I heard that Anna Paquin (born in Canada, raised in NZ) can switch accents.?

Question

Do you know anybody that can do that? I wonder the technical term for that.

Answer 1

One term that is used is 'bidialectical'. Another similar concept is 'diglossia'. Accents are a component of dialects and it's actually quite common to be able to 'switch between them', either consciously or subconsciously. A lot of African Americans may speak 'ebonics' with their family but what is called 'American standard' at school.

Answer 2

There are many, many bidialectal people in the world (this is the technical term you are looking for). In the United States, there are many people who are speakers of the dialect called AAVE (African-American Vernacular English, also known as Ebonics) and another dialect (such as Standard American English).

In fact, I myself was raised in the States and then lived in Canada for a while as an adult, and I acquired a Canadian accent.

Answer 3

My husband (born in Switzerland, grew up in Quebec) switches easily between Quebec and Swiss accents in French. My daughter used to but has really lost the Quebec one by now (she's ten; we've been in Switzerland five years).

Answer 4

Mel Gibson (Australia, America) is the exact same way. In fact, up until about Lethal Weapon I, he did all his interviews with his Australian accent, so I guess his agent told him to sound more "Americanized".

Answer 5

my sister can do that in Spanish. Her husband is from Dominican Republic, she's Colombian, and can easily switch between the dominican and colombian way of speaking.

Answer 6

wats so gr8 abt swithing accents i can do american british,slight australian , indian ,south-indian , french.
although the only languages i can speak fluently r hindi & english
but of course if ur refering 2 only famous pepl then im not oneof them