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Many Americans, regardless of immigration history, speak with neutral accents.
In general, second+ generation immigrants speak like their peers where they were raised, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a regional accent.
No not really, regional accents are dying out and most people speak w a neutral accent such as the one you’d hear on the news.
My parents have an accent, but I certainly do not besides maybe a few here and there vocab choices/select few pronunciations, 2nd generation immigrants tend to be the same way. One of my best friend’s parents are from Quebec and he basically sounds the same way I do.
I have no idea if someone is a 2nd or later generation American to even have an opinion about this. I would assume they would have just as much of an American accent(s) as anyone else though.
>Do they speak with a neutral accent or those regional/state accents?
This is one and the same. There is no 1 neutral accent, they all are regional accents, to a degree.
I’m honestly a bit confused what you mean by 2nd and later generation immigrants.
Mostly no, because many second generation Americans live in or near big cities, which, thanks to a variety of factors, tend to have people who speak with more “neutral” accents. So that is what they grow up with. The regional accents are getting more rare, and are now mostly a rural/small town thing.
That being said, sometimes there are some specific exceptions. For example, Latinos in NYC who speak in a distinctive “New York Latino” dialect, or second-generation Vietnamese in Louisiana who speak with a classic Southern accent.
Usually a neutral accent. I did meet a Chinese-American scientist once who spoke with the thickest Bronx accent I’ve ever heard, so it’s not no one.
In general, the cutoff is around 8 years old.
If you came to the US before you were 8, you probably speak with whatever accent your peers would use. If you game to the US after that, you probably have at least some degree of an accent based on your home country.
Who your peers are will obviously change based on where you live, I know Chinese Americans with general American accents, white Texas accents, and black Texas accents, depending on where in the state they grew up.
Likewise, I know Mexican Americans with as many as 10 different accents.
The most interesting was I once taught a student who moved from Shanghai to Mexico City to Houston. He spoke Spanish with a Chinese accent, because he learned Spanish while speaking Chinese, but he learned English in classes where everybody else was a native Spanish speaker in inter-city Houston so he spoke with a hyrbid Mexican/Chinese/Southern Black accent that I couldn’t pin down
Children of immigrants who grow up here will often have the dialect of their piers or where they grew up. Sometimes that’s distinctly regional, sometimes it’s not because everyone is different. But it def can be very regional, my mothers first language is not English but she grew up here and has a noticeable boston/new england accent
And usually by the third generation of being in the US people are assimilated to US culture
I’m Asian-American and IME people speak with whatever accent their peers had around them growing up. That’s generally neutral because there aren’t many regional accents anymore in general, but they’re out there.
I’m 4th Gen. My 3rd Gen dad has a slight Chicago accent and I have a mild St Louis accent.
My 2nd Gen grandparents grew up in immigrant communities in Hawaii and Washington and mostly had hybrid accents. My paternal grandpa had a Hawaiian accent which is sort of a hybrid accent itself.
[Here’s a clip of a 2nd+ generation Chinese-American lady with a native Mississippi Delta accent.](https://youtu.be/2NMrqGHr5zE?t=91)
[Here are some 2nd+ Gen Chinese and Korean Americans having a conversation with native LA accents](https://youtu.be/LE2LwsH0w-o?t=345)
Here’s an Asian-American woman with what appears to be a very thick “hood” Bronx or Brooklyn accent? [Almost like the Brooklyn variant of the AAVE accent? I’m not even sure what this is.](https://youtu.be/ROKc3GEqfTM?t=19) Someone from there will have to tell me.
Until a generation or so ago, they spoke with regional accents. Not so much anymore.
It completely depends. There are some second gen immigrants that will have a foreign accent, but there are many that would have no accent (other than their local regional American accent).
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My dad is a second generation immigrant, moved when he was 17 and is a doctor. He has to use highly technical english every day for his job for the past 25 years, yet he still has a strong foreign accent. My neighbor is also second gen, moved after my dad to the states, and is a stay at home mom, yet she has no accent at all. Some people just catch on to languages faster and can get rid of accents easier. Also depends on how early they learned English.
Most of the ones I know personally speak with a completely native regional accent if they live somewhere that has them.
I know immigrants that speak with New England accents, but I think it’s because they learned English here.
Watch the movie Fargo. Everyone has the Midwest accent no matter what ethnicity they are.
Depends. The strongest regional accents require being steeped in the local accent in your formative years, and it helps if you don’t move states during that time. In general there has been a decline in strong regional accents, perhaps as media becomes more and more national and monoculture takes over.
That said, my sister has a neutral accent and my BIL is a 1st gen immigrant, and their daughter living outside of NYC totally has the New Yawk “r,” even tho it didn’t come from her parents.
Apparently my grandmother, who was second generation, had a Brooklyn accent and got rid of when she was a teacher because the accent was regarded as “too Jewish” by people in charge. My grandfather never lost it tho (think Bernie Sanders), despite them living in San Francisco for my mom’s whole life. And she absorbed a few things from him (Yuge, Yuman beings) despite that not being a west coast thing. I don’t have that part.
I spend the ages of 3-9 in Virginia, but didn’t truly pick up a high Southern accent, tho maybe if I were around it, it would come up. Being in Wisconsin for a years, I have a little bit of the Wisgonsin “a” sound occasionally. Like in *Fargo*, but toned down by 98%.
Most speak native english with the local regional accent. I fit into this description as a 2nd gen latino from New England.
A notable exception could be 2nd gen latinos in New York that speak spanish as a first language. Since spanish is spoken at home and in the community, many will only speak english in school. They develop an accent that is unique to children of latino immigrants.
First generation here (family came here when my dad was in his 20s). We pick up the accent of where we learn to speak.
You take on the accent you grow up around at school, for the most part.
They tend to talk with the accent they’re raised around.
I had a funny interaction with a classmate from Mexico. When speaking Spanish he would speak with his normal Spanish regional accent (he was from Chihuahua), but speaking english, he would pronounce Spanish words with a midwest American accent – Think Peggy Hill from King of the Hill. The one that cracked em up was the TV station Univision (un-ee-vis-see-on) would be Uni-Vis-ion with a very flat, midwest accent.
I am a first gen immigrant born in Cuba but raised in FL. Most my relatives in Miami who speak English fluently speak with a Miami accent.
I have lived across the US, in FL, TX and MN. My accent is a hybrid of the South, East coast and Midwest. I say “pyjamas” like a southerner (puh-jommas not jammas) “pecan” like an East Coaster, same with “marry” and “forest” (mah-rry, fahrest) and my vowels are sounding more Minnesotan in words like “lake” (lehk), and “box” (bahx). “Cash” sounds like “kesh” sometimes. I really annunciate my Rs in “parrrk” and “carrr” can sound a bit Irish and I OCCASIONALLY catch myself doing the Canadian style “aboot” “oot” etc.
I am like an accent sponge lol
When I lived in Texas I started saying “y’all” all the time. Someone in Texas may sound “neutral” until they say “y’all” and “fixin’ to”. “Fixin’ to” is part of my vocabulary and even “over yonder” but I also adopted the Midwestern “Yah” “Fer sure” “You betcha” “Uff da” “Spendy” and “Come with.” “Y’all” has been replaced with “You guys” mostly
Sometimes I catch myself saying “What does that dish bring?” or “Threw a fart” which is very Miami lol Same with “Eating shit.”
My SO was mostly raised here and has no trace of a non-English accent.
My partner is from a non-English speaking country, moved to Philly when they were four, and then Mass at 17. More neutral accent than anything but there is some moments where you can hear the Boston. There’s some moments you can hear the Philly. But it’s not super pronounced.
I’m a dual US/UK that speaks Spanish. I have neither of my parents accents. Grew up in the southwest mostly (lived in Europe for a bit) but my accent is not Brit nor Mexican and I don’t have a regional accent like a New England or Southern accent, for example. Just the “traditional” American accent (if there even is one lol) Hope that helps!
Yeah they can.
Awkwafina talked about her dad for her SNL Hosting monologue and mentioned her dad has an accent similar to Donald Trump who is also from Queens NY. She herself is subject to some controversy as people wonder how much of her accent (especially in her musical career) was contrived vs. natural.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O4rihvfX2g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O4rihvfX2g)
Or just listen to Cardi B or Ice Spice talk with their thick Bronx accents. Cardi B’s first language growing up was Spanish I know.
Also long ago I heard an NPR segment about Mexicans brought to the USA as children and then deported back to Mexico as adults. Definitely a tough situation for them but they found some help working as native-english speakers in customer service call centers that were outsourced to Mexico and one of the people I heard interviewed had a pretty noticeable southern accent from being raised in Texas.
It depends. We have a large Hmong population here and I’ve met a few with very thick wisconsin accents.
My dad is the son of an immigrant. He sounds like a pretty standard Pacific Northwesterner
People generally have the accent of the place they grow up in. Language isn’t genetic.