January 22, 2008

Languages

I have been fascinated with languages this semester ever since my 232-231 fiasco in Spanish. Although now being in 231 I understand everything the teacher is saying, today I began to think about learning other languages.

Being from the United States, we obviously realize that our english is much different than proper english, or that that we imagine to be spoken in England.

Mostly referring to: the accent.

Then I began to think, if a native speaker of a language other than english went to England, or was taught by someone who was from England, would their newly acquired english be spoken with an accent?

Most of the time when someone is learning spanish from a Spaniard, they start to develop the 'theta' that Spaniards use, as opposed to Mexicans, Dominicans, etc.  

So could this be true for people learning english?

3 comments:

josh klimaszewski said...

russian accent extends to "peasant" words that show you're of a lower class if you speak of them. most are the most ancient words in the entire language

colleen said...

this is very true.

there was a kid in one of my classes last semester who was a native of korea but moved to the uk at some point in his life where he learned english... he definitely had a british accent.

i think this is always true... like, learning english in alabama versus learning english in new york. there are accents within continental boundaries, so it makes one wonder where the "boundaries" for those accents are. state lines? longitudinal/latitudinal lines? etc.

forker girl said...

Some of the ways influence and exposure shapes, frames.

In many ways I like, perhaps in part because I'm not much (directly) framed (anymore) via (direct) brutal encounters; I like how encounters leave evidence, how there is some form of exchange (to, in part, frame and shape outcomes of encounter).