Why do people have accents?

[PsychoSkitz]

How do people with two parents from NY (who both have a NY
"accent" -- the parents don't have to be from NY, they can be from FL and have a southern accent, etc) who are born in say, Pennsylvania, get an accent?

Do they subconsciously try to talk like that because their friends do or is there something else?

 

[smoknjilly]

that is a very good question...I think it comes from living in an area where everyone has a certain "accent", hearing it over and over, and somehow it unconsciously comes out in your own speech.

I am from NY yet went to college in new orleans...however I do not have a NY accent, while my parents totally do.

When I moved back here after college I said "Ya'll" etcetc..the people here were like..what are you saying?? I didn't even realize I was doing it...

 

[GaryWary]

well fuck me.. an intelligent question.

will wonders never cease?

 

[HappyScrappy]

in the states the originated from mispronnounciations (sp?) as various cultures started mixing - say someone from Turkey comes over, and someone comes over from Norway, one from Russia, one from China - in each of their native languages, there are certain base ... fuck, I think they are called phenomes, but I might be off - they are the base sounds of the language.
for the most part humans in general only use a certain base set, and then there are variations off of that - but if you have grown up using only one subset of that, then it is hard to change - for instance the Brits tend not to say the "R", in China there is no "el" sound, hence why they have problems with it.
The accents come from people trying to learn english after learning anohter language first. Then as children are born into it, they aquire it b/c they pick it up from that around them.
In today's age where there are teachers that kids learn from instead of just their family, it introduces outside factors as well - hence why a child might have a different accent from their parents based on the region. There are regional sounds based on what various nationalities have lived there since America was started.

The better question is why do humans have varied languages - some look to the bible for answers to this, others to science. either way, it is an interesting field.

 

[needleboy]

It has to do with the native language of the early settlers of a given area, and a mixtuere of those accents. New Orleans is a great example with the French/Creole/Cajun influence.

 

[HappyScrappy]

interestingly enough, it has been shown that you can tell frequently what language someone speaks by how they look - aside from the assumption that someone that looks Asian likely speaks Chinese (which is likely a poor assumption if it is a Westerner trying to make the observation) - when speaking one language all your life, your facial muscles that support the various phenomes (again, i should look up if that is even the right word) will be more developed than that of someone speaking a language that uses a different set of phenomes. then when you switch languages, those muscles are more likely still to be used, even if that phenome is no lnger appropriate to that language - so you get mispronnouciations.

on a side note: in your own culture, mine being white ass american - it is easy for me to distinguish between others of my race and class and determine what are threats and what I am dominate over due to both verbal and non-verbal indications.
but if you send me to Japan, or India, or Africa - I will have to relearn what are threats to me since the indications as to what are threats and what aren't are totally different in those cultures.
this is something important to take into account when travelling and partly why American tourists tend to look like such assholes when abroad since they tend to make no effort at all to learn this.

 

[The Shadow]

Translating all the above from Scrap:

I(Scrappy) can run around buck-naked and fling poo at people in America and they know not to invade my 2 feet of personal space. I go to somewhere, like Africa, and the monkey's all think that it is a mating dance.

 

[HappyScrappy]

corn - very observant. I must say that I've learned that one the hard way. monkey rape is one thing - but gorillas... totally different.
better make that 3 feet.

 

[XBiker]

It has to do with the native language of the early settlers of a given area, and a mixtuere of those accents. New Orleans is a great example with the French/Creole/Cajun influence.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Makes me wanna go to Cafe Creole.