Northeastern accent

[kulade]

In comparison to other European languages the English r is pretty decayed; it's hardly pronounced. I know Sanskrit has vowels pronounced similar to r's and l's and that's kind of the case with English now too. R's are kind of just add-ons to vowels at times and English speakers have a history of changing their vowel pronunciation, adding diphthongs and such.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Why can't we all just pronounce things like in Classical Latin, or better yet all speak Classical Latin?

 

[Bill3000]

In comparison to other European languages the English r is pretty decayed; it's hardly pronounced. I know Sanskrit has vowels pronounced similar to r's and l's and that's kind of the case with English now too. R's are kind of just add-ons to vowels at times and English speakers have a history of changing their vowel pronunciation, adding diphthongs and such.

More than Sanksrit - like English, Proto-Indo-European had vocalic m, n, l, r, w, and y. Vocalic w and y being /u/ and /i/. They can change over time, like the vast majority of IE languages did, but that's not a necessary change.

 

[kulade]

Why can't we all just pronounce things like in Classical Latin, or better yet all speak Classical Latin?

Sanskrit > Greek > Puny Latin