Are accents inherited or developmental?

[Shroom Man 777]

But for folks who are well-versed in English as well, they can seemingly switch from English to Bisaya. And then when these are actually from Chinese families, the very Chinese families, then suddenly they end up conversing in fluent Fukien. AND speak to Manila dudes in Tagalog. Oh man.

[Ilya Muromets]

But for folks who are well-versed in English as well, they can seemingly switch from English to Bisaya. And then when these are actually from Chinese families, the very Chinese families, then suddenly they end up conversing in fluent Fukien. AND speak to Manila dudes in Tagalog. Oh man.

Even if they're fluently multilingual, it still happens. Especially if one language has been used in the conversation has been more dominant in usage than the other. Suddenly shifting, even if not in mid-sentence, will usually still produce some oddities in intonation and inflection. Even if you're not actively thinking about it, your brain still needs to adjust. Plus, you originally said "mixing" in the English with the Bisaya, which is a whole other beast than shifting from one language to the other. Oddities in the pronunciation of the mixed in word happen more often and more notably than shifting from one to the other. Especially if the languages have different intonational systems.

[UnderAGreySky]

Two anecdotes:

1) the bus driver I interact with regularly came over from Pakistan in the eighties. He speaks a delightful Punjabi-accented Urdu, but when he switches from one phone call to another he goes from Punjabi-Urdu to British-accented English in the blink of an eye.

2) More pertinent to the original question - a friend of mine (Indian) was working in London and he had a curiously American accent (said 'esk' instead of 'aask' for 'ask'). When I asked why, he told me that his team in London is multi-national - Irish boss, Indian, German and French colleagues. But all of his clients are American, and he has to deal with them on the phone. And with clients, you've got to be clear in communication, so his accent has gradually moved across the atlantic!

[andrewgpaul]

In answer to the original question, not sure about a 4-year-old Londoner, but if you ake an 8-year-old Glaswegian and send him to Illinois for the next dozen years, you get this:

John Barrowman on Jonathan Ross (compare his accent from 2 minutes in to that at about 9.40. Or compare it to this clip.