Why some people lose their accents but others don't – linguistic expert

By Jane Setter, Professor of Phonetics, University of Reading

The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It’s tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities.

Yet we can probably all think of examples of people who seem to have “lost” their regional or national accent and of others whose accent stays firmly in place.

Given the personal and social importance of how someone speaks, why would anyone’s accent…

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