How different accents develop within the same language?

How Do Accents Develop? Put simply, accents are born when speakers of the same language become isolated and, through evolution, unwittingly agree on new names or pronunciations for words. Dozens of these small changes result in a local ‘code’ that’s not easily understood by outsiders.

Why do people have accents in the same language?

Every person has an accent that is the result of how, when and where they learned the language they speak. That group of people also may speak a certain way — so distinctly so that an accent becomes part of the group’s identity.

Why do different states have different accents?

“A region’s geographic location also has a direct influence on the development of a local tongue,” Lantolf says. “Isolated areas, such as New Orleans, develop different dialects,” he explains. “Where there is no contact between regions, entire words, languages and vernaculars can grow and evolve independently.

Why do people have different accents in different languages?

This sounds wrong, or ‘foreign’, to native speakers of the language. The other kind of accent is simply the way a group of people speak their native language. This is determined by where they live and what social groups they belong to.

Do all foreign speakers have an accent?

In reality, everybody has an accent – in somebody else’s opinion! Why do foreign speakers have trouble pronouncing certain sounds? People have trouble with sounds that don’t exist in the language (or languages) that they first learned as a young child. We are born capable of both producing and perceiving all of the sounds of all human languages.

What is the definition of an accent?

It’s how you sound when you speak. Everyone has one, whether you think you do or you don’t. Those who speak English as a second language have what many regard as “foreign” accents, but even native speakers have some sort of accent, however subtle.

What is the difference between British accent and American accent?

We identify the British accent with classicism and theater (thank you, Bill Shakespeare!), while the newer American accent is often associated with modernity. In Boston, for example, the influence of Irish settlers has led to a very distinct Bostonian accent, though the modern accent sounds nothing like the Irish one.