Introduction

I've always been fascinated to hear other accents. It could be as close to home as a variant of a southern accent, or as unusual as an Indian accent. When we were young, my friends and I would always ask another girl's English mother to say things like “garage” so that we could hear her accent. She would indulge us until we got distracted by some other activity.

Joan Oros moved to America in her early 20s and still retains her Scottish accent (even though her family disagrees). Meanwhile her children have American accents. Why did this happen? Her children were only about 10 years younger than Joan when they first moved to America . Does this age difference really have that drastic a difference on accent formation?

Transcription

Me: When did you move to America ? Joan: The first time? The first time I moved in 1964, but I only stayed 8 months, then I went back to Europe, then I came back ‘79-‘80. M: How old were you then? J: When I first moved? Must have been 21-22 M: Have you noticed ever since you moved here that your accent has changed based on how your family's accents are? J: I don't think I've noticed, but when I go back to Scotland they notice. They say I have an American accent, and when I listen to them I think oh gosh, they're so Scottish, but you know I don't, I think once I go back there and everybody's Scottish then my accent changes back. M: So you do notice a difference in the intensity of your accent? J: Mmm, depending who I'm speaking with, if I'm with a bunch of Scottish people, yeah, everybody goes, they speak faster, and I think that's probably because you know you want people to understand you so you slow down and take your time, if you're with a lot of friends you kind of go back. M: Have you ever had any incidences when people here couldn't actually understand you? J: (pause, laughs) I was thinking Dr. Bradshaw, he's always saying he couldn't understand me, that's ‘cause he's deaf (laughs again). Yeah probably, different times, I would say so throughout the years. M: Have you ever gotten comments, I mean you have gotten comments when you've gone back? J: Oh yeah, they say my accent's gone, I sound American to them. M: And your children were raised here right? J: My children, mostly, uh, they were in Europe and then they came over here, uh the 2 oldest were teenagers, so they, I don't think any of my children have a Scottish accent. M: Do you know, have you noticed what kind of accent they do have, or is it a mix? J: They sound like Americans to me. M: Were they older teenagers when they came here? J: About yeah, not real old, they were like 12 or 13. M: Are there different accents in different areas of Scotland ? J: Glasgow , Glasgow 's 60 miles from where I was brought up, I was brought up in Edinburgh , Glasgow 's 60 miles away. And if you put me there I can't understand them at all. If somebody's got a Glasgow accent, and that's only like 60-70 miles away. I remember going there as a kid and that, and you couldn't understand a word they said, I mean really bad you know it was just, and they couldn't understand us. London , yeah, there are a lot of accents for a little country. Up north it'll be more, you would call it a Scottish brogue. Edinburgh is a big city, it's like 500,000, so these little villages and islands up north the accent is really strong. Where here it's, I can recognize a New York accent and a southern accent and everybody else sounds the same (pause) Boston accent, I can pick up on that. M: So you were in Edinburgh for pretty much all your childhood? J: Until I was 21 yeah, and then I went from Edinburgh to of all places I went to Georgia . I couldn't understand Georgia . They couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand them, I remember that. ‘Cause they had real southern accents you know. M: Alright, well thank you so much. J: Oh is that it? That was easy.

Analysis

The critical period in developmental psychology is defined as a period of time in an organism's life when it has heightened sensitivity to certain stimuli. In general, the critical period for language learning is said to end at puberty, but there have to be certain stimuli at earlier ages for language to be learned fully.

Stephen Pinker put forth the idea in The Language Instinct, that people who begin to learn a second language after the critical period can't acquire a believable or native accent in that second language. While Joan wasn't technically learning a new language, American English has mostly the same vocabulary and grammar, she was immersed in a new accent when she came to the states.

As the brain matures, it loses its plasticity, which makes it hard to learn a second language. Singleton summarizes the different proposals made for the onset and offset of the critical period during the last 50 years. More recent ideas suggest that there are different phases that end the ability to learn different aspects of a language. The offset of phonology (which would affect accents) range from being very early in life to the onset of puberty.

Whichever of these ages is more accurate, Joan would still retain her Scottish accent because she didn't leave until she was 21. Her children acquired American accents because they moved to San Antonio at a young enough age.

Sources:

Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language . 1st ed. New York : Harper Collins, 1994.

Wikipedia.Critical Period

David Singleton. "The Critical Period Hypothesis: A Coat of many colors," IRAL 43 (2005), 269–285

About the Author

I was born in Chicago and lived there for about 5 years. We then moved to Oklahoma City where I realized my parents are professors. After 8 years, my parents and I moved to Albany, New York. I adored Albany, but we moved away after 2 years. San Antonio was where my parents found jobs, and we've been there for 3 years.

I've studied French since 3rd grade. I went to London and Paris for the Christmas and New Year of 1999-2000. After my sophomore year, I went with a friend to visit her family in Wales. We went away for 6 weeks and spent a week on the Atlantic coast of France. It was interesting seeing how people go about day to day life while staying with her family. I've been exposed to mostly Midwestern accents by my family, Southwestern dialects in Oklahoma and while traveling, and Northeastern slang from friends.

I am able to do the few things I want on the computer, but I'm not an expert on technology. I am more interested in art. I played piano for 5 years, was in choir for 5 years (with a gap in the middle), and tried to start playing guitar but couldn't continue after we moved for the last time. I enjoy drawing, but I don't get a chance to do it very often. In this course, I would like to learn how language, math and the arts play together, and how people learn languages.