Something bothers me with this show in regard with the accents of the actors.
The bad guys, the oppressing imperialistic English military (I write that ironically ) have RP English accent mostly, although I am quite certain that there were soldiers from the other nations of GB. I guess they must sound totally English for the average American audience.
The good guys, the insurgents and spies, have a weird Americanish/English accent that sounds really weird to me, especially the British actors Jamie Bell (Woodhull) and Owain Yeoman (Benedict Arnold) (but I'm not an anglophone, therefore my ear can trick me).
However, thinking about it, some of them were from German/French/English/Scottish/Welsh/Dutch/etc descent, so the first generation should have an accent from their country of origin, and the two next generations should have something in between RP English (which would have been the dominant language back in the day) and their parents' accent, depending of their milieu and education of course. I am just guessing here (not a specialist of either American/English history, nor their language).
On the other hand, I read somewhere that after the independence, the Americans (the leaders) had some kind of vote to decide about their language and that German fell really short... Thus it leads me to believe that beside the English speaking insurgents, there must have been a lot of German speakers, and yet there is no trace at all of all these roots in the TV series. Then again, I understand that story must be simplified for the good American people.
Am I totally wrong language-wise from an English perspective?
The bad guys, the oppressing imperialistic English military (I write that ironically ) have RP English accent mostly, although I am quite certain that there were soldiers from the other nations of GB. I guess they must sound totally English for the average American audience.
The good guys, the insurgents and spies, have a weird Americanish/English accent that sounds really weird to me, especially the British actors Jamie Bell (Woodhull) and Owain Yeoman (Benedict Arnold) (but I'm not an anglophone, therefore my ear can trick me).
However, thinking about it, some of them were from German/French/English/Scottish/Welsh/Dutch/etc descent, so the first generation should have an accent from their country of origin, and the two next generations should have something in between RP English (which would have been the dominant language back in the day) and their parents' accent, depending of their milieu and education of course. I am just guessing here (not a specialist of either American/English history, nor their language).
On the other hand, I read somewhere that after the independence, the Americans (the leaders) had some kind of vote to decide about their language and that German fell really short... Thus it leads me to believe that beside the English speaking insurgents, there must have been a lot of German speakers, and yet there is no trace at all of all these roots in the TV series. Then again, I understand that story must be simplified for the good American people.
Am I totally wrong language-wise from an English perspective?