4 ms·
The writer ends with >My long term hope is that soon or later different accents could converge into a standard easy-to-understand one that the English speaking
by nmeofthestate 7y ago
The writer ends with
>My long term hope is that soon or later different accents could converge into a standard easy-to-understand one that the English speaking population could use as a lingua franca.
I suspect the opposite has happened and will happen.
When populations become fluent in English they decide that their accent is a valid way of speaking English, so stay hard to understand to other populations.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y agoI dunno, we already have a concept of Stage Voice (or Youtube Voice), where the accent spoken is different than the speaker's native accent for the purpose of being more widely understandable. It doesn't seem such a stretch to suggest that English settle on one accent to serve this purpose in every day life as well. And hey, learning a new accent is significantly easier than learning a new language.
- nmeofthestate 7y agoMaybe this is a specifically English thing, and not an issue in your native language (assuming you're not a native English speaker), but the idea of putting on an accent carries a LOT of baggage. I think it happens to the extent that people will sometimes tailor/'round off' their accent and vocabulary depending on context. But people are attached to their accents - it's part of who they are - and having to put on somebody else's accent in certain contexts is not something that most people would be okay with. The idea that, for example, I would affect a, say, American accent if I was making YT videos, is completely crazy. Let alone in everyday life.