Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Quote
I read somewhere years ago that one of the reasons people’s accents change when they move to a new country is from a psychological need to fit in. It’s a confidence or security thing. Some people have less need, though whether that means that they’re more confident or personally resilient is up for discussion I suppose. Maybe it has some bearing on Connolly? Who knows. Then there are the rare others who are bidialectical, like Gillian Anderson – because she was born in the US, she automatically uses an American accent there, but because she was raised in the UK from about 2-11 she slips into an English accent there. I’m a Rossie, but with a very different accent to POS, I’d say, from his description – probably because when I was a (snotty, uppity) kid moving over from Manchester I decided the local accent wasn’t for me. So I’ve a neutral accent that could be from any county or none. But, put me back in Manchester for a couple of days and it’s like I’ve gone down t’Rovers f'r 'otpot, chuck.
As for an accents in a second language… I did French in uni, and once upon a time could pass as French in short conversations - well-spoken northern with a bit of a Picardy twang is probably the best description of that time. I did a bit of German in school as well, but when I ended up with a German girlfriend in uni, she thought it was hilarious that I pronounced things with a distinctly French accent, because by that stage everything I was learning about language acquisition was through French! All of which means, I guess, is that languages and accents and how or why we adopt them is more complicated than we think.
Bookmarks