There are no permanent residents in Antarctica, only scientists—and penguins! But researchers recently revealed that visitors to the continent may still end up with a local accent.
German researchers tracked the speech of scientists from multiple countries who lived together in Antarctica in 2018. For six months, the small group was cut off from the world, socializing only with each other.
Every few weeks, the scientists recorded themselves saying the same 29 words in English. Their pronunciations gradually changed to sound more like each other’s, creating a new accent.
The study shows that accents develop when people live in close contact with each other in isolation, says Jonathan Harrington, the lead author. It helps explain, for example, why Americans and British people say words differently.
“We remember the sounds and words of a conversation,” Harrington says. “These can have a small influence on the future way that we speak.”
An accent wasn’t all the scientists picked up. They also started using slang, such as firkle (goof around) and gonk (sleep). Try using those words in a sentence!