On accents and language acquisition

In December as I was happily packing my bags, the topic of accents and how one speaks was weaving and winding merrily through various expat blogs. It was part of a meme that involved one speaking and commenting on one's own accent and speaking online for the blog world. There were many lovely voices from all corners of the English and non-English speaking world and all flavors of accents.

Alas, I did not find a Philadelphia blogger posting to listen to the melodic sounds, nor did I feel obligated to contribute my own for a few reasons. First, I recognize that I've lost (or misplaced) a good deal of my Philly sound. I was hoping I'd find it again over the ten days when I was there recently. However, it seems that it is carefully packed away in tissue paper in a box safe in the back of a drawer somewhere there, only to be take out on special occasions.

I grew up with a pleasant Philly sound, as we all did there. Growing up, my mother's side of the family had arrived in the area from West Virginia in 1965-1968. I represent the new beginning, I was the first one born 'up north'. However, being so heavily surrounded by the gentle Appalachian sound I can easily slide into it myself. Growing up I never noticeably picked up the difference of it except on occasional words.

In 1997 I left the area and went to grad school in Washington DC. After that I went and worked in Atlanta for 8 months. Then I went to California for four years, until coming to the UK in early 2003 for five months, and then I've been in Germany since 2003. I've always thought that if you spend much of your early years or teenage years in a location, you will speak primarily with that sound. If you spend 21 years of your life somewhere you cannot drop it like you were never there.

However, some recent interesting pieces:
After a sardine experience with hundreds of other Americans squashing through inadequate security at Paris to connect to my flight to Philly I started to talking to someone in line. Nice enough guy, late 40's, former military stationed in Germany, but now in Switzerland also going home. The usual "standing in line but in a good mood because we're going home small talk" and he says "going to Philly but you're not from there..." Um, no, really. Then he says "oh really, you don't sound like it." Yeah, I know.

Then, over the holidays a cousin had assembled some home videos of years past. One of them includes myself on a bit of a diatribe of teenage drivel around age 15. Holy crap, I never could have imagined the pure Philly sounds coming out of my mouth. I'm not even sure I could shift into such sounds now even if I really tried.

In researching these thoughts further, I came across an interview in USA Weekend (February 20-22, 1998), the folks who make USA Today. It is an interview with Kim Delaney, one of Philly's finest homegrown actresses, here:
It says: To lose a Philly accent: "You have to open your mouth and pronounce every syllable," says this Philadelphia native, who finessed her speech by reading newspapers aloud. "The bottom lip doesn't move as much in a Philly accent."

Well isn't that just interesting? Often in Germany, when someone is making an attempt to speak English, I am careful to speak carefully in order to honor their attempt. We tend to drop letters off of the end of words in Philly-speak, or to speak low and fast. Here in Germany I speak a little more slowly than I would at home and am careful to sanitize my words so that they arrive clearly and as expected. I speak with Americans perhaps one hour total once per week on average. The rest of my 'speaking' time here is with Europeans. The only English I am exposed to is British or Irish.

Which leads me to further thoughts. Often, people have an expectation that learning another language as an adult is too difficult, or Germans says that 'learning German is difficult for English speakers.' To that I say 'blah'. Based on my constant exposure to Germans and how words spill forth, I think it would be harder NOT to learn German based on how so much of it has just slipped into my mind through constant exposure to it.

A few weeks back one of my colleagues from Spain was here. It was refreshing to me as I can move about in Spanish with very little effort. Since I majored in Spanish literature at the university level I acquired a high facility with the language. However, Spanish (of mainly a Puerto Rican or Dominican variety) permeates the Philly area so it wasn't as impressive as if I have gained a high level of a non-local language, such as French or Swedish. All of which further reinforces to me that it is not formal schooling but rather the amount of language exposure that molds your acquisition.