedia/Streaming/lingCALL/ling270/myth...

English and American dialects both originated in (Shakespearean) Early Modern English, but both have changed over time, as languages do.

[hugh4]

To my ears an Appalachian accent doesn't sound that different to a regular American accent, it's just an exaggerated version of it.

[rmc]

No, American-English changed too.

[nommm-nommm]

Shakespeare doesn't sound a bit American and language has been changing since 1788 as well.

[grogenaut]

That's a long drift from the original Klingon