<p>From childhood, do we mimic the dominant speech manners of those around us? Is it possible to develop accents in adulthood, from prolonged stays in foreign countries?</p>
<p>I think it’s possible to take on an accent in adulthood, mimicking how others around you speak… but the way you grew up speaking will come back when you’re out of control (say when you’re drunk or furious)</p>
<p>Little babies are born with all dialect sounds in there arsenal. The formation of letters and accents is copied by the infant from the people who are around them. It is possible for a person of a totally different culture to be able to sound not how you would expect. My cousin was adopted from India for example, but besides when she was very little she was not immersed in the culture, so she has the whitest accent you can imagine. There was this Asian dude in basic training who grew up in the south and had a thick southern accent. (kind of funny actually) Accents learned in adulthood are just annoying, from people copying their surroundings. Think of the Madonna’s fake British accent, or the many whigger accents that prevail today.</p>
<p>“Is it possible to develop accents in adulthood”</p>
<p>Lots of actors do that for movies: Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman…the list goes on.</p>
<p>what actors do is called imitating an accent. When they speak out of character, they still speak in their normal accent. The OP is talking about subconsciously acquiring a new accent, which is indeed possible. My sister spent nearly a year in South Africa, and came back with a britishy accent.</p>
<p>angelina and nicole kidman’s ‘acquired’ accents SUCK! they can do about 1 1/2 accents and they just keep doing the same accent in all of their movies. Omg, Angelina in Alexander and Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder, horrid!</p>
<p>My aunt lived in Vietnam until 20 or so. She’s about 40 now, and she has a mid-western American accent (i.e. “no” accent at all) in English.</p>
<p>I used to talk like a girl from the valley. I don’t anymore. But then again, I’m not an adult.</p>
<p>I talked to this woman the other day. She was around 60, and she lived in the US for 43 years. She’s from England, and her accent is still HEAVILY English. I was surprised she said “years” and not “days.”</p>
<p>From my surprise, she said, “I don’t believe people can lose their accents conciously.”</p>
<p>I think part of it varies person to person, though. I have two friends who moved to the US at about the same time, one from mainland China and one from Taiwan. They’ve both been here almost 7 years, but one sounds about as Americanized as possible when speaking English and the other still has a really heavy Asian accent. She also has a bit worse English, but neither one spoke English before they got to the US.</p>