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> There is no such thing as "more" or "less" accent from a purely linguistic point of view. Bit of a nitpick, but I think that's only true of so-called native
by MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> There is no such thing as "more" or "less" accent from a purely linguistic point of view.
Bit of a nitpick, but I think that's only true of so-called native accents. [0]
If a community speaks the language natively, in a certain distinctive way, that's called a native accent, and as you say it's meaningless to refer to any native accent as more or less accented than another. (edit I suppose in the extreme cases this might not be true, as a community's dialect might evolve into a distinct language, but that's by the by.)
With non-native accents though, the accent is the result of a limited linguistic ability. If you learn French, you'll have less of an English accent as you become more skilled, as the accent is the result of your native English leaking into your French pronunciation.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)#Non-native_accents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)#Non-...
- Tainnor 6y agoAt this point, we're moving into meta-debates about the meaning of the word "accent". But the way most linguists understand the way "accent" is just as a pattern of pronunciation, so even with non-native speakers, they don't have "more" or "less" accent, they rather change their accent to a more native-like accent. case in point: Standard German doesn't pronounce syllable-final "r", so someone who speaks English with a German accent will tend to speak with a non-rhotic accent, as most English accents. If they subsequently move to the US and adopt rhotacism, are they now having "more" or "less" accent? I think the issue is explained quite nicely here: https://web.archive.org/web/20081008000501/http://linguist.emich.edu/ask-ling/accent.html https://web.archive.org/web/20081008000501/http://linguist.e...
- marianov 6y agoI've heard people from India say they don't have accent, but so do newyorkers. Being native Spanish speaking, I find easier to harder english accents: - Russian, Italians - English RP (BBC) - "Educated" American English (politicians, etc.) - rural accents from the US - India - Ireland - Australia - UK popular accents