Comments on: Why Do Our Accents Change When We Immigrate Abroad?

By: Julia Fry

Julia Fry — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:51:39 +0000

I got to your blog by typing this question into Google: “how does landscape affect accent?”

Your blog was the only related piece I found. I was born in England in Dorset. My father was in the army so I had a posh English middle class accent. My father was upper middle class and my mother is working class; she comes from Lincolnshire and her accent was retained all the time we were in the army. She has a strong sense of her roots being geographical and always yearns to return to Lincolnshire if she leaves. My mother, sister and I moved to Lincolnshire when I was 9. I adapted my accent to fit in and my accent became flatter and I pronounced a lot of words differently. I moved to Brighton in the south when I was 18. After a few months in Brighton I changed my accent again so it was easier for me to be understood by people who had never ventured north of London.

I’m intrigued about how accents become tied to geographical places. How did the American accent come about? When the English left for America they still had English accents didn’t they? Interesting…

By: Cmac

Cmac — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:30:28 +0000

when I am talking to white people I will ‘mimic’ their style of talking, much like body language experts reccommend mimicking another person’s body language in order to receive a favourable response. For me, it’s because I wish to gain an advantage, or because I hope it will help me gain what I wish to achieve (i.e. advance my self-interests), when with others like me, I automatically switch back to what’s familiar among us. Is this fake? Pretentious? Lack of self-esteem? It has worked well to my advantage, that’s all I need to know.

By: cecilia

cecilia — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:24:54 +0000

Accent changing becomes imperatives to a certain point if you wish to be understood by the locals. I do agree with Hann, even europeans are put in a situation where they have to pick up an english or american accent so they can be understood. A french person speaking english in a french accent can be completely uncomprehensible just as a luo or kikuyu or kamba…etc doing it in their given accent. For Kenyans who didn’t pick up their local language tribe accent, they tend to have a somewhat flat way of pronunciation especially with the “A’s” which gives a totally new meaning to what you are saying to the British or American person. So rather than criticise people for trying to be understood and trying to speak correctly in a language that is borrowed, do some constructive phonetics training. You will need it for every other language you learn and you’ll realise being able to sound authentic saves you a lot of head aches.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:46:15 +0000

@Kibz: You know that Asian habit of making up Western names has always struck me as such an odd habit and I wonder why they do it.
Indeed whoever it is you change to assimilate with or get along with, you must somehow perceive to have higher value than you. I know for myself and my peers, for example, if we went to the rural areas and hung around people who we did not perceive to be of higher social value in some way shape or form, our accent would stay put.
Anyway, Hann and a lot of the folks who commented on this post definitely taught me some things………

By: Kibz

Kibz — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:56:54 +0000

Hi Mwangi, this is a very interesting thread. Thumbs up! Its a complex issue that am sure is sensitive for most non westerners and some westerners alike. Inferiority complex should not be ruled out by any one although it is not the main cause or factor that makes people want to talk differently. Hann gives very strong reasons that i feel explain for the most part why people change accents, i think its also cool to be able to do so. But am more concerned with the inferiority complex part of it. Its rather easy to say ” i just do it to fit in” but what people are really saying is, is that people would think they are weired or different and they will not be accepted. Am in adelaide and its very disturbing and agonizing to see my fellow non westerners (Africans and Asians) talk in funny accents, get fake western names or westernize their names all in the name of trying to fit in. Come on people, its there, its happening and its true. This is a great opprotunity to talk about it candidly and let people know that its ok to talk in your original accent, its ok to have your own name and let people learn to actually pronounce your name correctly and its cool.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:44:36 +0000

@Hann: To project my theory onto what you have just said, perhaps that wouldn’t happen because French people perceive themselves as the “true owners” and higher on the scale of French speakers than Americans or other foreigners trying to speak the French language.

By: Hann

Hann — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:32:41 +0000

I don’t know about others and Indian accents, but I swear if I’m around Indians for a long time, my brain starts thinking in an Indian accent. I do think if I lived in India for a while, I would pick up a slight Indian accent. Maybe this doesn’t happen so much like it does for American accents or Australian or British is because English is an official language of India not a native language (as in thinking and speaking in English) like English is in Australia or the US. It’s THEIR language like Hindi or Gujarati would be in India. I mean French people who speak with Americans who speak French wouldn’t pick up the American speaking French accent, why would they?

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:59:52 +0000

@meek meek: I can imagine. Your mental cultural landscape must be ginormous. I can tell you from hanging out with Asian folks and Indian folks and seeing other people who did that I never saw African people change their accent in that direction.

By: meek meek

meek meek — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:57:45 +0000

Well see thats the thing, i dont have any Indian or Pakistani friends so that has never been an issue… My mother has a distinct British accent and i live in America so those two are definitely influences… to top it off im Kikuyu so when the situation presents itself i bring out my Kikuyu accent which of course invokes gasps of shock [because i look anything but kikuyu].. Its a little different walking in my shoes because im mixed. In fact its probably very different.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:51:00 +0000

@meek meek: That whole pointee (which for the uninitiated is short for point 5 – 0.5 – which is a Kenyan term for a biracial person, almost always half black/half white) issue opens up a whole lot of questions for me, especially as an immigrant.
But if you have any Indian or Pakistani or Asian friends, why don’t you ever change your accent and sound more like them?