Accent (linguistics)

An accent is the perceived peculiarities of pronunciation and intonation of a speaker or group of speakers.

For native speakers, accent is one of the components of a spoken variety, as a dialect. See also: Distinguishing accents in English.

A foreign accent is marked by the phonology of other languages (or one other language) which the speaker of an acquired language unconsciously interpret as identical with the phonemes of the spoken language; i.e. the phonology of the spoken language seems modified by the phonology of another language, more familiar to the speaker. See also: Non-native pronunciations of English, Foreign accent syndrome.

Accent also refers to the stress on a syllable. See stress (phonology).

External links

• Native and non-native accents of English