Can people be Bi-accented?

Melissa Alice

Can someone be Bi-accented? This is a question that is frequently asked, despite the fact that we see people change accents, languages and dialects all the time- whether it's for entertainment or accommodation. Individuals that speak more than one native language tend to have the ability to switch from one accent to another, or even swap accents, languages and dialects around. For instance a French and English speaker who grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, can easily speak English with a French accent; however it is almost impossible even for experts to speak French with an English accent. I will go on to talk about the reasons it is almost impossible.

Firstly some native languages need to be pronounced in a particular way in order to make sense or mean what they are intended to mean. An example is the English language itself. In the English language or any language there are a lot of Homographs, e.g. 'Read'(present-tense) and 'Read' (past-tense). Although a sentence form can give away which way to pronounce the word, when pronounced wrong e.g. Read (present-tense pronunciation) in a past form sentence would not make any sense and sound very wrong. This is why some native language cannot be pronounced in different accents. Another reason is due to the Alphabet of both languages for example the English alphabet runs from A-Z, and the Shone alphabet runs from A-Z as well however L and C do not exist and you have additional words like Bah Bhe Bhi Bho Bhu and Za Ze... it goes on for each letter.  These sounds pronounced with an English accent would Sound wrong and possibly meaningless.

It has been said that some native languages have similar dialects due to this it would be easier for speakers of those languages/ dialects to learn the other language. For Instance speakers of Shona and Cantonese will find it easier to learn the other language more than others. Some Shona and Cantonese words are very similar in sound, pronunciation and spelling. 'Tanaka' is both a Shone and Cantonese name, despite having different meanings they are pronounced the same, and sound the same. This is due to the alphabet of the languages for Shona the sound 'C' amongst other does not exist, so Shona words are quite easy to pronounce like Cantonese Words. This is one of the reasons Native speakers of different languages have the ability to change Dialects, languages and accents easily.

It has also been said that there is a Syndrome associated with adopting a foreign accent after a major head injury. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome .Only 60 cases have ever been found www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11280005. However, having said that it is physically impossible to speak a foreign accent from the blue, an accent you have never attempted to speak before. We know as linguists that even a foreign person cannot just adopt an English accent by the finger, it takes practice and listening. Which brings me to the point that the individuals that have experienced this syndrome are/where speakers of that native accent in their earlier years. It is quite clear that perhaps the individuals have had memory loss hence the inability to talk in their usual accent again, and instead adopt a native accent they used to speak.

Actress Gillian Anderson is an example of an individual that was exposed to multiple accents a young age, and can now speak then both fluently http://dialectblog.com/2011/04/26/can-you-be-bi-accented/. Anderson grew up in England then moved to the U.S.A during her College years. When in England Anderson speaks fluently in the English accent, when in the U.S again she speaks the native accent fluently. This is clearly accommodating for speakers who may have trouble understanding, or it may be down to the individual him/herself- he/she may just prefer to speak in the native accent to other speaker of the accent. People who don't speak a particular accent also tend to pick up on particular ways of pronouncing words when speaking to a foreign speaker. It is similar to the theory that when people live together for a long time they start to speak like each other. This clearly shows that it is not hard to change accents, or impossible to be bi-accented.

From the research I did on Multi/Bi- accents, I have come to the conclusion that anyone can do it, it is a case of just learning how to pronounce words in that particular accent, whether it's through phonetics, listening to native speakers of the accent/language or dialect.

Again it's not science, or magic, anyone can pick up an accent and speak it fluently.