London Accents

I found an interesting article from Laura Wright (Cambridge) n the BBC today regarding the speech patterns of Londoners. The main classifications of accents in London are based on the East/West axis of the city's geography, but perhaps more importantly rooted in social class. Not surprising, of course. But an interesting element of the article was the fact that children develop local accents, since their social contacts are quite limited to particular schools and localities. Whereas adults move throughout London, and therefore remain exposed to a variety of accents. This 'cosmopolitan' effect is one reason why working class speakers vary greatly across regions, whereas middle class speakers become homogenized.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2005/06/02/voices_laura_wright_feature.shtml

When I meet new people, they comment on my 'funny accent' or more likely 'lack of an accent' almost without exception. I find it slightly irritating, particularly when non-native speakers of English begin to insist, 'But you don't sound American...' People often attribute this to my experience in speaking German, but actually I always believed it started much earlier and had different roots.

In high school, I am fairly confident that I had a 'Californian accent' or regional way of speaking. I spent one year on exchange in Germany during the 11th grade, but I don't think it changed at that point. A year later, going to university in the mid-western United States, I was determined to speak proper English! After three years in Wisconsin, I then spent one year in London. At that time, people didn't systematically comment on my accent, despite occassional remarks about not sounding 'too American.' It was really arriving in New York City that people began remarking on my 'accent', and haven't stopped to this day. In New York, a large portion of my social contact was with non-native speakers of English, particularly East Asians. My 'lack of accent' probably does not reflect an adopted 'German-ness' from speaking German, but simply my sustained exposure to very diverse patterns of regionally varied, as well native and non-native English speech.