What sort of accent would he have?

Whichever one he wants. He's old enough to have learned how to fake it with the acquisition of a new language.

Which culture did he identify with the most? What language does he think in? I'd give him that accent. Or I'd describe it as muddled... like my aunt when she moved from England to Texas.

Maybe it changes by location so he fits in seamlessly. Accents are difficult. I've had people from different states tell me they love my Pennsylvanian accent. My reaction is...what accent? You're the one with the accent!

There's a woman in my office whose family is from Newcastle, but who grew up here, down south. When she's talking to us, she has the local accent, but when she's talking to family she goes all Byker Grove. I've actually heard her switch mid conversation before.

Then there's Gillian Anderson.

I don't know how age affects picking up new accents though.

Some people don't pick up new accents at all. I know a few Irish people who have been here 30 years or more and still sound Irish.

I, on the other hand, can change accents without even trying. If I move, it takes about a month before I sound like a native of the new area. And I can also switch back when talking to family.

So basically it's up to you.

JimmyB27 said:

Then there's Gillian Anderson.

I don't know how age affects picking up new accents though.

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I read through the comments on that article, and it seems most people commenting (who are bi-accented) tend to switch to the accent of the person they're speaking to (like the woman you know).

I grew up in southwestern Oklahoma. As a child, if I left my region even marginally, I would get made fun of, so my accent became very fluid. I could quickly adapt my accent to northern or eastern OK. This also happened as an adult when I worked in NY for a while; I started to pick up intonations from my coworkers. I notice that my husband and I (being from similar backgrounds) have both cultivated (me, consciously, him subconsciously) what we call a "news anchor" accent—Texan, because we can't really shake it entirely, but also very blunted so as to seem more neutral (for city living, I guess). But the second we're back home or talking to family, we subconsciously shift back into our regional accents (with a significant drawl we don't normally use).

As an adult, though, I have to watch myself when visiting places to make sure I don't pick up the accent.

There's a woman down the street who I think is Scottish, but her accent is so strange. (ETA: part of this got deleted somehow... so strange because it's now a mix of Scottish and Texan.)

If he looks 16-18, wouldn't he be trying to fit in so as to not raise questions? 29 years is plenty long enough to have acclimated, anyway. Otherwise, I'd go with a mild English accent since that's where he's spent the majority of his time.

If you are speaking another language, it's hard to control your accent. But if you're speaking another dialect, it's easier to jump back and forth between accents. This is why immigrants can still speak with a heavy accent despite living in the new country for decades. But then, say, Americans can easily switch between a Southern belle and a Brooklyn accent.

I'd say he'd lean more towards an English accent, as that was the language he used during his formative years, as well as later returning for over a century.

OK ... I've been thinking about this some more. At first, I thought maybe you wanted to give him an accent because you wanted to convey that accent in his dialogue, that you wanted to write his dialogue in a way that would make his accent obvious. I would think long and hard before doing that because it's hard to do well, to make it believable and not gimmicky.

But if you're talking about him having an accent that other characters would notice and might comment on, an accent that might add depth to his character but that would not be conveyed in his dialogue, I totally get why you would want to layer that in. If he was living in America but others could hear an undertone of a Russian accent, that would be mysterious. Why does he have that undertone? And if I'm understanding your description correctly, then he may not even understand why he has that accent either. Is that right? That could be really fun!

As far as which one he should have, what would be wrong with slipping into any of them at different times? That would add to the mystery of who he is. Or he could fall back into a Russian accent when he's ____ (studying, angry, in love, joking), and the French one when he ____, etc. It seems like you could have a lot of fun with this, so good luck!

I lived in several different places in the UK as a child - I think I'd moved house three times before my 6th birthday (and more than a few times since then). While my default accent is Estuary, when I speak to people from London (where I'm from and where my family originates) it reverts to something that's kind of between South London and cockney (or entirely one or the other on occasion). There are certain other places in the UK, notably two places up North where I lived as a small child, that my accent will revert to if I speak to people from those places for a few days. This isn't within my conscious control. I can't choose to just switch to those accents. Additionally, if I spend several months living with people who speak a different accent, even one that I've never been exposed to before, after a while my accent will start changing. The only accent I can switch to under conscious control is RP (aka talking posh) - but I think every Brit can do this due to deeply ingrained classism.

I would imagine that someone who's lived for 400 years and frequently switched from place to place, staying in each place long enough to really get to know the local people, their culture, accent, etc, that he or she would probably find that their accent changes at least somewhat depending on where they are and who they've been interacting with. Maybe they will have developed the ability to consciously switch accents.

Not sure if that fits with your character or not, but it's something to consider.

JimmyB27 said:

Then there's Gillian Anderson.

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In that first clip, I wonder whether, to a native of England, she would still sound pretty American. Could any AWers comment on that?

The reason I mention it is I knew a fellow from Australia who studied in England. He struggled to make himself understood for the first few years, but after that he was mimicking the local accent enough that people could make sense of him.

Sometimes picking up an accent is just a practical way to ease communication.

With regard to the OP's question, does the character have the mind of a 16-18 year old? Because a young brain is a little better than an older brain at picking up languages and thus probably a little better at picking up accents too.

jjdebenedictis said:

In that first clip, I wonder whether, to a native of England, she would still sound pretty American. Could any AWers comment on that?

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There's the odd inflexion that sounds a bit....odd...but I don't think I'd pick it out as American as such.

Whatever damn accent you want, lol! He's hundreds of years old. The rules are out the window. Have him switch between accents, have him choose one, or even have him frustrated that he can't fit in since he has an "unidentifiable foreign accent". It can be part of his personality. It can be a hindrance or a boon. It's up to you.

[FWIW, in one WIP I have a character who's 125 years old and British, and he switches from very formal Oxfordian English circa 1890 to "standard" American English circa 2015. I make a bit of a point of that dichotomy.]

I'd agree that with a character 400 years old, the rules aren't an issue, as pointed out. Speaking from real life, however, there does seem to be an issue regarding the age at which a person acquires second, third, or fourth languages. I knew a European man in his forties whose English was faultless American except for a barely distinguishable difference in the way he would say certain words. Not being a linguist, I couldn't point to just what the difference was, and most people didn't notice it; but my ears happened to pick it up. Sure enough, he'd grown up in the Netherlands, but spent most of his adult life in the U.S.

When I first read your post I immediately thought of the wonderful transatlantic accent of the late Alistair Cooke (the BBC website has lots of his broadcasts online).

I have heard one interesting theory that one of the factors in the speed of pick-up of new accents, especially for younger people, is whether they're happy or not where they are. This might make an interesting plot point: he speaks in the accent of the place he was happiest? I went to school with a kid for whom I think this was the case: he was bullied mercilessly and constantly miserable, and despite arriving from another English-speaking country at age 4, he still had his original accent when he left high school.

There's a video on YouTube, which I can't link to because I'm in China, of Shakespeare as it would have been pronounced at the time. That's probably how I'd expect him to speak, and to my modern English ears it sounds vaguely Somerset.
That's what I'd go for. He was born around the time of the great vowel shift, so some words will sound completely different to modern speakers, but that's really up to you.

In that first clip, I wonder whether, to a native of England, she would still sound pretty American. Could any AWers comment on that?

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She does sound pretty English to me but it's not an accent where I can say 'oh she comes from...'. It's more of a generic accent with a very slight undertone of something else.

I think she's like me. Her accent changes depending on who she is talking to.