every time I speak

My accent betrays my origins. It's so obviously American and although I've lived in England for 15 years, that will never change. Sure, there are now regional intonations, phrases and the like, incorporated in my everyday language but anyone who hears me speak knows I'm not English.

But here's the thing: whenever I visit America, people say, "oh, you sound SO English!" which makes me laugh because - trust me - I don't. And all my English friends completely agree. On the other hand, living where I do, as a 'naturalised citizen', I constantly get the comment, "You've been here 15 years, yet you sound SO American."

Now here's my question - why is that so unusal? I know people from all over the map who live here and have done for ages and still 'have their accents'. But no one questions this.

I've thought a lot about this over the years, and when in the studio today was again thinking about the notion of accent as a marker for identity. I decided it was high time I did a bit of surfing on the subject and found a site called the speech accent archive, which looks pretty interesting. I haven't had a chance to explore the sounds yet but will tommorow.

Veeedy Intedesting, indeed.