How long do you think it would take to lose your accent?

[Alpo]

Television show.

 

British girl. When she was about 13 her father was killed, and a friend of his took her in. Took her back to the States and raised her like his kid. So his wife now had two daughters and his daughter now had a sister.

 

Now, in the show, she's about 30, so this is maybe 17 years later of growing up in the United States. And she still has a London accent.

 

Now she has a London accent because the actress is British. But it just got me wondering how long she would still have that accent growing up over here. If it was real instead of television.

 

Just opinions. And I'm sure that even if she lost her accent, if she was around English people, or went back to England, she would very quickly pick it up again.

[J-BAR #18287]

My speech pathologist daughter, who had a flat uninteresting midwestern accent, married an Arkansas gentleman, and within two years sounded like she was born in a hillbilly holler.  The reverse of what you are asking, but...

 

It don't take long.

[Subdeacon Joe]

It depends on the person.  Some, as J-Bar mentioned, will lose it quickly, others may never lose it completely.  Some people at church who came here when they were 7 or 8 still have pronounced Russian or Romanian accents after 30 years.  Probably because they still use their birth language at home a lot of the time.  A guy at my last job came here from Bulgaria about 8 years ago and I had to pay close attention to him to understand his English.  Another who came from Cambodia I usually couldn't understand because his accent was so heavy even though he has been here 20 years.

 

In the situation you posed I would say that since we are exposed to so many television shows and movies that have actors with British accents she would likely never lose all of it .

[Choctaw Jack]

We moved from Oklahoma to New Mexico when I was 8. Lost most of my Okie accent by the time I was 11 or 12.

My friends never mentioned it growing up, so I figured it was gone.

I moved to Las Cruces in my early twenties, and my Spanish speaking co-workers used to laugh at me because they had never heard Spanish spoken with an Okie accent.

My kids say it resurfaces once in a while, usually when I'm pi$$Ed off.

Choctaw

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

When I was in the Army and Marine Corps I would pick up the local dialect very quickly, even the "pace" of the language....and I still can.  My son is the same way, but our ladies can't do it.  Biggest challenge is learning native word usage because different words or usages of words will give you away pretty quickly

 

I can go back and be in the native lingo almost instantly.

[watab kid]

based on all those ive known over the years you never loose it completely , but then none of them - nor i have had professional help in that area , 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

It varies with individuals.  I lost my back woods NH accent in a year because I wanted to, while still being in NH. But the accent only moved 200 miles.  

[Pat Riot]

I have a recording of me at age 18 explaining to my Grandma that I had joined the Navy and was going to train as a Gunners Mate. 
I had a true hick accent laced with some southern verbiage. 
After the Navy I worked very hard to lose my “accent”.

I moved “back home” (close to back home) and I think the accent is making a comeback. 
 

To answer Alpo’s question. I think it takes a couple of years to lose it but I don’t think it takes long at all to get it back. 

[Rye Miles #13621]

A good friend of mine was born in Brooklyn NY, he moved to Ohio when he was 20 and he’s been here ever since. He’s now 79 and still has a touch of that Brooklyn accent.

I have  friends whose parents came to the USA from Italy, Poland and Ireland when they were in their 20’s they’re  all gone now but they never lost their accents. We called it “broken English “ . 

[Kid Rich]

I know a feller here in AZ that has been here forever and he never lost his Jersey accent.

kR

[Rye Miles #13621]

2 hours ago, Kid Rich said:

I know a feller here in AZ that has been here forever and he never lost his Jersey accent.

kR

Ya mean his JOISEY accent?

[Yul Lose]

My Practice (Ex) wife had a serious medical issue 20 years or so ago and spent some time in a coma. When she came out of it she had an English accent, sounded like she was from England. I guess the doctors had a term for it and according to my kids still has it. The last time we talked, about 19 years ago, I tried my best to make her lose the accent and she didn’t.

[John Kloehr]

From 7 to 11 years old, I lived in Kansas.

 

From 20 to over 50 years old, I lived in Silicon Valley.

 

I worked in computers, mostly UNIX.

 

It has a special account called "root."

 

I still pronounce "root" as rhyming with "put" and not "boot." 'Cuz root beer. But overall, I do sound more like I speak what is known as business English rather than have an overall local sound.

 

Now in Tennessee. I do not sound local yet, but have at least tuned my ear to how locals speak. It took a while to hear "you lava" as "y'all have a" followed by "nice day."

[Buck Garrett]

I was born in Boston, and at 13 we moved to Southern California. Everyone in high school talked like hicks, and in a few months so did I. When I'm with cousins in Mass. I catch myself talking like them.

 

[PowderRiverCowboy]

Well having to deal with several different Cultures that seem to never lose that Asian , Native talk accent must be centuries 

 

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

The family next door to me moved here from New Jersey when the husband and wife graduated college, so at least 20 years ago.  The east coast accent is gone but speech patterns are still east coast ie; harder sounding consonants and vowels.  I learned French here in the U.S. and when in France, no one there can hear a regional accent, which in many countries can identify the speaker's birthplace.  Other folks I know have never lost their accent, although in many cases the accent has softened. 

[John Kloehr]

Interesting that after over 70 years of broadcast TV, and over a century of national news on broadcast radio, we still have regional dialects.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Highly vaiable by individuals. I know a gentleman who came here from Greece in his 20s. He's in his 70s and his accent is still very heavy, though his English itself is perfect and idiomatic.

[Eyesa Horg]

I have what I call NO accent. I sound like most news people or TV. But recently got a call from a Pard in Alabama who had a very southern accent. He said he loved my accent and wanted me to call back so his wife could hear me! Maybe from growing up in Connecticut I guess.

[Last Call Saul]

my wife left Soviet Union when she was 15.  she has no accent at all

 

I left USSR when I was 19, but spent 7 years in Israel before coming here - I have a very pronounced accent, but it is not the same is native Russian-speaking people have when they speak English

[Subdeacon Joe]

With the he Eritreans at church the men who have been here for 30 years still have very heavy accents, their wives, for the most part,still have accents, but not as heavy.  Their kids have no accent, or maybe just a touch if you are looking for it.

 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

My beautiful bride is a linguistic sponge.

A week after we'd moved from near the Ohio River, to near the soggy south shore of Lake Erie, she sounded like a Northern Ohio native.

In that same week I acquired a nickname among the local retailers.

I was not A Southern Gentleman.

I was THE Southern Gentleman.

Even yet -- two and a half decades later -- I'm still asked if I am from East Texas, West Tennessee, or Hotlanta, Joeja.

Nope.

The land of my nativity is south of the Perry County glacial moraine, and apparently I still sound like it!

[J-BAR #18287]

I married a girl from the Bootheel of Mizzoorah, the extreme southeast part of the state.  We became engaged before my parents, who lived in Detroit at the time, met her in person.  (They moved from Colorado while I was in college.  Parents!!).  She talked to my parents on the phone when we got engaged.  After the call, Mom turned to Dad and said, "He's marrying a black girl."  (My fiancé's accent was very southern).  Mom and Dad really didn't care if she might be black;  they didn't think I would ever get married.  Imagine their surprise when they met her at Christmas, 1969:

 

 

Her accent has softened over the past 53 years.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My Dad was born in Italy and came here when he was 11. I don’t know when he lost his accent but he never had one since when I was born and he was 36.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

10 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

I married a girl from the Bootheel of Mizzoorah, the extreme southeast part of the state.  We became engaged before my parents, who lived in Detroit at the time, met her in person.  (They moved from Colorado while I was in college.  Parents!!).  She talked to my parents on the phone when we got engaged.  After the call, Mom turned to Dad and said, "He's marrying a black girl."  (My fiancé's accent was very southern).  Mom and Dad really didn't care if she might be black;  they didn't think I would ever get married.  Imagine their surprise when they met her at Christmas, 1969:

 

 

Her accent has softened over the past 53 years.

(admiring whistle)

Body language analysis aside (it's clear she's taken with you, and you with her: the hand on your belly clearly tells the world she's laid claim to you, your arm around her and the direct look into the camera says "Yes she's mine and SHE IS UNDER MY PROTECTION!") -- 

*ahem* -- like I said, body language analysis aside --

You two do make a cute couple!

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

60+ years in Eastern Canada and my Alberta accent still pops up once in a while.

A Prof at U of Ottawa noticed it once along with the First Nation inflection I didn't even know I had picked up from kids I grew up with.

 

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

My parents never lost theirs and when I go to Germany and revert back to German, I asked if my accent was still there and no one in restaurants, stores, friends, etc. still took me for a citizen. I just never thought I had one.

[Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062]

 

 ....... well, ....... I am one of the few on this forum who has NOT got an accent .......  

[Trailrider #896]

I was born and raised in Chicago, but never had what some people from Chi had/have. But as I moved around the country, I guess I would pick up some local accents. Don't think I have much of any now. My paternal grandmother was born in Trier, Germany, but came over about age 3. She had NO German accent, but could speak German if asked. 

 

My father had a friend, also born in Germany. Don't know when he came over, but he had NO accent at all. Said he learned American by going to the movies repeatedly. He knew a kid from the same village in Germany, who also came over here, but never lost his heavy German accent. My Dad's friend called him "Heinz". The "kid" passed away recently...his name was Henry Kissinger! 

[Michigan Slim]

My cousins in Michigan told me I talked like a hillbilly after being in northern Indiana a few years.

Took a buddy up there walleye fishing and he made fun of my Michigan accent coming back after a couple days. German and Dutch area.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My family in Scranton,Pa have a little bit of an Irish accent, just a tinge, I guess it comes from the town being settled by mostly Irish way back when so if you're a Scrantonian you have a touch of an Irish accent no matter what nationality you are. My folks had a tinge of it in some words despite moving here to Cleveland in 1937. They never lost that.

[watab kid]

2 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said:

 

 ....... well, ....... I am one of the few on this forum who has NOT got an accent .......  

im quite sure thats true , in certain quarters , im also certain that you would stand out at our gunclub as much as my friend from the isle of man does when he visits every year , 

[Subdeacon Joe]

In high school my Spanish 3 teacher was from Chicago.  Even after being in California for over 20 years he had a very pronounced Chicago accent.  Castilian Spanish with a Chicago accent....

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/american-accent-quiz

[Alpo]

I took the test on that site. They decided I live in California. You can't get much further from California than Florida.