Mar 24, 2024 18:00:00

Will future people living in colonies on the moon or Mars speak in a ``Moon accent'' or ``Martian accent''?

When reading science fiction novels set in a future where humans have left Earth and entered the solar system, you may come across scenes where people living on the Moon or Mars speak with a unique ``Moon accent'' or ``Martian accent.'' there is. If a colony is built on the moon or Mars and people start colonizing it, the scientific media Live Science explains whether or not an accent unique to that planet will really be born.

Will future colonists on the moon and Mars develop new accents? | Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/will-future-colonists-on-the-moon-and-mars-develop-new-accents

It is believed that in the not-too-distant future, humans will advance into the solar system and begin colonizing and establishing colonies on stars such as the Moon and Mars. The first manned space colony will be built on the moon, and it is possible that it will be settled within the next few decades. The idea of humans living away from Earth poses many challenges for experts to solve, such as securing food and water and adapting to an environment without gravity.

However, one of the questions that has been commonplace in science fiction works but has long been overlooked by experts is ``Will future space colonists have their own accents?''

Human accents are a fascinating research topic in their own right; people all over the world speak with some type of accent without realizing it, and accents can be related to the time period, place, language, or race in which they live. I am. However, the accent that space colonists develop is unknown because it does not even exist yet.

Professor

Jonathan Harrington , director of the Institute of Phonetics and Speech Processing at the University of Munich in Germany, says: ``New accents are created by imitation. 'It can have a considerable influence on your accent,' he says, explaining that your accent changes without you even realizing it, depending on the words you hear.

Accent changes happen unconsciously when you interact with people with different accents over a long period of time. Therefore, it seems that people who move from the place they used to live to another area will notice their accent change without them noticing.

Furthermore, Harrington argues that if a group of people with different accents are isolated from the rest of the world, the people in the group will imitate each other's accents, and eventually a completely new accent will be born. Especially in small groups, the birth of new accents can occur rapidly.

In a 2019 study , Harrington and colleagues analyzed how the accents of 11 researchers who lived in isolation for an entire winter at a research facility in Antarctica changed. The group is made up of a diverse group of members: five with accents from the South of England, three with accents from the North of England, one from the North West of the United States, one from Germany, and one from Iceland. Ta.

The results of the study showed that the subjects' accents changed throughout the experiment, with the entire group now pronouncing certain sounds with different accents. This can be said to be the first step in forming a new accent in an isolated group. 'Exactly the same thing should happen in any environment where individuals are isolated for long periods of time, whether it's Antarctica or space,' Harrington said. 'In fact, in space, contact with the population is more difficult, so the accent 'The changes should be even greater,' he said, expressing the view that unique accents will emerge in space colonies.

In colonies on Mars or the Moon, the accents of the colonists could begin to change unconsciously within a few months. In particular, on Mars, it takes about 20 minutes to exchange voice with Earth, so it is likely that accents will change, making it difficult to communicate with people on Earth.

For a unique accent to be passed down over time, a colony must be large enough to reproduce and produce offspring. However, once the ``Moon accent'' and ``Martian accent'' are fully established in the colony, it is thought that the way new settlers speak will slowly change due to the influence of that accent.

Harrington points out that the accents that develop within space colonies are likely to be formed by 'the most prevalent accents within the original group.' A good example of this is the Australian accent, which has many similarities with the Cockney accent, as many of the first settlers were

Cockneys , the working class of London.

Colonies on the moon and Mars are likely to develop different accents depending on the composition of the colonists. On the other hand, Harrington thinks it's unlikely that environmental factors on the Moon or Mars will have a big impact on accents.

A 2019 study used a computer program to predict how subjects' accents would change and found that actual accent changes matched the program's predictions very closely. Therefore, if you know the accents of people who will colonize Mars or the moon, it may be possible to predict in advance what kind of accents will occur.