I speak with 2 accents at the same time!
February 7, 2012 11:41 AM Subscribe
What is it called when you have two accents in a second language? Your native accent and the local accent of the region you learned language #2.
I speak English with a western or what some would call neutral American accent. Spanish is my second language and as a recent learner I obviously can be identified as American by my accent when speaking Spanish. However, as I have learned Spanish in Argentina I also speak with a strong Porteño accent. (think SH when pronouncing Y or LL sounds). If I were to visit Mexico the locals would recognize I was American but that I also have the Argentine accent.
Is there a term for this or anywhere I can find more information?
I speak English with a western or what some would call neutral American accent. Spanish is my second language and as a recent learner I obviously can be identified as American by my accent when speaking Spanish. However, as I have learned Spanish in Argentina I also speak with a strong Porteño accent. (think SH when pronouncing Y or LL sounds). If I were to visit Mexico the locals would recognize I was American but that I also have the Argentine accent.
Is there a term for this or anywhere I can find more information?
Can you switch between them, or is it one accent that combines the flavors of both accents?
If you do switch, is it conscious or does it happen automatically depending on the context?
posted by yaymukund at 11:50 AM on February 7, 2012
If you do switch, is it conscious or does it happen automatically depending on the context?
posted by yaymukund at 11:50 AM on February 7, 2012
Hard to understand.
From what I gather, my Chinese is like this. I speak like a native English speaker but also have accents from where my parents are from in China. Not very many people have an easy time following me in Chinese.
posted by astapasta24 at 11:54 AM on February 7, 2012
From what I gather, my Chinese is like this. I speak like a native English speaker but also have accents from where my parents are from in China. Not very many people have an easy time following me in Chinese.
posted by astapasta24 at 11:54 AM on February 7, 2012
I don't think there's a term for this. I learned Spanish as an adult in Mexico, so if I go to Spain I'd likely be identified as an American, or at least as an English speaker due to the grammatical mistakes and translation errors I make, but it would be easy to pick out that I also speak Spanish with a Mexican accent due to slang and pronunciation.
posted by Sal and Richard at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Sal and Richard at 11:55 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Check your local university's foreign language department. I specifically remember this being explained to me in college, but I have lost that bit of info.
(I learned French from, in order, someone from Switzerland, someone from Senegal, someone from Quebec, and someone from Lebanon. I can speak French very well, but Parisians think I'm unintelligible.)
posted by juniperesque at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
(I learned French from, in order, someone from Switzerland, someone from Senegal, someone from Quebec, and someone from Lebanon. I can speak French very well, but Parisians think I'm unintelligible.)
posted by juniperesque at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Lingua fracas.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2012 [15 favorites]
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2012 [15 favorites]
I'm not sure there's a specific linguistic term for this. I mean, theoretically we all speak any language filtered through the context we learned it in and the people we've most often spoken to in that language.
For example, I'm fairly sure that the reason nobody in my dad's family has the typical Cajun accent is that my grandfather is originally from Michigan. For whatever reason my dad and his siblings grew up speaking more like him (i.e. like Midwesterners) than their mother, the Cajun. Despite the fact that they were otherwise surrounded by Cajuns and had very few opportunities to hear Midwestern English in its native habitat.
But I don't think anyone would say that my dad and his siblings all have two accents, or double-decker accents, or whatever. They just talk how they talk, a weird mishmash of different dialects as they've moved through life (my one aunt has mostly lived in parts of the south with the traditional drawl, and thus she now drawls, for instance).
posted by Sara C. at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
For example, I'm fairly sure that the reason nobody in my dad's family has the typical Cajun accent is that my grandfather is originally from Michigan. For whatever reason my dad and his siblings grew up speaking more like him (i.e. like Midwesterners) than their mother, the Cajun. Despite the fact that they were otherwise surrounded by Cajuns and had very few opportunities to hear Midwestern English in its native habitat.
But I don't think anyone would say that my dad and his siblings all have two accents, or double-decker accents, or whatever. They just talk how they talk, a weird mishmash of different dialects as they've moved through life (my one aunt has mostly lived in parts of the south with the traditional drawl, and thus she now drawls, for instance).
posted by Sara C. at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
I had a professor in University who was a monoglot francophone from Quebec, until she learned English in Jamaica. She was hilarious and fascinating to listen to, in equal measure. I'd love to know if this has a name.
posted by LN at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by LN at 12:00 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
Usually adorable?
posted by sawdustbear at 12:02 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by sawdustbear at 12:02 PM on February 7, 2012 [2 favorites]
it would be easy to pick out that I also speak Spanish with a Mexican accent due to slang and pronunciation.
The reverse for me - despite having Spanish teachers from all over, I happened to pick up the Castilian lisp and some other "Spain" signifiers from my one teacher who happened to be from Barcelona. When I was in Peru, I got corrected a lot. So it goes.
posted by Sara C. at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2012
The reverse for me - despite having Spanish teachers from all over, I happened to pick up the Castilian lisp and some other "Spain" signifiers from my one teacher who happened to be from Barcelona. When I was in Peru, I got corrected a lot. So it goes.
posted by Sara C. at 12:04 PM on February 7, 2012
I had a German teacher who told me I spoke it with a slight French accent, which she said made me sound vauguely Alsatian. I'd also love to know if there's a name for this.
posted by scody at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by scody at 12:06 PM on February 7, 2012
Isabella Rossellini said in an interview once that she has a Swedish accent in English although she doesn't speak Swedish. I'm not sure what she has is a typical Swedish accent though. My Swedish-American husband thought it was more Swedish-Italian. (Most of his family speak English with little or no accent.)
Yes, it is a fascinating phenomenon.
posted by BibiRose at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2012
Yes, it is a fascinating phenomenon.
posted by BibiRose at 12:07 PM on February 7, 2012
But on the other hand, I knew someone who sounded hilarious to me because she had a heavy Australian accent in German, but that was only a double accent to me. I am sure to her, I had a hilarious heavy American accent.
posted by BibiRose at 12:11 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by BibiRose at 12:11 PM on February 7, 2012
This is a fascinating topic and something that inevitably happens whenever someone learns an additional language as an adult.
Looking through the Wikipedia entry on Heteroglossia (the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "linguistic code"), I found a term that seems to fit. It's called Hybrid Utterance:
posted by verdeluz at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Looking through the Wikipedia entry on Heteroglossia (the coexistence of distinct varieties within a single "linguistic code"), I found a term that seems to fit. It's called Hybrid Utterance:
The hybrid utterance, as defined by Bakhtin, is a passage that employs only a single speaker—the author, for example—but one or more kinds of speech. The juxtaposition of the two different speeches brings with it a contradiction and conflict in belief systems....So, I guess that you are a hybrid utter-er :-).
posted by verdeluz at 12:26 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
...Although my answer only really refers to the language employed while speaking (e.g. the way an aristocrat speaks vs the way a commoner does) and doesn't really touch on the subject of accents per se.
posted by verdeluz at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by verdeluz at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2012
Every single person who learns a foreign accent does this, of course. There's no such thing as a "neutral" accent or "unaccented" speech. If you had learned your Spanish in Spain and then went to Argentina the locals would hear you as an American who is speaking Spanish with a Spanish accent (or, more properly, one of several such accents). Similarly, we can always hear from a foreign speaker of English who they learned their English from--someone who learned to speak English in America will speak differently from someone who learned to speak English in the UK.
So the technical term for this pretty much just "speaking a foreign language."
posted by yoink at 12:39 PM on February 7, 2012 [8 favorites]
So the technical term for this pretty much just "speaking a foreign language."
posted by yoink at 12:39 PM on February 7, 2012 [8 favorites]
Yes exactly, yoink. The 'hilarious' Australian-French accent is only hilarious because you are expecting American-French or uk-French.
posted by jojobobo at 12:55 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by jojobobo at 12:55 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
I am not an expert, but I agree with yoink.
Take the francophone Quebecois professor who learned english in Jamaica who was mentioned above, for example.
If I were to say that she has two accents, but maintain that a francophone who speaks canadian english (with a francophone accent) has just one accent, wouldn't I be assuming that my english is "correct" and accent-less and that jamaican english is somehow modified?
(I wouldn't be suprised if there were a term for this though- a person who speaks a third language who's accent is modified by their second language. For example, an anglophone who uses french "R"s when speaking spanish.)
posted by beau jackson at 1:02 PM on February 7, 2012
Take the francophone Quebecois professor who learned english in Jamaica who was mentioned above, for example.
If I were to say that she has two accents, but maintain that a francophone who speaks canadian english (with a francophone accent) has just one accent, wouldn't I be assuming that my english is "correct" and accent-less and that jamaican english is somehow modified?
(I wouldn't be suprised if there were a term for this though- a person who speaks a third language who's accent is modified by their second language. For example, an anglophone who uses french "R"s when speaking spanish.)
posted by beau jackson at 1:02 PM on February 7, 2012
Response by poster: Adorable? I know several Argentine girls that speak English with a strong British accent and only slight Argentine accent. The best, French girls speaking Spanish.
posted by Che boludo! at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by Che boludo! at 1:12 PM on February 7, 2012
In its extreme form you could call it a dialect. I only can speak of American English. However a problem might arise when using the term dialect because it connotes a difference in the fundamental structure of the words of the language. Probably developed over time as a result of accented speech. E.G in the US North we never say "y'all", or the plural "y'all", or refer to a group of people as "all y'alls", but the genesis of the word is standard English "You all".
posted by Gungho at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by Gungho at 1:15 PM on February 7, 2012
I studied British English for at least 10 years, and I still have a tiny British accent, even though I've lived in the US for three years. It usually messes with people's perceptions when they try to guess where I'm from.
I really think that you never are "neutral", even in your mother tongue. Mexican Spanish has a very marked accent, it even varies within the country. I speak Peruvian Spanish, and I'm tempted to teach my husband my middle-class- Lima-girl Spanish. It would crack me up to hear a 6" tall metalhead talking like a Hispanic bimbo.
Source: My Fair Lady.
posted by Tarumba at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2012
I really think that you never are "neutral", even in your mother tongue. Mexican Spanish has a very marked accent, it even varies within the country. I speak Peruvian Spanish, and I'm tempted to teach my husband my middle-class- Lima-girl Spanish. It would crack me up to hear a 6" tall metalhead talking like a Hispanic bimbo.
Source: My Fair Lady.
posted by Tarumba at 1:21 PM on February 7, 2012
"He learned Spanish in Argentina."
It's a fairly marked phenomenon in English, where non-native speakers typically either learn British English or American English in school, so you hear someone with a marked Norwegian accent (say) with a British accent laid over it working in the U.S. I must imagine it happens similarly in other languages. People usually just say, "I learned British English" or whatever.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:23 PM on February 7, 2012
It's a fairly marked phenomenon in English, where non-native speakers typically either learn British English or American English in school, so you hear someone with a marked Norwegian accent (say) with a British accent laid over it working in the U.S. I must imagine it happens similarly in other languages. People usually just say, "I learned British English" or whatever.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 1:23 PM on February 7, 2012
So the technical term for this pretty much just "speaking a foreign language."
But the question is more nuanced than that. As a foreign language I speak Swedish, but if I travel outside Stockholm, or indeed outside of Östermalm, my "accent" gives me away as living in a certain part of Stockholm - although my Swedish is also heavily accented by my American English.
It is speaking a dialect of a foreign language.
The best, French girls speaking Spanish.
For me it is my American wife speaking Swedish with her Viennersch accent (She lived for many years in Vienna and speaks Viennersch perfectly. Her German used to dominate the foreign language side of her brain completely. It's much softer now, but she sounds very much like the Swedish Queen Sylvia at times. Utterly charming.)
posted by three blind mice at 1:27 PM on February 7, 2012
But the question is more nuanced than that. As a foreign language I speak Swedish, but if I travel outside Stockholm, or indeed outside of Östermalm, my "accent" gives me away as living in a certain part of Stockholm - although my Swedish is also heavily accented by my American English.
It is speaking a dialect of a foreign language.
The best, French girls speaking Spanish.
For me it is my American wife speaking Swedish with her Viennersch accent (She lived for many years in Vienna and speaks Viennersch perfectly. Her German used to dominate the foreign language side of her brain completely. It's much softer now, but she sounds very much like the Swedish Queen Sylvia at times. Utterly charming.)
posted by three blind mice at 1:27 PM on February 7, 2012
Response by poster: Thinking on it. I know a German with a strong British accent. Also, various other Europeans with vague hard to pinpoint accents in English. Maybe the word for this is simply "natural phenomena" in a second language?
posted by Che boludo! at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by Che boludo! at 1:28 PM on February 7, 2012
I did a little searching and ran across this article that addresses the phenomenon of an accent bias in language learners, but after a quick skim, the authors don't seem to have a readymade term for whatever your "native accent in a foreign language" is.
posted by adamrice at 1:40 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by adamrice at 1:40 PM on February 7, 2012
I'm told my French accent is somewhat Parisian, but when I'm in Paris, people seem to think I'm German.
Of course, now my English accent (my first language) has features from a number of different North American regions (Southern Ontario, Western NY, South Chicago), and is getting kind of weird.
When I lived in Japan, I tried to acquire Kansai-ben, but it didn't take.
I have some background in linguistics, but I have never heard a term for what you describe.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2012
Of course, now my English accent (my first language) has features from a number of different North American regions (Southern Ontario, Western NY, South Chicago), and is getting kind of weird.
When I lived in Japan, I tried to acquire Kansai-ben, but it didn't take.
I have some background in linguistics, but I have never heard a term for what you describe.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:43 PM on February 7, 2012
Check out these (excellent) electronics lectures from an Indian with an Irish accent!
posted by scose at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by scose at 1:45 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
I also think that, to an extent, the technical term is Plate O' Beans.
Thinking about everyone I know who speaks English as a second language (inspired by the Isabella Rosellini thing above), no, actually, I don't hear them as speaking with two distinct accents or with a specific English accent on top of whatever other accent. Very occasionally I'll hear something that makes me think they must have studied British English, but those are very broad strokes - and usually it's a quirk of word choice or grammar rather than how they say their "r" or something.
I can't really imagine speaking to Isabella Rosellini and thinking, "Oh, she said the word 'stapler' just like someone from Malmo would", or whatever. Very few people listen to accents that minutely. Usually your goal in speaking with someone is to communicate, not to rip apart your language learning background.
posted by Sara C. at 1:58 PM on February 7, 2012
Thinking about everyone I know who speaks English as a second language (inspired by the Isabella Rosellini thing above), no, actually, I don't hear them as speaking with two distinct accents or with a specific English accent on top of whatever other accent. Very occasionally I'll hear something that makes me think they must have studied British English, but those are very broad strokes - and usually it's a quirk of word choice or grammar rather than how they say their "r" or something.
I can't really imagine speaking to Isabella Rosellini and thinking, "Oh, she said the word 'stapler' just like someone from Malmo would", or whatever. Very few people listen to accents that minutely. Usually your goal in speaking with someone is to communicate, not to rip apart your language learning background.
posted by Sara C. at 1:58 PM on February 7, 2012
As someone with an Alabama accent who learned Spanish from a Cuban exile attorney with Castillian roots, I would certainly like to be able to offer an explanation to our Argentine guests.
Does this mean we can invent a term? Like, "Multi-matopeiac" or "Bi-accentric"?
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:05 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Does this mean we can invent a term? Like, "Multi-matopeiac" or "Bi-accentric"?
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:05 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
But the question is more nuanced than that. As a foreign language I speak Swedish, but if I travel outside Stockholm, or indeed outside of Östermalm, my "accent" gives me away as living in a certain part of Stockholm - although my Swedish is also heavily accented by my American English.
Yes but as yoink said no-one speaks Swedish, as a first or second language, without an accent. People native to Stockholm are in the same position as you except without the English accent. And the same goes for all languages. There's no special word for this because it is not a special situation. "Accent" is always relative to something. You could describe it as "Stockholm Swedish with an American accent", "Australian English with a German accent," etc., but there is no such thing as "[Neutral] English with an X accent" unless we create this category by fiat, by declaring that a certain dialect is "neutral".
posted by No-sword at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Yes but as yoink said no-one speaks Swedish, as a first or second language, without an accent. People native to Stockholm are in the same position as you except without the English accent. And the same goes for all languages. There's no special word for this because it is not a special situation. "Accent" is always relative to something. You could describe it as "Stockholm Swedish with an American accent", "Australian English with a German accent," etc., but there is no such thing as "[Neutral] English with an X accent" unless we create this category by fiat, by declaring that a certain dialect is "neutral".
posted by No-sword at 3:21 PM on February 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
As a foreign language I speak Swedish, but if I travel outside Stockholm, or indeed outside of Östermalm, my "accent" gives me away as living in a certain part of Stockholm - although my Swedish is also heavily accented by my American English.
No-sword basically covered it, but just to make the point completely clear: if you'd learned your Swedish "outside Stockholm" then every time you traveled into Stockholm your "accent" would give you away as living in a certain part of non-Stockholm Sweden.
The only places where this doesn't happen is where the population of native speakers is so small and isolated (e.g. certain island communities) that there is only one accent. But in a sense those are just special cases of the normal case. It's as if they're all trapped in Stockholm and the only place to learn the language is Stockholm. We could probably call it a syndrome of some kind...
posted by yoink at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2012
No-sword basically covered it, but just to make the point completely clear: if you'd learned your Swedish "outside Stockholm" then every time you traveled into Stockholm your "accent" would give you away as living in a certain part of non-Stockholm Sweden.
The only places where this doesn't happen is where the population of native speakers is so small and isolated (e.g. certain island communities) that there is only one accent. But in a sense those are just special cases of the normal case. It's as if they're all trapped in Stockholm and the only place to learn the language is Stockholm. We could probably call it a syndrome of some kind...
posted by yoink at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2012
Although, to avoid being completely unhelpful, I will note that I've seen the word "coloring" to describe influences detectable in an accent.
posted by No-sword at 3:32 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by No-sword at 3:32 PM on February 7, 2012
As a foreign language I speak Swedish, but if I travel outside Stockholm, or indeed outside of Östermalm, my "accent" gives me away as living in a certain part of Stockholm - although my Swedish is also heavily accented by my American English.
No-sword basically covered it, but just to make the point completely clear: if you'd learned your Swedish "outside Stockholm" then every time you traveled into Stockholm your "accent" would give you away as living in a certain part of non-Stockholm Sweden.
This is true, but immaterial. Even if the phenomenon we're describing is a natural feature of speaking a foreign language, it's still a specific and identifiable attribute: that one always speaks one's native language with a single accent, and any subsequently learned languages with two or more accents. Fascinating, really.
Just because something happens all the time doesn't mean there's no reason to name it.
posted by collectallfour at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2012
No-sword basically covered it, but just to make the point completely clear: if you'd learned your Swedish "outside Stockholm" then every time you traveled into Stockholm your "accent" would give you away as living in a certain part of non-Stockholm Sweden.
This is true, but immaterial. Even if the phenomenon we're describing is a natural feature of speaking a foreign language, it's still a specific and identifiable attribute: that one always speaks one's native language with a single accent, and any subsequently learned languages with two or more accents. Fascinating, really.
Just because something happens all the time doesn't mean there's no reason to name it.
posted by collectallfour at 3:56 PM on February 7, 2012
Meant to add: It's reasonable to suppose that linguists might have a term for this phenomenon. (Although if there is one, I don't know it. Unfortunately.)
posted by collectallfour at 3:58 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by collectallfour at 3:58 PM on February 7, 2012
that one always speaks one's native language with a single accent, and any subsequently learned languages with two or more accents
Except, of course, in cases where one learns the second language as a child, when one is able to achieve true native-speaker mastery of the language--in which case you speak it only with one accent.
I did a bit of searching for likely terms on Google Scholar and the only term I found that seemed at all relevant was "multiple accents"--so I don't think there's any linguistic term of art for this. I suppose it might be useful to have a term to distinguish "layered" accents of this kind from cases of "multiple accent" that arise from, say, someone's partially-successful attempt to speak in higher-status accent or someone's partial adoption of certain features of a regional accent they didn't grow up in.
posted by yoink at 4:46 PM on February 7, 2012
Except, of course, in cases where one learns the second language as a child, when one is able to achieve true native-speaker mastery of the language--in which case you speak it only with one accent.
I did a bit of searching for likely terms on Google Scholar and the only term I found that seemed at all relevant was "multiple accents"--so I don't think there's any linguistic term of art for this. I suppose it might be useful to have a term to distinguish "layered" accents of this kind from cases of "multiple accent" that arise from, say, someone's partially-successful attempt to speak in higher-status accent or someone's partial adoption of certain features of a regional accent they didn't grow up in.
posted by yoink at 4:46 PM on February 7, 2012
I call this the "acquired accent". The spanish I spoke before I moved to Spain had a very nyc/puerto rican/dominican accent. While living in Spain I acquired some sort of different accent that made Madrilenos notice that I had been living in Catalunya, and non-euro spanish speakers notice that I no longer had an nyc/pr/dr accent.
posted by elizardbits at 5:08 PM on February 7, 2012
posted by elizardbits at 5:08 PM on February 7, 2012
i live overseas and i hear this all the time - an indonesian girl who went to school in london, so speaks english with a heavy london accent, +a small indonesian accent, a friend who speaks indonesian with a slight american accent and a heavy javanese accent he picked up from his javanese girlfriend, which our balinese friends have noticed, australian/german accented english from a german girl who worked in australia for a couple summers, the list goes on and on - it's definitely a phenomenon that deserves it's own word. 37 answers in and there still doesn't seem to be an already existing word that describes this... so let's coin one, here, now! "acquired accent" does the trick but it's a little pedestrian. maybe we could come up with something better?
posted by messiahwannabe at 2:39 AM on February 8, 2012
posted by messiahwannabe at 2:39 AM on February 8, 2012
The problem is that the whole idea is a simplification of a person being born and raised in one place, knowing only one language and then learning a second language. I'll give you some more complex examples.
My wife's native language is Portuguese. She used to speak English with a slight British accent because she learned English from Brits. Now, being married to me, she has been told that she speaks English more like an American. So her acquired accent has changed but I really think she speaks somewhere between London-British and East-coast American. She also speaks French, Italian and Spanish. She speaks French like a native, Italian with a French accent and Spanish like a Castilian.
I have two native languages: Spanish and English. My Spanish started out as very Mexican Spanish and then grew more neutral as I studied Spanish literature with Castilians in college. Now, my Spanish speaking friends say I speak my native language with a slight English accent. So, what do you call that? Meanwhile, my English has gone from Southern California (hey dude!) to East-coastish because thats where my closest friends are from since I was like 20. And now, living in England, it is softened a bit by all the English people around me. So, despite what others have said, your own native accent - which you bring to other languages - changes and evolves as well. Unless you spend your entire life in your hometown, I suppose.
One of our friends grew up in a tri-lingual household. She grew up in France but her father is German - she also went to university in Germany - and her mother is an American. Her accents are all over the place. Particularly funny is that her English sounds just like her mother's: A NY Jewish woman from the previous generation.
She never has spent much time in the US but has a strong regional American accent. I guess thats what you're talking about, really. Acquired regionalisms - as opposed to a more neutral, TV broadcaster type accent - from a language that you acquired outside that region.
That is, yes, we all have accents but if you were to travel to China and then meet someone who says he knows English and then he begins to speak with a pronounced New Orleans drawl, you'd be a bit startled.
posted by vacapinta at 3:17 AM on February 8, 2012
My wife's native language is Portuguese. She used to speak English with a slight British accent because she learned English from Brits. Now, being married to me, she has been told that she speaks English more like an American. So her acquired accent has changed but I really think she speaks somewhere between London-British and East-coast American. She also speaks French, Italian and Spanish. She speaks French like a native, Italian with a French accent and Spanish like a Castilian.
I have two native languages: Spanish and English. My Spanish started out as very Mexican Spanish and then grew more neutral as I studied Spanish literature with Castilians in college. Now, my Spanish speaking friends say I speak my native language with a slight English accent. So, what do you call that? Meanwhile, my English has gone from Southern California (hey dude!) to East-coastish because thats where my closest friends are from since I was like 20. And now, living in England, it is softened a bit by all the English people around me. So, despite what others have said, your own native accent - which you bring to other languages - changes and evolves as well. Unless you spend your entire life in your hometown, I suppose.
One of our friends grew up in a tri-lingual household. She grew up in France but her father is German - she also went to university in Germany - and her mother is an American. Her accents are all over the place. Particularly funny is that her English sounds just like her mother's: A NY Jewish woman from the previous generation.
She never has spent much time in the US but has a strong regional American accent. I guess thats what you're talking about, really. Acquired regionalisms - as opposed to a more neutral, TV broadcaster type accent - from a language that you acquired outside that region.
That is, yes, we all have accents but if you were to travel to China and then meet someone who says he knows English and then he begins to speak with a pronounced New Orleans drawl, you'd be a bit startled.
posted by vacapinta at 3:17 AM on February 8, 2012
All of my fiancee's friends think it's very cute when I pepper my Polish speech with Silesian (which is mostly Polishized German) slang. This happens mostly when I am in my cups.
posted by LiteOpera at 5:02 AM on February 8, 2012
posted by LiteOpera at 5:02 AM on February 8, 2012
That is, yes, we all have accents but if you were to travel to China and then meet someone who says he knows English and then he begins to speak with a pronounced New Orleans drawl, you'd be a bit startled.
Sure you would--but that's only because we expect most people to learn an approximation of a high-status version of the language. That is, we all tend to learn the accent that TV news anchors speak in their countries. And there's actually good reason for that: the high-status accent tends to be the least region-bound; that is, everyone in the UK can understand someone who is speaking RP, but not everyone can easily understand someone from some tiny North Country village (say). But the high-status accent is still an accent. And it's just a matter of the vagaries of history that the high-status accent happens to take the form it does rather than some other form. If there is a multiverse out there, there'll be a whole slew of universes out there in which the nightly news is read in a New Orleans drawl and in which you'd find it startling to bump into someone in China who speaks like Anderson Cooper.
posted by yoink at 10:20 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]
Sure you would--but that's only because we expect most people to learn an approximation of a high-status version of the language. That is, we all tend to learn the accent that TV news anchors speak in their countries. And there's actually good reason for that: the high-status accent tends to be the least region-bound; that is, everyone in the UK can understand someone who is speaking RP, but not everyone can easily understand someone from some tiny North Country village (say). But the high-status accent is still an accent. And it's just a matter of the vagaries of history that the high-status accent happens to take the form it does rather than some other form. If there is a multiverse out there, there'll be a whole slew of universes out there in which the nightly news is read in a New Orleans drawl and in which you'd find it startling to bump into someone in China who speaks like Anderson Cooper.
posted by yoink at 10:20 AM on February 8, 2012 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by pickypicky at 11:48 AM on February 7, 2012