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From: rte@anchor.ho.att.com (R.EDWARDS(HOY002)1305)
Subject: Re: Neurological language development in children?
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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 19:15:12 GMT
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In article <38mv30$d3m@nuscc.nus.sg>,
Anthea F Gupta <ellgupta@leonis.nus.sg> wrote:
>
>Accents aren't hard wired at all, and not by puberty.  There is good 
>evidence that people change the way they speak throughout their lives 
>depending on their identification with social groups (see Le Page & 
>Tabouret-Keller "Acts of Identity", or other books on sociolinguistics.
>
>Anthea

I think some cases need to be distinguished.

1. Changes in accent that require no change in phonemic assignment
are easy.

2. Changes that require only collapse of two phonemes to one are
also easy.

3. Changes that require splitting a phoneme are extremely difficult
for a native speaker.  People vary enormously in their ability
to split a antive phoneme in learning a foreign language, but well
motivated people can clearly do it.

For evidence of case three, discuss English w and v with a native of the
Indian subcontinent.  Chances are fair that they are not even
aware there is a difference.
