accent reduction

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Susan Ervin-Tripp's mention of a French bilingual who "enriched" her
French accent reminds me of something I observed when I lived in France
for 2 years some 45 years ago. I noticed that Americans who spoke French
often spoke with a "stronger" American accent when they were in mixed
(French and American) company than when they were speaking to French
speakers only. I concluded (after some smirking I picked up on (Who's he
trying to impress?)  when I didn't do this) that they wanted to convey to
their fellow Americans that they weren't giving something up (their
American identity?) by cow-towing to French culture by trying to
approximate a better French accent.  So it was clear to me that these
folks could control their accents if they wanted to--speaking "better"
French when they weren't being overhead by Americans, and worse when they
were.  This despite the fact that a really bad accent in French earns you
nothing from French speakers but derision and even ostracism.

Hal Schiffman