Why do we have accents?

One of the things that have been noted by child psychologists, is that little children who live in bi-lingual homes will be able to speak both languages, and not mix them up. It is only after age 6, that learning a language becomes more difficult, and has to be studied, like any other subject.




http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/ling001.html

As far as accents go, each every area of the world speaks a language a bit differently. In addition, there are language differences that are related to social class and race. When a child is first learning language, he mimics the sounds that he hears around him.

I had an interesting experience once. I knew two sisters, age six and twelve. They had been born in Brooklyn, and had moved to Canada a few years before. The twelve year old spoke with a marked Brooklyn accent, indispersed with a slight Canadian accent. The six year old spoke with a Canadian accent, with a slight Brooklyn inflection.

Thank you for that info. So why does it get increasingly difficult with age?

I think accents are due to the gradual shift of language from generation to generation along with isolation from other communities doing the same thing.

Also, when people interact with people of other languages, they adopt inflections over time.

New Zealand accents are a strange mix of english with heavy Scots and Maori (indigenous) inflections, plus a bit of Australian tossed in for good measure which is itself a hybrid.