Can you inherit accents or not?

Question

My grandma is a german and my grandad is irish and my dad is from america

Answer 1

in a sense you can... i'm born and bred dublin my mother is from sligo and dad is from meath... each of which have very different accents i have none of the above somewhere in between them all really, you pick up accents from those arround you so you might be (american i presume) with a bit of german a bit of irish

Answer 2

No, you don't inherit them. Your accent is influenced by the people you spend most time with - your family, and your school-friends / colleagues.

Because I'm originally from England, I've known lots of people of Irish descent. They were born in England, but their parents were Irish.They had the basic Southern English accent, because of the people they socialised with, but they also picked up a tiny amount of the Irish accent from their parents! To me, there was only a tiny difference between their accent and mine - but to Irish people it was really obvious!

I also had a cousin who spent several years in America - when she was in America everyone said "ooh! I DO like your English accent!!" but when she was in England everyone said "Ooh! I DO like your American accent!!"
You CAN pick up an accent when you spend a lot of time with people who HAVE the accent, but it won't be a 100% authentic accent!

If you spend a lot of time with your grandma, you might develop a slight German tinge to your accent, with your grandad a slight Irish tinge, and you've probably got a slight American tinge to your accent from your dad - although for all I know you might LIVE in America, in which case your accent will be about 95% influenced by the region you live in!
; )

Answer 3

no. you will have a similar accent to the people you speak with the most. If you live in Germany, you will probably have a German accent but if your parents speak in a different accent then you might speak more like them. It is not hereditary. I went somewhere different for only a couple of days and came back with a slight accent like theirs

Answer 4

You don't inherit accents, you get them by being around the accents at your developing stage in life. Like when you are 2-5 years old or so.

Answer 5

You can take on accents in some form but never really completey unless you learn the language at a very young age...that's due to how the brain stops processing sounds that it doesn't need. Your accent can be affected with brain injuries though (as in foreign accent syndrome) by alterations in prosody etc.

Answer 6

No, but you can pick up Dialect which is how people do. An English man In US will eventually speak with American Accent, Same with Australians. You do not inherit it, more like you pick up on it, and the way they speak, then you mimmick them, and you then have the accent.

Impersonists actually spend time with people they immitate or similar people so they can pick up the accents.

Answer 7

What an interesting heritage!!

No, I don't think you can inherit accents - but they do rub off on you. Especially , I think, the way your mother speaks. I guess that's why they call it the mother tongue.

As a baby you learn to pronunce words the way they are said to you. So you should have a very interesting accent!!

Answer 8

Are you serious. A accent is something you aquire...example if you live in England for 5 years you will come back to Canada with a accent. As well its something that you lose.

Answer 9

you dont inherit it in the genetic way, you get your accent from the people that you talk to the most.especially in your early years. you learn to speak just as they do. .

where i live, there is a korean girl, a beautiful girl, that was adopted as an infant by a man and wife. she is in her 20's now. we all live in alabama. the girl has a very strong southern accent. she talks just like her adopted mom and dad. for anyone who meets her it is very strange to hear that voice coming from that person.

Answer 10

No, you are not born with an accent, you aquire one from hearing language spoken around you as a child. My mom is German but I grew up in the US. She spoke english in our house as did most people I came intp contact with.