When the first soon-to-be Colonial Americans crossed the pond from Great Britain, they brought the native English language of their homeland with them. Over the years, their typical British accent morphed into an entirely different accent and dialect known as American English.

But what exactly did Colonial Americans sound like? In 2008, HBO premiered the seven-part miniseries John Adams, which followed the life of Founding Father John Adams in Colonial America and documented his impact on the formation of the United States.

Widely considered one of the most accurate historical dramas to be created, the show’s screenwriter and producer Kirk Ellis utilized dialect coach Catherine Charlton and early American history to make sure that the characters sounded as close to what real American Colonists sounded like in the 1700s.

Nailing down the Colonial American accent

The English first came to America in the 1600s, with English settlers founding Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. By the 1730s, England had established all of the American colonies, according to the Library of Congress.

It’s hard to fully define what the American Colonists sounded like by then. In fact, in a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair,........

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