Native language accent?

Question

I was wondering that if you are fluent in another language(s), can your native language develop a slight accent that one of your learnt languages have?

For example if your native language was English then you learnt Russian and became fluent in it, is it possible your English accent would develop a slight Russian accent?

I'm just mainly wondering if your native language is English can your accent be influenced by learning another language?

But can you develop it pernamently?

Answer 1

If you're totally immersed in another, non-native language or culture then your speaking habits may temporarily change. I noticed a strange transition after returning to the US from a year in Germany, and also after a year return from Ireland - even though the latter is still English speaking, my enunciation of some words and phrases was somewhat different for a week or two after returning home.

Answer 2

I learned Spanish when I was little because I was around a lot of native Spanish speakers, but my family speaks English so my native language is english, but I notice most of the time I have some spanish accent and even have said something in Spanish when talking English. So I guess its mostly how you learned the language and how it was in your life. Such as if you learn a language from school or like that then there probably would be no accent affecting your native language. But if you grew up around the culture and whatnot then that definitely can influence your accent.

Answer 3

Not usually by just learning another language; but comments from several colleagues of French, Spanish and Italian nationality working in England confirm that these people do develop a slight English accent which is noticed by their family and friends when they go back home and revert to their native language. This usually disappears after a few days.

Answer 4

Yes, but I have trouble with this phenomenon.

If you speak two languages, you have to learn and use two sets of phonemes. (A few more things, like cadence, pitch, stress, voicing, etc. are there)

An accent is using not-quite-the-right phoneme. For example, in Spanish, initial /T/ is not aspirated. In English it is. Thus when a native English speaker says the Spanish utterance "Tengo que ir" (I have to go), they frequently aspirate that initial /T/. Conversely, native Spanish speakers say "Take it easy" without aspirating that initial "T" and in each case, that is one noticeable thing, something that Spanish and English native speakers would recognise as an accent.

There are cultural imperatives happening, too. I knew an American girl who had been a foreign student in Germany. In the USA, she was not very important. In Germany, being a university student confers a lot of social status. (It's culturally assumed a university student is smarter and will have more success than non-students.) While this girl was in Germany, she heard German students speak accented English. This accent attached itself to her English. And when I knew her in California, she spoke accented English. Not because she'd never learn ed or spoken standard, normal English, but because she associated a heightened social status with accented English. At the time, I thought this was a bit ridiculous and made her a linguistic poseur. Nowadays, I'm a bit mellower, so I understand why.

Being bilingual Spanish/English, I am confidant that I don't use Spanish phonemes in English nor vice versa. But I don't have self-image issues.

Accents is a terrific area to study. When I lived in Georgia, I could distinguish accents between North Carolina and South Carolina, but only between women. Men from those places had (to me) indistinguishable accents.

I nearly passed for a native speaker of Romanian seven years ago, but that's another story.

Answer 5

I did research on just your question about 6 months ago. Here is a resource that will precisely answer your question:

Verhoeven, J. Mariën, P., Engelborghs, S., D'Haenen, H. & de Deyn, P. (2005) A foreign speech accent in a case of conversion disorder. Behavioural Neurology, 16 (4), 225-232.Retrieved on July 23, 2007 from EBSCOhost Web database (AN 19891917)

Answer 6

If you're immersed for a very long time, it can have permanent effects. But it'll be more pronounced on any OTHER foreign language that you learn.

I have a friend who spent half his childhood (the latter half, about 9 years) in Brazil. He later learned Korean...and now his Korean has a Brazilian accent. His English generally doesn't, as his Kentucky accent drowns anything else out.

If you're immersed for just a matter of weeks, you can have temporary effects...if not on your accent, then at least on your diction.

But no, just developing fluency isn't going to do it. You have to be constantly exposed to the language in its natural habitat.

Answer 7

Probably not permanently. If it was your true Native Language, you'll be able to pick back up the entonation used in a short period of time.