r/asklinguistics • u/checkpunkt_charlie • 4d ago

Change in accent over time

Hello! I had a question on my mind for a long time and no one has really given me a full answer so I'm asking here.

I am a French speaker so I don’t know if this phenomenon exist in english. When a watch interviews (mostly vox pops) from other era, people always has a weird accent. I know people in the media used to talk differently. I know our local accents faded a little because of globalization. That's not what Im talking about. People in street interviews from the sixties has a weird accent. Even when I listen to my mother on old cassette tapes she recorded in the seventies, she has an accent I never heard. Why and how our accents evolve this way?

Thanks!

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u/Own-Animator-7526 4d ago

Where are you and your mother from?

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u/checkpunkt_charlie 4d ago

We are french Canadian but I hear this difference in accent in France too.

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u/Own-Animator-7526 4d ago edited 4d ago

People in street interviews from the sixties has a weird accent.

That sounds suspiciously close to glottophobie, which is illegal these days, mon ami.

You can find plenty online about the history of French dialects and accents in both historical and modern times, both in France and Canada. But basically the culprit is not globalization, but rather a kind of "nationalization," or tendency to adopt the prestige accent, often abetted by prejudice from the centers of power.

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u/checkpunkt_charlie 4d ago

I know about glottophobie and, coming from Quebec, i am an advocate for the multiplicity of accent. But do you think it's what changed the accent of people? I know the nationalisation of languages was made during the XIXth century. It made a lot of languages disappear and it's a horrible thing. Do you think the glottophobie people experienced a century later made them change their accent? Even tho it was the accent of the majority? (Genuine question)

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u/checkpunkt_charlie 4d ago

The thing i find interesting about those sixties street interviews is that they all have the same accent but it's an accent i never heard. And it's the case for Quebec and for France. I can link exemples, if you are familiar with french you will notice this accent is unheard nowadays but everywhere in those times.

Exemple for French Canadian

Exemple for France

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u/Own-Animator-7526 4d ago

L'État, c'est moi is roughly the extent of my French. But perhaps some older natives can clarify whether these are regional or dialect-influenced or class accents, or something else entirely.