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I did not wish to completely derail Julia's thread so decided to start my own.
Another aspect of languages, dialects and such is our ability to adapt to, even adopt the speech patterns of those around us. I am from Oklahoma Dust Bowl stock and when I get around them quickly begin to sound like them.
Back around 2008-9, a UK woman of Punjabi descent stayed with me about three months while she was in the states studying. I was terribly lonely at the time, so she was a welcome distraction. She was raised in the North of London, having been born there to her Punjabi parents. By the time she left, I was speaking perfect Londonese and continued to do so for weeks afterward. Oddly, when nervous, I still revert to that accent. A speech pathologist once told me that such adaptation is common among humans.
One phenomenon that I have not understood is that my own written language varies in the same way.
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Intresting facts
I have about the same relation to German. Due to dyslexia I never got a good note in German language while in school. But now after having visited Germany so many summers on vacation, I start even to dream in German from the third night while on vacation travels. And to change to different types of English it has been the same way. On one of my visits to the US I got to chat with some persons from Seattle while waiting for the bus. And after a short while they asked if I came from Ireland. It was just a sign of how I had "learned" to use that melody of speaking from the Irish' Pub where I had my Sunday dinners. It is amazing how we get our language "colored" by what we hear from persons around us! Ginnie
GinnieG
AYUP
That seems to happen to a lot of us. Several years ago, I spent two weeks with friends in Bangor, Maine (ayup, down east) after the first week, I was fooling locals in thinking I was a neighbor of Steven King! I got funny looks when I returned home to Boston, Mass.
Karen
Assimilation
We try to blend in for a variety of reasons. For those of us in the LGBT ranks, we have a very real insight into what it means to blend in, however assimilation is not a good or bad thing.
1. We do it to make those around us more comfortable. My grandfather is from Texas and grew up poor white trash having been born in a cotton pickers shack and taken out of school in 2nd grade to work in the fields. My father has a degree and spent his life in the military on bases around the globe. When we visit paw-paw, my dad slips into a very Texas redneck accent. He alters his tone, inflection, speech pattern, and colloquial phrases to match his father, and it is purely subconscious. When we point it out later, he would deny it, but we have since recorded him and he is completely shocked.
2. We do it to communicate more effectively. In many jobs, we have a particular language that we use, like a verbal code that helps us communicate easier.
3. We do it to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. We sometimes just want to feel like a part of the crowd and not be the center of attention.
4. We do it to draw attention to ourselves. We use it to impress others sometimes without consciously realizing it. By making ourselves stand out we can draw the attention of those to whom we may be attracted.
5. We rarely realize that we absorb language and culture through a social osmosis. I was born in Okinawa, lived in the PI and HI before arriving in San Diego at the age of 7. I lived there for 8 years and then moved to Texas when my father retired. Everyone in Texas remarked on my accent (as if California has a regional accent) and in the almost 9 years since moving to Texas, I have been back to California several times and everyone remarks on my 'Texas Twang'.
As to written language, we write the language as we form it in our minds. If I write a story with multiple characters, their conversation will vary based on how I visualize/hear them speak. A truly gifted author has a knack for differentiating speech patterns among characters to the point that the words can tell you who is speaking without the author needing to point it out.
waif
Be kind to those who are unkind, tolerant toward those who treat you with intolerance, loving to those who withhold their love, and always smile through the pains of life.
Hmmm...
I was taken in by two women from Ireland when I was fourteen years old. I was so ready to lose everything that reminded me of my nightmare back in Boston that I began to consciously adopt the most charming brogue of one lady. Her accent was quite noticeable and I found the 'music' of it most attractive. By the time I began school some four months later, everyone thought I was a foreign student. There were two other Irish students attending this particular school. My brogue was so perfect that they both thought I was from the county she was born in!!!