Is Standard American Accent an old British Accent before 17th century?

I heard that American accent is like British accent before 17th Century.

About 17th century, in Britain, there was a movement of changing the accent, which creates a new Standard British accent (like the one you hear in BBC news). Meanwhile, the American still uses the old English accent from old British accent (the British one before 17th Century).

For example, see the Sound "R" like in "Far". The American curls the tongue, while the British does not. Before 17th century, the American & British have the same or similar accent. It's only different after the movement of changing in Britain in 17th century.

Is that true?

I personally feel that the American accent is more natural.

Solution 1:

Not really, no.

All English spoken today has changed somewhat since the 17th Century, and for as long as we know there have always been many different English accents.

In some ways American English accents are more conservative than many UK accents. The most distinctive one is the retention of the /r/ sound at the end of words. This is a feature shared with some UK accents, e.g. in the West Country (except before vowels when it is still pronounced in most UK dialects).

In other ways, American English accents have innovated: for instance, vowel sounds have changed considerably in virtually all varieties of American English in a way which makes them markedly different from any dialect found in the UK.

Some changes took place both sides of the Atlantic: the /j/ sound after the /n/ in new (and after other certain other consonants) is no longer pronounced by many speakers of American English and it is also absent in speakers from parts of the East of England and the Midlands.

And of course, contact was not completely severed: Americanisms have crept into UK dialects and Britishishms have made their way westwards too.