What does it mean when you have no accent?

Speaking with “no accent” is the same like not speaking in a dialect: it means you speak the dialect which has become the “official” one. They just think that they have a “neutral” accent, because that’s the way they expect everybody should talk.

Why do some people from the South not have an accent?

The authors suggest that Southerners do not categorize speakers of either accent as being alien, because they hear Northern accents at a young age from National news anchors, film and television characters. The kids in Chicago don’t have the same opportunity to hear a Southern accent.

Why do some people develop accents and others don t?

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. People who live in close contact grow to share a way of speaking, or accent, which will differ from the way other groups in other places speak.

Does every American have an accent?

Every single American has an accent. For those who have lived in one part of the country and then moved somewhere else only to be told “You have an accent!” this is great news. As Atlas Obscura put it: “Generally, Americans tend to believe that the accent they’re most familiar with is the most correct.”

Why does everyone have an accent?

Everyone has an accent, because an accent is simply how you sound when you speak. You might not think you have an accent, because you don’t sound British or Australian. Your particular accent thus develops naturally over time, and you usually sound a lot like the people who taught you to speak.

Why do some people have accents and not others?

People have accents because they match the sound patterns of the people around them. Small differences are reinforced, and eventually the people in one place begin to sound different from the people in another place. Note: I strongly recommend reading Quora User’s answer to Why do some people not have accents?

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.

What is the definition of an accent?

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.

What is the difference between British accent and American accent?

We identify the British accent with classicism and theater (thank you, Bill Shakespeare!), while the newer American accent is often associated with modernity. In Boston, for example, the influence of Irish settlers has led to a very distinct Bostonian accent, though the modern accent sounds nothing like the Irish one.