Day 5

Talking about linguistic diversity made me think more about my language. Obviously, I speak English, but with what accent, slang words, or dialect? I speak with a Minnesotan accent and I am very proud of that. If I am away from home for too long and start to lose it I get scared that it will never come back. But it always does, when I talk to someone from home on the phone or the minute I step off the plane. My boyfriend is going to school in Idaho and we both make fun of the way they talk out there. But I can tell that he is starting to pick up their accents a little bit already. This all made me think that accents are not concrete, they are fluid. You can lose, change, or pick up accents in just a few weeks time. Our desire to fit in with those around us causes us to speak like them, even if that is not how we were taught. I wonder if this is true for immigrants. If English is not your first language can you still talk with an English accent? Or will you always have the accent of your home language streaming through the English words? I have a little bit of insight on this because of my aunt from Finland. She has been learning English since she was a little girl. She has been speaking English almost solely for the last 15 years. But still, with certain words...she has an accent, the kind that shows she's from a different country. When speaking, we put emphasis on certain letters and syllables. My aunt puts the emphasis in different places than we do. Even after trying to learn, she can not pronounce my sister's name right. To her, Mackenzie is MaCKenzie.