For no reason? Yes, it would be odd, almost by stipulation. Such things do not ordinarily happen for no reason.
If it happened for a reason (e.g., spending a large amount of time in England), it would be significantly less odd, of course.
It’s very common for this to happen. In that sense, it is normal. It’s also common for this to not happen, depending on the person and the situation. Both are normal.
There’s no imperative that one do so, but if you desire to, go ahead. It’s up to you; you can do whatever you want.
No y’all is not the proper way to make you a plural. It might be A proper way to make you a plural. But actually you is already plural. What English needs is a proper way to say a singular you if y’one needs (thou needest) to distinguish.
Well excuse me. I guess I’ll stick to creating original threads about have-baked conspiracy theories, rants about “nice guys” not getting laid, endless 30 page unresolved debates on gun control/religion/welfare reform, complaining about how bad the economy sucks for people with no career goals and mediocre qualifications, tipping, Asperger’s, some reference to some obscure fantasy series, 30 page unresolved pedantic debates on the difference between science fiction and science fantasy, and rants about how someone’s coworker keeps saying “hello” to them first thing in the morning.
Clearly the one true neutral accent is spoken by the subject of this clip.
That so-called “neutral” American accent just sounds so strongly American. Surely everyone can agree that Peter Hitchener speaks English in the clearest-to-understand, non-accented form. Yes, it’s definitely true that the only place in the world where English is spoken in its purest form is Australia. Everywhere else has accents.
While I guess that learning a neutral accent can be a career boon, reverting to one’s natural dialect is just relaxing, not affectation. Picking up a brand-new strong dialectic on purpose, that’s affectation.
As far as I’ve seen, nobody has brought up this point yet. An affectation is something unnatural or not genuine. To me, it seems that ‘learning’ any accent other than that which you spoke in your formative years, whether the new accent is neutral or extreme, or more likely ‘unnatural’ to you as the speaker.
That is, suppose that I grew up in England and learned to speak with a perfect Chicago twang. However, unless I’m thinking about twanging as I speak, I’ll slip back into UK dialect. It’s sortuv my ‘default accent’ unless I’m making a conscious effort to speak in Chicago mode. So far, does this seem reasonable to you?
And if so, can you really defend that speaking the way I grew up speaking is an affectation?
Perfect english is when you’re speaking the same sort of english as the person you’re speaking to,I thought for most people this happened naturally - I lapse into a ridiculous indian accent when talking to my indian relatives and slowly flow into an american accent when talking to americans, reverting to british during the day
Some people absorb accents, others don’t. I do. I spent six weeks in New Hampshire and came back sounding like a lobstahman. After two weeks in Spain I had a definite lisp. It’s not conscious, and it doesn’t last very long after I get back.
My base accent is weird anyway because I spent my teen and college years trying to get rid of my backwoods Southern accent and the next decade trying to get it back. Since I moved back out to the sticks I’ve definitely picked a lot of the old accent back up, but I’m sure it’s hard to place at this point.
Accents are awesome, and anyone who thinks less of anyone because they don’t talk like a southern California newscaster is an irredeemable douchebag.
It’s pretty damn hard NOT to in my experience. When I lived in Colorado, I lost most of my Yooper twang; I’d get on the phone with my mother, and have it back instantly. Now that I’ve lived back in Yooperland for 10 years, I’m pretty sure I sound like an extra from Fargo, only with more of a Finnish lilt versus Norwegian/Swedish.
I have a friend who grew up here, spent time in England, married an English guy, and now lives in the Caribbean. Her accent is a mix of Yooper/English/Caribbean. Is she being affectatious? Hell no. It’s just what happened.
I actually feel sorry for Madonna. Her accent sounds like what I’d expect an American accent to sound like after living many years in England, but everyone wants to think she’s somehow faking it.
One thing I’ve encountered is that certain accents are considered “prestige” accents. (yes, panache45, it is “classist”). Certain English accents are viewed as more sophisticated than, say Jeff Foxworthy’s “redneck” accent or a working class Boston accent. ('course not all English accents gov’na!). If you have one of those less prestigious accents, you are often encouraged to adopt a more “neutral” accent.
I’d imagine that learning either British Received Pronunciation or the neutral, Midwestern “Newscaster” American accents would be the most handy you could learn.
Not because they’re “better”, but more because they’re the most neutral and least likely to identify you with anywhere in particular.
Well, it’s not “perfect,” but if someone were just starting to learn English there would be a strong argument to be made for their learning standard American English, since it has the most speakers and is very widely understood thanks to the global American media presence. “BBC English” has fewer speakers but more prestige and is also widely understood, so that’s another contender.
I think this varies by individual. Some pick it up quickly, perhaps to fit in a little more; others just pick up the local language naturally over time; others keep most of their accent.
But I think for most it’s a subliminal and natural process. It was quite evident in college to see the stronger non-Midwestern accents neutralize to a “neutral” Midwestern accent over time. I grew up with a good bit of a Chicago South Side accent. I still have it, but it’s nowhere near as pronounced as it used to be. I never intended to change my accent. It just somehow happened. When I was living in Scotland for two months, even after that short period of time, some of the locals told me I was picking up a bit of the local accent. I thought they were just messing around with me, but it was clear they were serious. If I had a bit of a Scottish accent, it sure as heck was not something I was conscious of.
It’s a perfectly natural thing to happen–the degree to which it happens depends on the person. Often, you can’t even tell yourself that your accent has changed.
