Why some people lose their accents but others don't - linguistic expert

[Behind the Aegis]

The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It’s tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities.

Yet we can probably all think of examples of people who seem to have “lost” their regional or national accent and of others whose accent stays firmly in place.

Given the personal and social importance of how someone speaks, why would anyone’s accent change?

You may think of your accent as a physical part of who you are — but a conscious or subconscious desire to fit in can influence the way you speak, whether you want it to or not. Research has shown a person’s accent will move towards that of the group of speakers with which they identify at some stage in their lives. Accents are a fluid feature of speech. If someone moves from Australia to the U.S. to work, for example, they will probably at least modify their accent, either consciously or unconsciously.

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[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. When I was 14 I moved from upstate NY to Tucson, AZ.

I joke that for the first two years no one could understand me when I spoke, not even my French teacher when I was speaking French. I was highly motivated to lose my accent, which took several years. For a long time after, I'd occasionally say a word that would allow some one to identify me as being originally from New York. That disappeared several decades ago. I think my current accent is more or less neutral/middle America. At least people have no trouble understanding me.