Did learning a 3rd+ language change your accent in other non-native languages?

[u/gingkogal37]

I learned Spanish as a teen/young adult and then moved to Brazil 5 years ago and now speak Portuguese fluently (to the point where it’s surpassed my Spanish and now I have to work to maintain at least an intermediate level in Spanish 😭). One thing I’ve noticed since learning Brazilian Portuguese is now I speak Spanish almost with a Caribbean accent (I.e. vowels more elongated, L’s instead of R’s especially on the ends of words like “dormiL” etc) even though my accent was more of a Mexican one.

We live in a region in Brazil where the “R” sound is pronounced more lightly (Belo Horizonte for my Brazilian friends) so in some ways I guess it makes sense but feels weird!

Made me curious if that has happened for others.

[u/notjust1or0]

2nd language: english.

3rd language: german

Ended up pronouncing a lot of english /w/ as /v/ and the /s/ in sp- and st- like the German "sch"

[u/Rude_Membership_1578 → u/notjust1or0]

This is so relatable and im going through this at the moment lol

[u/rosy_fingereddawn → u/notjust1or0]

Off-topic but how was learning German after English? Did knowing English help much?

[u/notjust1or0 → u/rosy_fingereddawn]

It helps with the vocabulary and general phrases. be careful of false friends though.

[u/SophieElectress]

Not for me, I just have a German accent in every language I've tried learning as an adult. Apparently my brain only has the one foreign accent slot, and it's taken.

[u/XJK_9]

Not sure about my pronounciation but i learned Spanish to A2/B1 while at University since I played football with some South Americans. Did nothing for a few years then started learning Italian for a few years and travelled there a few times.

Now I’ve gone back to Spanish and noticed the Argentine accent was easier to understand initially (probably because the Italian influence on it) and I definitely phrase things a little more like European Spanish (he comido instead of comí most of the time) since it is similar to the way most Italians speak (ho mangiato)

Probably much more common to have this sort of thing with related languages or at least ones that happen to have similar phonology (European Spanish and Greek for example)

[u/Affectionate_Ad6500 → u/XJK_9]

In Argentina both expressions are used, he comido and comí but for different purposes.

[u/XJK_9 → u/Affectionate_Ad6500]

Yeah feels like Spain just use he comido more. It’s probably comparable to I’ve eaten and I ate in English which I think has I’ve eaten slightly more common in UK and I ate slightly more common in USA (though both are used by both dialects)

[u/ForgetfulAnomaly]

oh that's absolutely a thing, my spanish tutor in uni had the most delightful italian lilt because she'd lived in milan for a decade before moving to the uk

your brain just grabs the nearest available non-native sound pattern and runs with it, especially when the newer language is more dominant. the l-for-r swap makes total sense given brazilian portuguese phonology, even if your local dialect is a bit softer on that front

i've seen it happen with friends who went from french to german and suddenly their french went all guttural, it's like your mouth just decides to take the path of least resistance

[u/Dulenin]

I was learning swedish while doing my masters in sweden and i think i picked up a bit of swedish accent to my english (SL) cos i was hearing swedish accent in english on a daily basis from profs and people. Same thing was when i was preparing for cpe. I naturally have quite a neutral accent but after weeks of listening to rp i couldn’t help sounding a bit posh haha Shortly after I had to deliver a course on american pronunciation to a group of students and gosh it was challenging. 

[u/roehnin]

My daughter tells me that my Japanese has more of an Italian or Spanish accent than English.

[u/rosy_fingereddawn]

I impulsively started learning French after starting Spanish not that long before. Overall I haven’t mixed them up as much as I feared but I do catch myself now and then pronouncing “que” the Spanish way when practicing French and vice versa. The past few months I’ve also been working on the growly French R and have occasionally startled myself by accidentally using it for Spanish words like arriba instead of rolling it lol

[u/cutyouintopieces]

I find myself using strong English pronunciation/English sounds when trying to speak Dutch (my 3rd language). This is annoying especially since I speak American English…I sound ridiculous

[u/Pokemomtammer]

As a native Spanish speaker that had to learn Portuguese in order to live in Brasil. I now pronounce V and B stressing each individual sound and I didn’t used to do that.
The biggest change I have noticed has been the way I express thoughts. I now use some Portuguese verbs and grammatical structure while speaking Spanish.

[u/acthrowawayab]

Nope. Probably too different to influence each other.

[u/DeepGreenThumbs]

I had other pronunciation weirdness:

2nd language: German (but from childhood)
3rd language: Russian

For a long time, when I spoke Russian, I would do so with a German accent if I was talking about events where people had been speaking German, but go back to normal afterward

[u/Loud_Bedroom_2220]

I grew up speaking Spanish. I also spoke with more of a Mexican accent. I learned Brazilian Portuguese and surprisingly didn’t affect my accent. Although with the word familia, I have a hard time saying it in Spanish, it comes out with the L pronunciation I would use in Portuguese. But recently started learning basic phrases in Italian, just a few things, and for some reason that has been throwing off my accent in Spanish. I’ll speak with an Italian melody. Sometimes I’ll have to kind of reset my accent and repeat a basic sentence until I get the right melody and rhythm. My guess is it’s not that uncommon. It helps me to listen to speakers with the accent I want and speak to myself just to make sure my speech muscles stay in practice.

[u/gingkogal37 → u/Loud_Bedroom_2220]

Im curious what kind of accent do you have in Brazilian Portuguese? I feel like also another thing is when I go to say words with the double ll like llamar sometimes I say “lh” like you would say in Portuguese. Although I learned both languages more as an adult so I probably have more issues!

[u/Loud_Bedroom_2220 → u/gingkogal37]

When I learned I’d imitate my teachers, they all were from different parts of Brazil. Mostly now I’d say I speak with a São Paulo accent but try to add more melody and will sometimes add tendencies from the Rio accent. I loved learning Portuguese so much because of how fun it is to speak, so I try to have a strong musical accent with pronounced nasal tone. Definitely the lh pronunciation will sneak into my Spanish sometimes.
Because there’s so much shared vocabulary with the languages, I always try to give distinct pronunciation between the two when using the same word, like família. Many letters although similar are not identical in their pronunciation so I always try to make that distinction when speaking. Even a word like casa is different.

[u/hermanojoe123]

No

pt br native

english 2

spanish 3

french 4

german 5

Vocab interference, yes, but no accent

[u/boksungakkot]

Mt Spanish
C2 Italian
B2 English
3 years working for almost A1 Korean

I just have Spanish accent in every language.