Table of Contents
- 1 At what point do two dialects of the same language become two different languages?
- 2 Can there be multiple accents within a dialect?
- 3 How do Sociolinguists differentiate between dialect and a language?
- 4 Why do accents disappear when singing?
- 5 What are some languages that sound similar to each other?
- 6 Do all foreign speakers have an accent?
At what point do two dialects of the same language become two different languages?
Historically, when two dialects are in close enough continuous contact with each other, they will often remain mutually intelligible. With enough separation in time and space, though, dialects will eventually turn into separate languages as the two become more and more distinct.
Can there be multiple accents within a dialect?
When we come across other distinct groups, it’s possible to pick up another accent, either by choice or by long-term exposure.
Do accents turn into languages?
Strong accents are not languages. When an American hears a Cockney accent (or a Cockney hears an Minnesota accent), it’s easy to get the impression of entirely different languages: they sound so different.
Do different languages have different accents?
It’s how you sound when you speak. Everyone has one, whether you think you do or you don’t. Those who speak English as a second language have what many regard as “foreign” accents, but even native speakers have some sort of accent, however subtle. Each language around the world focuses on differing sounds.
How do Sociolinguists differentiate between dialect and a language?
The key difference between language and dialect in sociolinguistics is their mutual intelligibility. That is, if speakers of two varieties of a language can understand each other, then those varieties are considered to be dialects; if they are unable to understand each other, those varieties are separate languages.
Why do accents disappear when singing?
A person’s accent is easily detectable when they are speaking at normal speed. When singing, the pace is often slower. As a result, regional accents can disappear because syllables are stretched out and stresses fall differently than in normal speech.
What age accents develop?
Comparing the two results, it is estimated that children start to recognize different accents at the age of 5 and start to develop their own accents. For that reason, it is recommended to increase children’s exposure to different accents between age 5 to 7 for them to develop an unique accent that fits themselves.
Why do people have different accents in different languages?
This sounds wrong, or ‘foreign’, to native speakers of the language. The other kind of accent is simply the way a group of people speak their native language. This is determined by where they live and what social groups they belong to.
What are some languages that sound similar to each other?
Italian, Chinese and Arabic are languages with ‘dialects’ that can seem like very different languages. The former Yugoslavia, on the other hand, has a number of ‘languages’ that sound an awful lot like dialects of each other (in my opinion).
Do all foreign speakers have an accent?
In reality, everybody has an accent – in somebody else’s opinion! Why do foreign speakers have trouble pronouncing certain sounds? People have trouble with sounds that don’t exist in the language (or languages) that they first learned as a young child. We are born capable of both producing and perceiving all of the sounds of all human languages.
Are there accents that are grammatically similar but different in pronunciation?
So what about accents that are grammatically similar (as in standard US and British English), but differ in pronunciation? There is one prominent example of this that I can think of, namely X-Files actress Gillian Anderson.