Accents...........?

Question

This might be a bit confusing but here it goes.....
When a person speaks english, most of the time we can tell where they from....(like if they're australian, south african, american, french etc)
So when an english person speaks a second language, eg german or spanish, can the people that speak german or spanish as a first language pick up where the person is from (as in what country you're from, not that your first language is english). The same question goes with- what if a french person speaks german, can the german pick up that the person is french?
Hope that made sense......
Thanks :-)

Intel_knight: Thanks for your answer, but I do know that already as I asked my family members who speak Polish and German (as first languages) and they told me that, what i wanna know is if a french person can tell if a person is originally from australia or something. Thanks :-)

ny2la_usamex: Thanks, and when they tell you, don't forget to let me know.....;-D

Clairee: Thanks, thats kinda the answer i'm looking for.....so thanks. And the reason I'm using english as the main language in the question is that english is my first language, not that i think it is superior or anything :-) (thats why i put the last sentence :-)) cause I do speak other languages so thats why i wanted to know.....i speak Polish, so would a native Pole pick up where i'm from eg South Africa or Australia

Btw, I didn't use French, German, Spanish for any specific reasons, they're just examples.....

Thanks
:-)

Answer 1

i get what you mean... for me my native is chinese (not that i'm any good with it). i live in singapore. believe me but when people from different countries speak in chinese, there's really an accent. i can tell when the person is from singapore, malaysia or china and even hongkong. but when it comes to caucasians, i have no idea whether they're french, german, spanish or american or english... i can only tell that they're caucasian. but that's only because i don't recognise any of their accents. i have never been around french, german or spanish people. so that's probably why i can't recognise their accents.

but anyways, my answer is yes, you can tell.

in fact, if you think about it simply, english is as much of a language as any other language in the world. so the properties of english should also apply to other languages. it's just that you've become too used to english that you don't think of it as a mere language anymore.

Answer 2

So when an english person speaks a second language, eg german or spanish, can the people that speak german or spanish as a first language pick up where the person is from (as in what country you're from, not that your first language is english).

Yes, it's not as easy, but you can.

The same question goes with- what if a french person speaks german, can the german pick up that the person is french?


Yes, like for english they know if the person come from france and they can pick up the regional accent sometime.

Answer 3

My native language is Portuguese and I find it easy to know the person's mother tongue just listening to their accent.
It's easy to identify, for example, a German accent, a Spanish accent, French accent, as each language has its specific sounds.
Another point to consider is the way they build phrases up. When people are learning another language, they tend to "translate" everything. For example: native English and German speakers are more likely to change the genders of the nouns, what doesn't usually happen with Italian, French speakers.
It's easy to identify the mother tongue through the accent, however, for example in the case of an English speaker, I couldn't tell if the person is from South Africa, Australia, England...just from when they are speaking Portuguese.That's a more complicated exercise that I think only real language expertises could say.

Answer 4

Yes, sometimes. It will depend upon how familiar they are with the regional accents of the speaker's native tongue.
Or they may pick up on the wrong clues, and get it slightly wrong. Thus, when I speak French (at least when I was in practice), people thought I was Swiss-French*, rather than an anglophone speaking French as a second language.
When you learn a second language, you will also be learning to speak it with the accent of a certain region or social class.
* Either that, or the Swiss Complexion Cream I was using at the time was working really well!!!

Answer 5

I think that depends a lot on how proficient you actually are in your second language, at what age you have learnt it (adult migrants hardly ever get rid of their native language accent in their second language, *sigh!*) and how thick your accent in your native labnguage is. But I think I can tell apart second language speakers of German by an American, Australian, South African and various British accents. I'm pretty sure that the thick Bavarian-German accent of Pope Benedict comes through in all his speeches in other languages, too.

Answer 6

That is a very interesting question and it made a lot of sense to me. I've never thought of that before, but I'm sure that they (Native Speakers) can usually tell where you're from based on your accent in their language if that is not your first language. I'm in Europe right now and I will ask people this question.

Answer 7

yes, there is such a thing as English accent in French, and French accent in German.

Answer 8

Hi ,
i think what really matters , is that we are able to understand each other,
communication is one of the keys to a successful life.
It can make and break things, situation etc.
We must always cover that comunication gap if we have any.

Answer 9

Oh yes you can, I live in México and I can tell when someone is from Fance, Germany, Italy or Brazil by the accent they have!
Greetings!★