What explains the difference between English and American accents? On this episode of Reasonably Sound, Mike Rugnetta explains that this spoken phenomenon starts with the written word.

-- On American versus English Spelling --

Why Do Brits and Americans Spell Words Differently?
http://www.livescience.com/33844-british-american-word-spelling.html

Americanize, Anglicise: Why Do Brits And Yanks Spell Words Differently?
http://io9.gizmodo.com/americanize-anglicise-why-do-brits-and-yanks-spell-wo-1671334487

Present Day American Spelling from The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume 6
https://books.google.com/books?id=ia5tHVtQPn8C&pg=PA352&dq=american+and+english+spelling+differences&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KmWtVNOoEoLksATGpoDgCg&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=american%20and%20english%20spelling%20differences&f=false

-- Main Sources for this Episode --

A History of the English Language by Elly van Gelderen
http://www.historyofenglish.net/

Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction by Kristin Denham, Anne Lobeck
http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/ISBN/1413015891?cid=GB1

Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?
http://www.livescience.com/33652-americans-brits-accents.html

When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?
http://mentalfloss.com/article/29761/when-did-americans-lose-their-british-accents

Received Pronunciation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

-- Previous version of this episode contained --

- Hudson Cycle – Nico Muhly
- I’m Afraid of Americans (V1) – David Bowie
- Americans – Oneohtrix Point Never
- Paper Crumpling R – Sesame Street
- Messages Received – Cabaret Voltaire