If you were born in England but grew up in America?

Native Korean   Sat Sep 15, 2007 4:06 pm GMT
If someone was born in England but his whole family moved to the US when he was 5 and he grew up in America.

Which accent do you think he would get?
English accent(British) or American accent?
Guy   Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:23 pm GMT
It depends. If s/he has a 'language ear,' it is quite possible that he acquires both accents to a certain level, but it is likely that s/he uses a more American sounding accent when talking to his American friends.

It's really hard to answer a question like this because the question itself is too general and it really depends on the individual.
Jasper   Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:47 pm GMT
I knew a girl exactly like this.

She moved from England to Tennessee at 5.

She spoke 100% Southern Inland English at the time I knew her (high school).
K. T.   Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:54 pm GMT
I knew someone who was born in Scotland and moved to the US when he was in grade school, I think. He told me that kids made fun of him and he quickly developed an American accent. Later, when he was an adult and he heard a Scottish person talking, he winced. I thought he'd want to talk to someone his age from his country, but no! He didn't want anything to do with that accent, that country. Don't ask me why!
Skippy   Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:44 am GMT
I have a friend who (I believe) was born in Liverpool and moved to Santa Cruz when she was three or four and now she speaks like any other girl from SoCal...
K. t.   Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:07 am GMT
America is the US. North America is Canada, the US and Mexico. No one wrote "North America"....Calm down. Brazil is in South America.

America, afaik, is not a singular name for both NA and SA. You are being childish. I'm usually not harsh, but this is ridiculous.

BTW, it's "countries", but you knew that already. Give Native Korean a break, guest.
Guest   Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:57 am GMT
Oh beatiful thanks for erasing my message, now I'm gonna have to post it again, and again, and again, until you stop erasing it, and learn the real name of your country.
Uriel   Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:00 am GMT
They would speak with an American accent, if they moved to the US at such a young age.
furrykef   Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:55 pm GMT
It's quite possible for some people to change accent as an adult, too. If I moved to Britain, I'd probably have an authentic British accent before too long, because of my tendency to imitate the speech of my peers. I wouldn't deliberately try to acquire it, I'd just fall into it.

On the other hand, if I moved to the Deep South, I probably wouldn't acquire a southern accent because I don't really like southern accents (in general; sometimes it's charming). It's all psychological, really.

- Kef
Jasper   Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:33 pm GMT
furrykef, I've wondered about all that for years.

I'm a 27-year transplant living in the West, but have relatives in the South. The Southern Inland dialect sounds quite pleasant on some, but absolutely horrible on others--even in my own family. Conversely, Western speech sounds a whole lot less cloying on some than others. I wonder why this is? Something to do with voice projection? It baffles me.

Speaking of accent osmosis--I wonder why some people lose their accents, but not others? My own is now a mixture. Liking or not liking an accent may--or may not--be an issue. There seems to be little reseach done on the matter.

Travis, you seem to be a linguistic expert; do you have any insight on the matter?
Travis   Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:31 pm GMT
>>Travis, you seem to be a linguistic expert; do you have any insight on the matter?<<

I wouldn't exactly call myself a linguistic expert, and as for this particular question, I really don't know. It probably differs a lot, though, with how much individuals identify with where they are from and how conservative versus progressive their speech tends to be overall. Those who more strongly identify with where they are from are probably adopt others speech patterns less than those who have less of such identification; similarly, those who tend to speak more conservatively are probably less likely to adopt others speech patterns than those who tend to speak more progressively. Even then, though, the above is just a lot of guessing on my part and is almost certainly highly incomplete.
Native Korean   Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:05 am GMT
So can I conclude that the place you grew up affects more to form one's accent?

I actually kind of thought so, because my friend who moved to Seoul from Pusan(Southern part of Korea) at the age of 7 does not have Pusan accent at all. His parents DO have strong Pusan accent though.
Uriel   Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:15 pm GMT
Accents aren't genetic, and kids emulate their peers more often than their parents.
Lo   Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:44 pm GMT
Well I didn't change countries or something, I'm 17 and I lived for 16 years in New York City, I was born and raised there, last year I moved to SoCal and in a month's time I'd already caught the accent, now I speak and no one notices I'm not from SoCal. I didn't try to emulate the accent or something, it just happened. I must say though there are some words that I do pronounce differently, like marry and water which sound /m{ri:/ and /wQ4@/
The funny thing is the word water, cuz I'm cot-caught merged except for water, any idea why though?