This article examines the association between accented speech and the formation of friendships and partnerships among immigrants and native-born majority residents in Germany. Drawing on the sixth wave of the German extension of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries, we analyze a neglected aspect of language — pronunciation — and find that speaking with a foreign accent is a more important correlate of the incidence of interethnic partnerships than of interethnic friendships. We argue that beyond its primary function of understandability, accented speech possesses socially communicative power. Accent transmits signals of an individual’s foreignness and cultural differences and, thus, becomes an additional marker of social distance. Such signals serve as a greater obstacle to more consequential intimate interethnic relations such as partnerships. Our findings extend the scholarly debate on the role of symbolic boundaries in social interactions between ethnic groups by yet another important boundary maker — accent.

本文探讨了口音与德国移民和当地出生的多数居民之间的友谊与伙伴关系的形成之间的联系。根据德国对四个欧洲国家的移民儿童纵向调查的扩展的第六次评估，我们分析了语言中被忽视的方面（发音），并发现说带有外国口音是种族伙伴关系发生率的一个更重要的关联。而不是种族间的友谊。我们认为，重读语音不仅具有可理解性的主要功能，还具有社会交际能力。口音传达了个人的异国情调和文化差异的信号，因此成为社交距离的另一个标志。这种信号成为诸如伙伴关系之类的更为亲密的族际关系的更大障碍。我们的发现进一步扩大了学术界关于符号边界在族裔群体之间的社会互动中的作用的学术辩论，这是另一个重要的边界创造者-口音。