Can an accent ever be Lost ?

[history_itself]

Moderator Comment:
Original Title: Can the Scottish Brogue ever be Lost ?
To avoid concentrating on any particular group,
and to extend it towards a more general discussion,
the title has been changed.



Hello to all Our Forum's Valued Members,

Could some kindly person help us try to eliminate an itch we can't scratch.

“First”, “no” disrespect is meant to any Scottish Person or the Beloved Scottish Nation.

Is it possible for any 2 [Two] Persons born, bred, raised, schooled and married in Scotland. If they migrate to a Nation where English is the principal Language, for their Blood Families Siblings, to, over the Families Generations to loose their Scottish Brogue Totally between the Time Frame say of 1800 to 1970. In total 170 years ?

Or, is the outcome, once a Scotsman, always able to be discerned by the lingering Brogue, a Scottish Descendant ?

Thank you, to all, in  advance for your Valued Replys

                                    Fruitful Researching to You all,
                                                    Pam.

[JAP]

Ah Dave ^(*), you obviously have the Glesga Patter down pat - right down to the ASTERISK!!

And here it is:
http://www.tachras.com/journal/articles/patter/PatterEFG.htm

But anyone who's interested in the Glesga Patter would enjoy the whole series.

Then there's also a series with the Fife accent ...

Incidentally, my own late mother (1895-1976) still had Scots usages/pronunciations which had come down through her Aussie-born Grandmother from her Glasgow-born Greatgma who came to Australia ca 1852!

JAP



^(*) Moderator Comment: Dave's reply removed, unsuitable language

[PrueM]

I'm not sure I understand the question 

Are you asking whether, if two Scotspeople emigrated, say to Australia or America, and married, whether over the ensuing 170 years their descendants would lose the Scottish accent?  Unless they lived in a very isolated enclave of Scottish people, I would think the answer was quite obviously "yes".

Of course sayings, words and a few 'family' pronunciations might stay in the family, as JAP points out.

Why do you ask, anyway?

Prue

[bodger]

Without wishing to upset our more sensitive members, i would comment, we have lived in Ireland since 1970, with 1 daughter born here in Galway, i'm ex Yorks, my wife ex Lancs, whenever me meet new Irish friends, they always ask, where abouts in northern England are we from, yet visiting England i'm accused ?, of sounding Irish, and our daughter born here, speaks with a northern dialect, so i think an accent will remain, but for a 150 years?, i will hang on , and find out.
                                                          Bodger

[JAP]

Bodger,

I hope this doesn't identify anyone or upset anyone but ...

A friend b Italy, grew up in Aus, did tertiary studies in France ...

Is always picked (by accent) as Italian in France, as Australian in Italy, etc, etc ...

Funny old world!

I am wondering what will happen with my own grandchildren who have interesting mixed heritages ...

JAP

[kiwihalfpint]

I was always told my mother kept her scottish brogue ..... but to me there wasn't a brogue ..... but I lived with her so didn't notice ..... well I have been told that I don't exactly have a kiwi accent  and have always been mistaken for a South African accent.

KHP

[JustinL]

Hello Pam,

Accents will unavoidably be lost, if the speaker (with the accent) is immersed in an alien environment (i.e. one with a different accent or language even).

I have had an experience similar to Bodgers. I was born and grew up in England, but I spent most of the 1990s in Germany with my Irish wife. We moved here to Dublin in 2000. There were colleagues here who were surprised by the revelation that I was English - my accent indicated that I was German. At my cousin's wedding last summer, I was often asked which part of Ireland I came from.

Consciously or subconsciously we all attune our speech to the local vernacular.

Justin

[Galium]

Two examples I can think of:  

One friend born in Australia to Italian parents sounds totally Australian (to my ears anyway), as do her siblings.

A schoolfriend born in Lancashire to Scottish parents (father from Glasgow, mother from Edinborough)  sounded just as Lancashire as the rest of us at school.

In general I think children tend to speak as their peers do, rather than their parents.

[WHS1899]

My great grandmother was born in London to Scottish parents. She didn't have a Scottich accent, but picked up certain words that her parents used. For example "kirk" for church and "Wee" for small. On her daughters grave (she died aged 2) it refers to "Wee Maggie". Since then even these references have filtered out of the family.