Re: History of French

From: Herman Rubin (hrubin_at_odds.stat.purdue.edu)
Date: 09/17/04 

Date: 17 Sep 2004 10:58:38 -0500

In article <3m7lk0d473u6aqgmla517qeqvnf13oo11n@4ax.com>,
Ruud Harmsen <realemailseesite01@rudhar.com> wrote:
>16 Sep 2004 16:50:54 -0500: hrubin@odds.stat.purdue.edu (Herman
>Rubin): in sci.lang:

>>>So why do grown-ups always have an accent? Even those who started
>>>early, and made a serious effort to perfectionate their accent in a
>>>foreign language?

>>There are adults who do not have a "foreign accent".

>They're are very very rare. And even then, the foreignness of their
>speech can usually still be detected, if you pay close enough
>attention.

What is a "foreign accent"? When our children were quite
young, we went through Canada from Michigan to New York.
The border officer asked us, as was common at the time,
where we were born. There was no problem with my wife's
New York accent, or my Chicago accent, but my children's
speech did not correspond to Oregon. That they grew up
in Michigan satisfied the officer.

Many students complained about my wife's accent. 

-- 
This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
hrubin@stat.purdue.edu         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558

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