[gitrog]

> Oh, and Shakespeare would have spoken with an accent more like an American than I do.

Would you explain what you mean by this, I'm very curious.

[bmn__]

AE conserves features of early modern English, like rhoticity.

[jjeaff]

There is also some conjecture that certain regional English in america, namely the Ozark region retained some Shakespearean/Elizabethan words and pronunciations and phrases due to its geographic seclusion.

[beardyw]

I read about the reasons somewhere, but basically it is a general phenomenon where colonists lock in the habits and culture of their homeland as they remember it, and are more resistant to natural change.