Every single day I wish I that I lived in England during the middle ages. Why? For many reasons. One of the most important reasons is the accent. The current English accents have evolved greatly over history, so today's accents, along with speech patterns, are much different than those of the Elizabethan Era. Imagine hearing people actually speaking with an Elizabethan era accent - it was the same time as Shakespeare, so that should give a hint as to how it sounds... unless Shakespeare's writings were overly poetic compared to that era's actual speech.


Anyway, to get to my point, there is such a place to hear this accent. Where is it? Heaven? Probably. But also in Virginia - Chesapeake Bay, to be exact. It was settled in 1686, and currently has a population of about 600 people, most of whom speak with an Elizabethan accent. Since the island has been mostly cut off from the rest of country since settlement the accent hasn't suffered from outside influences. It also hasn't been artificially changed. Accents, particularly English accents [in England], have evolved for one main reason: women. Many of the changes in that accent can be attributed to women changing it for "fashionable" reasons. For example, I believe it was about 75-100 years ago that women began dropping the "t" in the middle and end of words in order to sound more "stylish." Naturally, men followed the women, and we now have the current [mostly] T'less English accent.

So, back to my point, but really a different point: Let's go to Tangier Island. Besides the accent, there are other aspects which bring you back in time. Check it out on Wikipedia. There are only two bed and breakfasts there, and you've got to rent a bike to get around. You can take only a boat or small plane to get there. Let's go!

I have to unarguably state that Tangier Island is probably the best place in all of America.

Man, America is fun.


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