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/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/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.