After watchning the Southwest episode of Food Glorious Food, the Cornish accent sounded a lot like an American with a couple of peculiarities.
UK dopers, do you agree?
I’m not a UK Doper…but to my American ears, the Cornish accent sounds like a slightly Irish-tinged American accent. Not too dissimilar from our stereotypical Irish-American cop or priest.
No, it doesn’t make me think of America. Makes me think of Pam Ayres.
That said when I hear American accents, they do sometimes put me in the mind of the west country.
The west country accent isn’t geographically confined just to Conrwall (though of course it does vary from place to place) I live about 35 miles due west of central London and even this far east as the west side of town the local accent is broadly-speaking west country.
UK doper, no. To my ears it is very distinct from most USA accents I can recall.
Interesting isn’t it?
Absolutely not to these Australian/British ears. Just not even in the same territory. There is no doubt we latch onto different parts of accents, and components that to one ear are totally differentiating, to others are inaudible, and vice versa. (For instance, I, unlike most people, don’t have any accent at all. 
)
I was told while living in England that the accents of the West Country sound closer to American accents than any other accents in the U.K. This does not mean that they sound closer to American accents than to other British accents. Anyone listening to them would say that they are definitely British accents. It’s just that there are certain ways that they resemble American accents:
Englishman here, no they don’t sound even slightly American to me.
English woman here and nope, they sound like pirates to me.
I live in the South West although I’m not from here and struggle to discern Cornish from Devon, Somerset or Dorset. But they certainly don’t sound American to me.
Some American accents occasionally remind me of other accents - I feel I can recognise Irish and Italian in New Jersey accents, for instance.
Not surprisingly, since there are lots of people of Italian and Irish ancestry in New Jersey:
If we’re keeping count, no - to me (English) it doesn’t sound like a US accent at all.
Well, quite, it’s just interesting how Americans accents have developed. Were there a lot of immigrants from the South West of England to parts of the US? Although I’ve said I can’t hear it, I wonder if us Brits are too close to it to hear the West Country influence on American accents. I read on this board that New England accents show traces of East Anglia (in the South *East *of England). Again, I struggle to hear that.
I’m English. It sounds like a summer holiday in Cornwall, or as SanVito says “pirates”, not American at all.
I think it’s the rhotic r that makes it seems American, but there is so much more to it than that. There are plenty of other English/British accents that are rhotic, so that doesn’t make it American to me.
I’m working in Padstow today (lovely place, if a bit damp at the moment ), and no one here sounds American to me.
I’m English. From the West Country, in fact. Cornish people sound very, very slightly like rural New Englanders to me.
“get ooooorrrrrrrff moi laaaand!”
As an American, to me it sounds like it could be an American, or possibly, someone from the east of Canada. If I heard that accent without any context to it, I certainly wouldn’t think “Oh, he’s English”.
For that matter, I had no idea the Wurzels were British at all. I always thought “Combine Harvester” sounded like it was being sung by some guys from Wisconsin.
The Wurzels were from Somerset. Somerset is one thing (“soidarrr!”) but Cornwall is another.
The Wurzels made it to the States? For shame!
Exactly. Many of us with only an average familiarity with British and US accents latch on to the “do they pronounce the syllable-final* r*?” as THE mark of distinction. Such folks would me reminded of a “standard” American accent whe hearing those those Cornish examples.
But, as you say, the more you learn about the many American and British accents, the more you realize this “rhotic/non-rhotic” thing isn’t such a big deal after all.
Listen to this Cornish dialect: Jon Mills with Alistair McGowan on BBC's The ONE Show - YouTube and make your own mind up.