Accents

            I have had a theory for a while. Maybe it requires a little more research than I have done but, as an English Major, I think it is a logical thing to question.

            Have you ever noticed how, in movies, there is a character who is “obviously” American by their American accent, but later in the story they turn out to be, say, a Russian spy? When the protagonist makes this discovery, the spy removes all pretenses and reverts back to speaking English with a Russian accent.

            My question is: if this spy went through all the education and possible speech therapy needed to speak English without a hint of their Russian accent, basically improving their English skills, why would they revert back to their earlier English skills as if they never undertook the endeavor of eliminating their accent?

            Here’s my reasoning. When I learned Spanish in high school, I most definitely had an accent and I’m sure I still do whenever I try to speak Spanish. If I took more classes and spent all the hours necessary to improve my skills and eliminate my American accent, then I would speak the most improved version I learned every time. If someone found out I was really an American, other than by my obvious American looks, would I really keep speaking Spanish but revert back to the earlier version I spoke with the American accent? I would know the correct way of pronouncing the phrase “Hablo espanol,” but, instead, would say, “Yow a-blow es-pan-yol.” I find it hard to believe that I would ignore the skills I accumulated in Advanced Spanish and revert back to my Elementary Spanish skills.

            In addition, I spoke about this with another English Major friend of mine, who studied abroad in Spain and is very much more advanced in learning and speaking a foreign language than I am. He said he could totally see my point, followed by a very interesting discussion on the topic. Can you say, “English nerds”?

            Different languages contain different phonetic sounds. For example, some languages do not contain the “th” sound, which is common in the English language, and speakers of other languages, who have not learned and mastered the pronunciation of that sound, may compensate with the “z” or “s” sounds. “Ze sought of valking in ze dark frightens me.” That is a very rough and basic example.

            It may involve more research but, to us, it really does not make sense, realistically, for someone to revert back to their earlier stages of linguistic development. Granted, we are talking about movies here. It is all done for effect and accuracy usually has nothing to do with entertainment. However, although this idea intrigues me, it bothers me and, as the title of this blog states, I am strange and I just had to write something about it.