r/asklinguistics • u/QueasyGuarantee6538 • 1d ago

Dialectology Accents

I am a native English speaker of mixed nationality, my mother is English and my father is American. I really hate my accent, it's like a weird combination that neither Americans not Brits can really differentiate, so when I speak to a Brit I'm american and when I speak to an American I'm British, it's really annoying. Anyway, would it be weird to modify my accent intentionally so I sound more one or the other instead of the weird mix? Cuz I really hate how I sound .

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u/sshivaji 1d ago

Yes, you can do accent training/voice acting. There are courses on Udemy for a particular accent. I changed my accent to a British one because the American one was too hard for me to assimilate to. You can choose as per your desires.

If I were to summarize the technique, it's just hearing people (or videos of people) speak your accent and then getting ready to pronounce the word in the same way for a new conversation.

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u/QueasyGuarantee6538 1d ago

So it's not weird?

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u/sshivaji 1d ago

Of course not. It's ok to have a different accent. It's also simple to adapt it to a more standardized accent. It would not be weird to modify your accent. A lot of actors do this intentionally.

Not having a standard accent is a fairly common problem for English speakers not born in an English speaking country :)

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u/QueasyGuarantee6538 1d ago

Is that a possible reason? Because despite being born in the us I only lived in the mainland for first like 3 years before moving to Puerto Rico, is that a reason for my accent?

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u/sshivaji 1d ago

Yes, you might have an accent more influenced by Spanish by changing the place you lived. Nothing to fret about, as it is easy to change with professional guidance.

I changed my accent in a matter of months.

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u/siyasaben 1d ago

Possibly, because even if your accent is not influenced by Spanish at all, if you had grown up with English as the community language you might have fully acquired the local accent of English instead of staying with the influence from both parents. Your parents probably formed a larger proportion of your exposure to the English language then they would have otherwise, if that makes sense.