They can even mimic accents perfectly but humans cannot speak a foreign language without an accent if they learn it after 12?
Are their vocal cords, tongue and larynx similar to ours?
In: 1
Their vocal cords aren’t like ours. They have a different bit of throat called a syrinx. Not all birds can talk, but the ones that can tend to be social and good at mimicry. They aren’t specifically good at human voices, they’re pretty good at imitating anything. Some learn to make noises of chainsaws, car alarms, and animal calls.
Umm.. While it is challenging to learn to speak languages with accents after a certain age, it’s neither impossible nor terribly difficult.
Let’s start by saying that everyone speaks every language they speak with an accent. Even if the language has only two people who speak it, each of those two people would have an accent.
There are all kinds of little details in phonetics that can tip off an accent. How someone makes an /s/ or /sh/ sound or anything in between can be part of an accent. Subtle changes in vowels. Spacing between syl lab bles. All kinds of details.
Learning to speak with a specific accent might be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. For example, a friend of mine moved to Berlin five years ago. When that friend has to deal with just regular life stuff, people are astonished that this friend of mine is a foreigner who didn’t know Deutsche until five years ago because that friend speaks with a Berlin accent.
Latest Answers