Thursday, October 1, 2009

Is it possible to pick up an Irish accent if I live in Ireland for a while

Is it possible to pick up an Irish accent if I live in Ireland for a while?
If i were to go to ireland and be there for a while, would i eventally pick up the irish accent and start to talk like that naturally? im 19 by the way if that matters.
Other - Ireland - 14 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Its possible. I think you are.
2 :
You might pick up a slight one, but you will still sound like your original nationality. You'd have to live there for a long while for it to be a permanent change. It's like when people visit the American South, you start talking a little like them; it's infectious, it's not even a choice. But you will never sound 100% Irish. You should never deliberately try to speak differently than normal though, it will just come across as phony. I know a few Irish people who moved to the US and lost most of their accent, but you can still tell that they are Irish. Same thing.
3 :
Might be. Depends on how well you pick up accents. Try to pick a nice Irish accent. There are several.
4 :
It depends on whether or not you're spending a couple of weeks there as a tourist or actually planning to live there for a few years. It also depends on how susceptible you are to picking up accents - I know someone who 'picks up' accents & to be quite honest, most people dealing with her regard it as annoying. If you are just a tourist passing through, people will think you're taking the p*ss.
5 :
Depends on how well you pick up accents and whether you want to pick it up or not. If you try to pick it up, you probably will in a few years. If you resist it and want to keep your original accent you probably never will pick up the Irish one. And the Northern Irish accent is among the most infectious in the world, I started to pick it up after a week!
6 :
am prob not especially as each city has a dif accent.
7 :
unless you force yourself to talk with our accent,it will take a while for your accent to change. why would you want to change your accent anyway?
8 :
anythings possible..............
9 :
Ok, now that I have stopped laughing at the story of the American exchange student who came back with a German accent.... It is possible for your accent to change after a while (a long while..years) but you would still hear a hintof your original accent. It's generally only young children who totally lose their accents. A friend of mine moved here from Manchester in England when she was 4. (24 years ago) Her mother still speaks in a broad Manchester accent, and you can't detect even a hint of a change in it, while my friends accent has almost totally changed, but you can still hear a hint of an English accent in certain words she says (even after all this time)
10 :
My partner has lived here for a few years now (he's from england) he still has his strong London accent although certain words ive noticed such as three he used to say "free" but now like my lack of proper pronunciation he says "tree" sounds hilarious so i definitely think you shouldn't try to pick up a different accent, love your own :)
11 :
Only if you were there for a very long time.
12 :
Only a hint, you would never have a full Irish accent. Really you'll just pick up sayings and phrases Only really very young children change accents completely. I know of people who've lived in a country for years and their accents have never changed Besides why can't people just be happy with the accent they already have, i don't understand why people so badly want an Irish accent lately
13 :
u would need to be here for awhile, like 4 to 5 years or more! why do u want to have an irish accent?
14 :
I agree with all those people but as well it would depend where you go. Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Donegal are probably the most distinctive accents so if you went somewhere like that you would have more of a chance of picking up an accent than if you were in Clare or Westmeath or somewhere like that. **edit** also where are you from? It might depend on how strong an accent you have already. I have a somewhat neutral accent, thus when I go to a different part of Ireland I always pick up whatever the local accent is.





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