Accent

I am always fascinated with language, in particular its variety. I love to learn of languages I did not suspect. Many of us carry a simplistic view of the world's linguistic diversity. For example, I long thought of the Baltic as basically having Swedish and Russian, with Finnish in between, and assumed the Baltic states had Slavic languages. But no. Turns out Finnish is part of a large language group that is also very diverse. That group includes Karelian, which itself owns a wide spectrum of dialects, not all of them mutually intelligible. I only heard of Karelia because it is one of the districts the world is somewhat arbitrarily divided up into in the game Axis & Allies, but it turns out to be a Russian republic with Karelian being a recognized minority language. The Baltic-Finnish languages also have speakers in Sweden and Norway, as well of course as the Baltic states (Estonia etc.).

This fascination probably derives from growing up in a large and relatively homogeneous country, linguistically speaking, combined with reading The Lord of the Rings when young.

Why'd it come to mind? Well, I interact with a customer representative whose Finnish accent sounds Scots to me. He sounds just like Sean Connery. Doesn't look like him at all. But I always wonder, is that just him, or does the Finnish accent naturally sound Scottish to an untrained American ear? I hate to think he perfected his English watching old James Bond movies.