Re: At what point (age) does learning a new language become futile?


phoglund@xxxxxx wrote:
mb wrote:
phoglund@xxxxxx wrote:
....
If there is a relatively stable pool of native speakers with the same
accent who share her variety and accept her as one of theirs, she is a
native speaker.

If you speak the Swedish variety of Finland, you will be perceived as
"having a Finnish accent" by speakers of metropolitan varieties.
However, you can be a monolingual speaker of that "accented" variety.
Are you then a native speaker of Swedish or not?

Of course, and there's no need to be monolingual either.
The question, though, is not that: How likely is a stranger who learned
Finnland-Swedish late in his life to pass himself as a local-born in
Turku or Helsinki --not somewhere else in the Swedish-speaking world.

Quite likely, actually, provided that s/he has associated with local
Swedish-speakers for a long time.

Sure, some people manage it, no contest there. Statistically speaking,
though, the majority would need, as you well say, a "long time". Very
long. Longer than their remaining lifetime.

.

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