Vivaan Kalura - Almost American: How Changing Accents Shape Identity
Thumbnail Image Credit: Nitcharee Sukhontapriom
What happens when language assimilation motivates cultural change?
By: Vivaan Kalura
Course Title: Ling 1000: Language in U.S Society
Course Instructor: Dr. Kira Hall
Nominees: Dr. Kira Hall, Myron Stephens
For many immigrants in the United States, especially those who migrate from areas with collectivist cultures, language serves as more than just a tool for communication. It is integrated into their identities and creates a sense of belonging. When the pressure to belong to an appealing society overwhelms cultural ties, it can affect the way someone speaks, and even who they are.
South Asian immigrants often move to the United States in search of opportunity, stability, and a better future not only for themselves, but for their families. In doing so, they bring with them their traditions, and with those traditions, their languages. Among members of this ethnic group, language can be comforting in generating camaraderie while adapting to a new culture. However, daily interactions with members of an individualist society, of which English was recently made the official language, can create tension in maintaining one cultural identity while adjusting to another.
As part of a research project for the course Language in U.S society, I sought to determine how language use on social media, as well as in conversations, influences the identity and changing political affiliations of South Asian immigrants in the United States. In an interview I conducted with a South Asian immigrant who moved to the United States 20 years ago, he reflected on his early experiences with language in the workplace. He mentioned how he had a thick accent because he spoke Hindi frequently, which made it hard for him to communicate with his experienced English-speaking coworkers. He mentioned that several of his Hindi-speaking coworkers also faced this barrier, so they spoke more slowly to overcome it. In other words, despite sharing a native language, they often chose to speak with each other in English because of the environment they were in.
While such changes can make social interactions easier, they can also implicitly influence how individuals see themselves and where they belong.
On online platforms, such as X, these influences are even more apparent. In a post I found online from a millennial South Asian influencer, Puneet Sahani, he appeared to be praising Donald Trump by expressing strong political support using phrases such as “DeepState, blue-collar, liberal class, and working class,” to align his interests with a particular group.
Another user replied to this post in agreement, switching between English and Hindi in the same sentence. Both the post and the response highlight how individuals can connect with multiple communities at once, notably South Asians and Americans, expressing cultural roots while also forming new ones. This supports the idea that identity is shaped by social interactions.
However, while changes may appear to be voluntary, they are typically associated with pressure to conform to societal norms. In the United States, this is the idea that English is seen as the correct language. This harmful ideology can cause individuals to view their native languages as barriers to success, leading these individuals to change how they speak.
When people begin to change the way they speak, they may also change parts of their cultural identity. In extreme cases, this shift could potentially influence political beliefs.
At the same time, it is important to recognize that such experiences cannot be generalized for South Asian immigrants, or even immigrants as a whole. Each individual has his or her unique experiences that lead to the formation of a complex identity.
Ultimately, the relationship between accents, language, and identity is complex. For South Asian immigrants and others, they serve as both a bridge and a barrier. So, at what point does adapting to a new culture begin to change who we are?
References
Barrett, R., Cramer, J., & McGowan, K. B. (2023). Chapter 7: Language diversity in the United States . In English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States (3rd ed., pp. 130–159). essay, Routledge.
Hall, Kira (2025). “Lecture 13: Bilingualism and Language Ideologies in Education.” Ling 1000: Language in US Society, University of ĢӰ Boulder, Spring Semester.
Rumbaut, Rubén G., Severed or Sustained Attachments? Language, Identity, and Imagined Communities in the Post-Immigrant Generation (2002). The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation, pp. 43-95, Peggy Levitt, Mary C. Waters, eds., Russell Sage Foundation, 2002, Available at SSRN:
Schilling, N., & Wolfram, W. (2016). Chapter 2: Why Dialects? In American English: Dialects and Variation (pp. 27–40). Essay.
Vivaan Kalura is majoring in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology on a pre-dental path. He is a researcher on the Autistic Life and Language (ALL) project and loves exploring the relationship between language and identity in different communities. In his free time, you’ll find him hiking with his dog, Leo!