Do accents really fade?

for the most part, yes.

My wife was born in Russia and her and her family came to the US when she was a child (she's 31 now)

Her father had a pretty strong accent from what I remember (I've only met him a couple times), but her mother speaks perfect English with a tiny bit of a Slavic/Russian accent. My wife and her older brother have no trace of an accent.
 
Yes, my Boston accent rarely comes out. My dad, born in Iraq, after 40 years you'd never be able to tell
 
Yes. My brothers and sisters use to have an accent growing up but now you wouldn't be able to tell Spanish is their first language. My mother still has a savage accent but thats because she only speaks English when she needs to.
 
They do start to fade, but normally they're still very noticeable if you've had that accent for longer than 5 years or so. My uncle has a Kentucky Country accent and to this day I still only understand about 60% of what he says.
 
My parents moved from rural Florida to Alaska when they were in their 30s, and by the time I was done with high school (25 years later, give or take), my mom's Southern accent had diminished dramatically. People in AK thought it was strong, but compared to people in FL it was much more mild. About 2 years ago they moved back to FL, and even after 25 years away, her accent is already starting to come back. My dad grew up in the same town as her and he's never had a Southern accent at all, to the best of my knowledge, despite being surrounded by people that all do (including his 9 siblings and his parents). Accents are weird.
 
Yes.
Born in rural Mississippi, split my time between parents one of whom lived in Portland, OR so there was some intercultural influence, but growing up, I had a crazy thick southern accent.

Once I broke into the white collar world in Chicago, I dropped it completely since the novelty of talking about it and pretending to laugh got old after the first week. Also, some people presume you're less intelligent if you're from the south; this misdirection could be a huge advantage in some fields but in mine, it was not.

It's gone now, but I can (and sometimes, subconsciously do) slide back into it when I'm with family.
 
Yeah , I used to have an Island Accent, not much but its noticeable when I talk to other islanders from Saipan but I've been living on the east coast for 6 years then I move to California people from Saipan say my accent has really changed
 
Yes. I've develop like 4 accents being a military brat and moving around so much when I was younger.

Now I don't know what I am.
 
It's the other way around for me.
When I lived back home, I didn't have much of a local accent. People would always ask me where I was from.
Now, when I live across the country, I notice myself talking in a really thick accent.. The same one I didn't have before. Maybe it's my homesickness speaking... :icon_lol:
 
The world is almost completely culturaly co-opted from the speed and exposure of ideas language, customs, and expression.

Not only do accents fade, they will go away completely one day when all verbal proximity disappears into one giant string of unified youtube videos that establish the one boring ass standard.
 
Mine's a bit confused like Link said, I did a lot of moving around in the army as a kid. Thankfully my 18 month stint in the midlands didn't stick.
 
I will say thank god my Thick southern accent isn't as strong as before. But you can hear it sometime when I say certain words or vocab.

I can however switch back to it if I want and sound completly different living in SC for 5 years.
 
I have no Russian anymore accent but my sister who is 7 years older has one.

My parents...dreadful.
 
Knicks 4 Life said:
Do you know people who have had distinct accents and fade over time in the new environment they live in? I've seen people from NY with strong accents fade over time from living in California and people from England who have accents also seem to change from living in the US for a long time.
Click to expand...

Of course they fade. I am from Bristol in england now living in the South, my accent is now such that it sounds out of place in both areas.
 
my mother is Australian, but has lived in the US for the past 30 years, her accent is gone. She's under the impression that if she stayed in Australia it would immediately come back. I have no idea if it would or not, but it would be a bit of a mindfuck if it did.
 
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