LL-L "Language adaptation" 2003.12.04 (06) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 04.DEC.2003 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Brooks, Mark <mark.brooks at twc.state.tx.us>
Subject: LL-L "Language adaptation" 2003.12.04 (03) [E]

Jannie wrote:

"Maybe that's why, after 25 years, people tell me I still speak English with
a Dutch accent, although my Dutch nowadays also seems to have an English
accent, so they say..."

I had another professor who told us about other linguists who had learned so
many languages and sound systems that they spoke every language with a
foreign accent, even their first language!  And the other thing was that you
could never identify the accent, it was just foreign.

Which reminds me of a little occasion in which I was asked to read aloud a
proclamation of sorts that was written in German.  I had studied German for
a few semesters in college, but it had been a very long time.  So, I was
reading aloud, but not understanding anything of what I was reading.  When I
finished the person who had asked me to read said I sounded like I was
speaking German with a Hungarian accent!  How 'bout that?  Never have even
HEARD Hungarian spoken!  Oh well...

Mark

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language adaptation

Hey, Mark!

> When I
> finished the person who had asked me to read said I sounded like I was
> speaking German with a Hungarian accent!  How 'bout that?  Never have even
> HEARD Hungarian spoken!  Oh well...

Ah!  That gives me an idea of how your German sounds: something like Bela
Lugosi's and the Gabor Sister's English, or,  better still, like the German
of the for decades indestructable showgirl Marika Rökk (whom the "more
experienced" Germans and Austrians on the List may remember)!  ;-)

Mark, don't take observations like that too serious, unless they are
phoneticians'.  People will throw you in the nearest pot with others they
can think of.  My English "accent" -- especially when talking on the
phone -- has been classified as practically anything under the sun, ranging
from England English via Dutch, Hebrew and Farsi (Persian) to Korean and
Chinese.  To illustrate what can go on there, let me add that the person who
called me and thought I had an "Iranian accent" turned out to have an
Iranian son-in-law, and the people who thought I was Dutch, Israeli, Korean
or Chinese were influenced by my last name, associating it with Dutch (de)
Haan, Hebrew <כהן> Kahan (~ Cohen ~ Kohn), Korean <한> Hahn ~ Haan ~ Hahn and
Mandarin <漢> Hà n ~ <韓> Hán, whichever they were more familiar with.  This
goes to show you what terrific accent identifier people can be.  I say,
"Yeah, whatever ..."

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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