|
 |
New accent in L1 after moving abroad? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Melisse Triglot Newbie Sweden Joined 4670 days ago 19 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English*, SwedishC1, French Studies: Dutch, Russian, Modern Hebrew | Message 9 of 13 01 December 2011 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Thanks a lot for all the replies! It's interesting to read different opinions of this.
As for me, when I speak with another English speaker consistently for a even short period (maybe just a few days) I can't help but imitating their accent. I've often wondered about how I will end up sounding in a few years time and what people might think when they hear me. I would actually love to pick up another accent though because I've never liked mine. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| drp9341 Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 115 posts - 217 votes  Speaks: Italian, English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French Studies: Japanese | Message 10 of 13 02 December 2011 at 12:32am | IP Logged | ||
|
I am originally from New York, and I now live in the midwest. My family all tells me i have a slight midwestern
accent, because my Bronx accent is overwhelmingly strong like theirs... although now out here in the midwest people have been saying I have a very heavy bronx accent, so I guess accent is an opinion of what your used to. Same with my Grandfather, In Ireland he as an american accent, and in America he has an irish accent. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6714 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 11 of 13 09 December 2011 at 3:46am | IP Logged | ||
|
My family moved to England when I was 11, after 10 or so years living in Australia.
It took me a few years to lose my Australian accent and now I have an RP accent with a tinge of Australian. Normally when talking for a while with someone I've just met they'll ask me if I've ever lived in Australia because they can hear a twang every now and then. My brother who is 1 and a half years younger than me adopted the English accent quicker, picking up a weak Yorkshire accent and then a weak Durham accent. However he moved back to Australia about 3 years ago and now sounds like an Australian again. He was about 20 when he moved there so I guess that's an example of picking up a foreign accent when you're an adult. I still feel like my accent is fairly fluid. For example, staying in Japan for one year pushed my accent towards a much clearer, received pronunciation accent, because this was easiest for Japanese speakers to understand. I was quite shocked hearing my recorded voice after this year abroad, it was so posh and southern! (I've never lived anywhere in the South of England, only the North: Durham, North Yorkshire and Newcastle). I think part of the reason people don't completely adopt the accent of the country they've moved to is nostalgia and wanted to keep in touch of their roots. I know I kept a hold of my Australian accent for quite a while because of this reason, I didn't want to forget the country I'd spent my childhood in. In a foreign language it's different, because I don't really feel an attachment to my foreign accent in a foreign language, there isn't really a sense of community among say, English people learning Japanese with their foreign Japanese accents. It's seen as wrong pronunciation and if you have a strong foreign accent in the language you're learning it's seen as a sign that you're not very good at that language. I have a question. Has anyone ever picked up a foreign accent in their native language after moving to a country where they speak a foreign language? I.e. picking up a French accent in English after moving to France. Edited by unzum on 09 December 2011 at 3:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5253 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 12 of 13 10 December 2011 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||
I've seen old Norwegians on TV who moved to the US a long time ago and now speak Norwegian with a really strong American accent. I've also heard this from Norwegians who have visited relatives that have emigrated to the US. After living for decades in an English speaking environment, and with almost no contact with speakers of their native language, they are struggling when they try to speak Norwegian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Neri Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 4663 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Japanese, Spanish | Message 13 of 13 10 December 2011 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Here in Montreal there are a lot of French people (I'm talking about the ones from France here, not the French Canadians) and they generally pick up some of the local accent but not completely. So you'll get people with mostly French accents who say tu veux-tu, là là, c'est le fun, ça fait la job, ta gang, etc. One of the easiest way to pick them out though is that their accent on the English words usually stays really French.
I don't have strong feelings about that, but it bugs me a little when I pick up canadianisms in English. I already said eh, because in my family we say it, but some words are pronounced differently and some words are just different. My Canadian friends seem to like it when foreigners pick up canadianisms in French and English (especially in French really, because they're so sick of being taken for anglophones when they go to Europe and of English Canadians studying French French). The worst one yet, and also the funniest, is that I sometimes literally translate là the way they use it in French and use there the same way. 'It's funny, there.' 2 persons have voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
