When the mother tongue sounds foreign

Most people who learn a second language (L2) in adulthood speak it with a foreign language accent that shows traces of the first language (L1). Recent studies show that the reverse is also possible, i.e. learning an L2 can influence pronunciation in the L1 - to such an extent that the person has a foreign accent in their native language. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as phonetic language attrition of the L1. This project aimed to characterise the nature of the foreign accent in the form of perceived pronunciation differences from the L1 norm in the L1 pronunciation of English expatriates in Austria.