if you are brought up bilingually (because your parents speak to you in their respective mother tongue) ...?

Question

and you learn a 3rd language being an adult...what accent will u have in the 3rd language??? the teacher of the 3rd language is native...

Answer 1

Depends on many factors- accent you have when speaking either language- dialects, level of speaking ability...far too many factors to give a canned answer of 1st or 2nd. Most likely- th accent which you us the most!

Answer 2

Hi! If you're lucky like a friend of mine who is fluent in 5 languages, you can imitate the accent of the native teacher perfectly and speak like a native-born. This person that I know cannot only speak these 5 languages without an American accent, but is like a tape recorder and he can perfectly imitate anybody from a foreign country trying to speak English. So it is possible, if highly motivated, you could learn to speak your 3rd language with only the native accent of your instructor. I find language learning like music--I keep having the native speaker say the word slowly, syllable by syllable while I try and say the word along with them. I write the word down phonetically to help me remember how the speaker is saying it. Then I listen for the accent and the pitch and enunciation of the word like I were trying to memorize a series of 3 or 4 notes. Usually people, when they see I am sincere in wanting to learn to pronounce their language correctly will not mind repeating it over and over until we both are satisfied. You have the advantage of already having learned another language from your parents. Remember we usually learn a language hearing it and sounding it out as children long before we can read, and it takes many repetitions orally before a young child can speak his or her own language like their parents who they initially are parroting. I learned Spanish as an adult with virtually no school books or written grammar studies--just by imitating the words as I heard them. So I would urge you also to put an emphasis on listening and imitating. Tell your teacher that your goal is to speak like a native. I wish you well. Ciao
-Spec

Answer 3

I would guess that you would have a wider set of sounds and speech patterns with which to get near to the true pronunciation of the third language than a monoglot would have. So your accent would probably be better than that of your average speaker of either of your native languages.

Studies have shown that bilinguals can learn third languages more easily than others.

Answer 4

You'd probably have a bit of both. You would use your pronuncitation in the other two to try to figure out what is going on in the third language and so the errors you made would come from whichever one you used at the time.

Answer 5

It depends onwhich language you use most prominently!!!
Most people try to develop the accent specific to their language, it's a learned thing!!

Good Luck

Answer 6

hm.... i am bilingual, and know others as well..

the thing is, that bilngual children in general, have quite a good ear, and are capable of adopting the correct pronunciation in other languages..

My friend is greek-german, and he speaks both languages perfectly... but also his russian and french (which have a huge difference with greek n' german) are perfect...

i just think bilingual children are more adept at this...

Answer 7

Your accent will be yours and yours alone.