Comments on: On eroding accents… http://yardley.ca/2009/04/28/on-eroding-accents/ greg yardley on online product management Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:04:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Greg http://yardley.ca/2009/04/28/on-eroding-accents/comment-page-1/#comment-2097 Greg Tue, 05 May 2009 02:55:51 +0000 http://yardley.ca/?p=661#comment-2097 From an Australian standpoint both your offered Pasta pronounciations are equivalent. :P From an Australian standpoint both your offered Pasta pronounciations are equivalent. :P

]]> By: Matthew Gertner http://yardley.ca/2009/04/28/on-eroding-accents/comment-page-1/#comment-2089 Matthew Gertner Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:21:39 +0000 http://yardley.ca/?p=661#comment-2089 See http://jimflege.com/files/Munro_Derwing_Flege_1999_Canadians_Alabama_JP_1999.pdf. Apparently this is called dialect acquisition. As someone who dropped his English accent like a live grenade on moving to the US at age 6, I think the primary motivation for this type of shift is psychological. To some degree we cling to our native dialect as an intrinsic part of our identity, but we also tend to reject our "uncool" roots (as personified by our parents) in favor of our new, hipper surroundings (personified by our peer group). Exactly what shifts take place in a given individual might be random, or there might be some very interesting phonological phenomena going on (e.g. we might adopt sounds in the local dialect that are similar to sounds used in different contexts in our native dialect, while rejecting sounds that never occur in our native dialect). Very interesting topic for a dissertation if anyone wants to run out and get a PhD in linguistics. See http://jimflege.com/files/Munro_Derwing_Flege_1999_Canadians_Alabama_JP_1999.pdf. Apparently this is called dialect acquisition.

As someone who dropped his English accent like a live grenade on moving to the US at age 6, I think the primary motivation for this type of shift is psychological. To some degree we cling to our native dialect as an intrinsic part of our identity, but we also tend to reject our “uncool” roots (as personified by our parents) in favor of our new, hipper surroundings (personified by our peer group).

Exactly what shifts take place in a given individual might be random, or there might be some very interesting phonological phenomena going on (e.g. we might adopt sounds in the local dialect that are similar to sounds used in different contexts in our native dialect, while rejecting sounds that never occur in our native dialect). Very interesting topic for a dissertation if anyone wants to run out and get a PhD in linguistics.

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