Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Friend and her accent

193 replies

ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 19:47

Not an AIBU, just interested if anyone else has experienced this.

my friend has never had any kind of accent (well spoken, sounds like a news reader). Over the last few months has started pronouncing words differently. She sounds a bit like she’s from Russia but has been in the UK a very long time and the accent is subtle but it’s there.

I’ve asked her why she is speaking with an accent and she just looks at me blankly. I know I’m not imagining it as we both met someone new last week and they asked where she was from as she didn’t sound British.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can shed any light, just really curious.

OP posts:
CautiousLurker01 · 18/01/2025 20:19

My teen went through a phase of sounding American (lockdown, online gaming/tiktok etc). Fortunately it passed after enough people asked if she was from Canada/the US… she’d just tuned into the accent and absorbed it.

ETA (in response to a PP below… she is autistic, too. I am as well and can mimic after a limited exposure, so there may be something to that theory too.)

Original poster
ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:18

BlueSilverCats · 18/01/2025 20:14

It's not about intelligence or trying to impress someone. If I spend a lot of time with someone /in a different region I unconsciously change my accent. I just automatically pick it up. It's such a mish mash now that while I don't sound completely British, no one can pin point where I'm from , and I don't sound completely foreign either.

Show quote history

Yes, I understand that, but she works locally.

OP posts:
SheridansPortSalut · 18/01/2025 20:18

User457788 · 18/01/2025 19:50

Has she possibly potentially had a TIA or stroke and not noticed?

That would be my concern too.

Marylou2 · 18/01/2025 20:17

VonHally · 18/01/2025 20:12

Ooooh this could get interesting! Spies, beauty, charisma, secretive background, Russian accent.

I so want it to be this! Definitely preferable to a neurological issue. But seriously OP I hope your friend is OK.

leftorrightnow · 18/01/2025 20:17

Oh how scary and interesting with this foreign accent syndrome, never heard of it! The other option would be if she’s not actually a native English speaker, and May now be speaking more to people speaking her native language, so may be reverting back to her mother tongue and thus developing an accent.

Im not a native English speaker, and through the course of my life, depending on where I lived and who I worked with, my accent has been pure sort of cockney, very Dorset British and now as I live in my native country again but still speak English at work and with DH, I definitely have more of my native accent in English again. When I go back to to UK, my friends do notice. At one point I worked for an American company and got a very American accent. Accents aren’t static.

Original poster
ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:16

Greyish2025 · 18/01/2025 20:15

Intriguing! She may well be Russian / Eastern European but as she is working from home and possibly not speaking an awful lot she is out of practice when it comes to faking the English accent and is reverting back to what is more normal to her ….hmmm🤔

Show quote history

Yes she could well be, but I’ve known her for a long time and she has told me she was born and raised locally- so I just believed her, no reason not to really

OP posts:
Greyish2025 · 18/01/2025 20:15

ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:08

Well this is actually quite interesting- I’ve known her a while - about 10 years but she is extremely secretive about her past. She’s a real closed book. She’s a freelancer - she’s one of those people who is very charming and personable but no one actually knows anything about her. She has no social media and come to think of it looks like one of those beautiful Russian/ Eastern European models. She’s middle aged now (like me) but still drop dead gorgeous. Sort of person people look at when she enters a room, charismatic and certainly no need to speak differently.
maybe she’s having some sort of middle age crisis

Show quote history

Intriguing! She may well be Russian / Eastern European but as she is working from home and possibly not speaking an awful lot she is out of practice when it comes to faking the English accent and is reverting back to what is more normal to her ….hmmm🤔

BlueSilverCats · 18/01/2025 20:14

ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 19:56

She’s really not someone who I’d imagine copying an accent. Highly intelligent, successful, confident person who does not feel the need to impress anyone

It's not about intelligence or trying to impress someone. If I spend a lot of time with someone /in a different region I unconsciously change my accent. I just automatically pick it up. It's such a mish mash now that while I don't sound completely British, no one can pin point where I'm from , and I don't sound completely foreign either.

Original poster
ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:13

VonHally · 18/01/2025 20:12

Ooooh this could get interesting! Spies, beauty, charisma, secretive background, Russian accent.

Honestly she is so mysterious- I think that’s why I like her so much. She’s so funny as well, but I think she intrigues me!

OP posts:
thistlepiedpiper · 18/01/2025 20:13

weegiemum · 18/01/2025 20:05

My ds picks up accents really quickly, 3 days when we were at MILs in Northern Ireland when he was a kid had him talking like he'd always lived there.

More recently he was working with a bunch of guys from Aberdeen (we live in Glasgow) and we had to tell him to knock it off, the accent was ridiculous! Luckily now he sounds like a born and bred weegie again!

I think if Scottish, the Glaswegian accent is really easy to pick up without realising or meaning to

We are Scottish and my DP often comes home from working in Glasgow for a week or two with a very strong weegie twang to his Fife accent

VonHally · 18/01/2025 20:12

Ooooh this could get interesting! Spies, beauty, charisma, secretive background, Russian accent.

Itsaswelltime · 18/01/2025 20:11

Is she going deaf?

Original poster
ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:11

User457788 · 18/01/2025 20:10

In that case she potentially is a spy and I'd report her.

Show quote history

I assume you’re joking?

OP posts:
DiddlyDaddlyDoo · 18/01/2025 20:11

BarbaraHoward · 18/01/2025 20:02

Does she live in Yorkshire?

I couldn't imitate a Northern Irish accent and then I moved here and pretty much instantly developed one.

Show quote history

No! And she doesn't spend any time there either 🤦‍♀️

I moved areas around 10 years ago and had my children here, they have the local accent and I have a very slight accent but you can still tell where I originally from.

But my sister went from speaking with a Manchester accent to a really really thick heavy Yorkshire accent overnight, it's just so bizzare. I don't even know why it bothers me so much but it really does annoy me 😅

User457788 · 18/01/2025 20:10

ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:08

Well this is actually quite interesting- I’ve known her a while - about 10 years but she is extremely secretive about her past. She’s a real closed book. She’s a freelancer - she’s one of those people who is very charming and personable but no one actually knows anything about her. She has no social media and come to think of it looks like one of those beautiful Russian/ Eastern European models. She’s middle aged now (like me) but still drop dead gorgeous. Sort of person people look at when she enters a room, charismatic and certainly no need to speak differently.
maybe she’s having some sort of middle age crisis

Show quote history

In that case she potentially is a spy and I'd report her.

dogfoodbargain2025 · 18/01/2025 20:08

DiddlyDaddlyDoo · 18/01/2025 20:00

People do! She's always been an attention seeker so I just assume it's an attention thing, but it really really grates on me 😅 there's just no need for it

Show quote history

Haha my sister is the same - we are actually Yorkshire born and bred but she now speaks in a “posh London” accent - it grates on me so much as it just sounds completely fake to me. She’s always been the same and adapted her accent to whoever she is around, whereas mine has not really changed even though I’ve lived all over the country. When she’s spent some time with me I can hear her Yorkshire accent coming halfway back - it’s like she conflicted in how to speak - it’s bizarre.

Original poster
ByKindLilacFinch · 18/01/2025 20:08

Marylou2 · 18/01/2025 20:00

How long have you known her? Do you know her background? What does she do for work? Any chance she's actually Russian and slipping up a bit? I might have been watching too many spy movies.

Well this is actually quite interesting- I’ve known her a while - about 10 years but she is extremely secretive about her past. She’s a real closed book. She’s a freelancer - she’s one of those people who is very charming and personable but no one actually knows anything about her. She has no social media and come to think of it looks like one of those beautiful Russian/ Eastern European models. She’s middle aged now (like me) but still drop dead gorgeous. Sort of person people look at when she enters a room, charismatic and certainly no need to speak differently.
maybe she’s having some sort of middle age crisis

OP posts:
CaptainMyCaptain · 18/01/2025 20:06

Marylou2 · 18/01/2025 20:00

How long have you known her? Do you know her background? What does she do for work? Any chance she's actually Russian and slipping up a bit? I might have been watching too many spy movies.

Sleeper agent.

weegiemum · 18/01/2025 20:05

My ds picks up accents really quickly, 3 days when we were at MILs in Northern Ireland when he was a kid had him talking like he'd always lived there.

More recently he was working with a bunch of guys from Aberdeen (we live in Glasgow) and we had to tell him to knock it off, the accent was ridiculous! Luckily now he sounds like a born and bred weegie again!

DangerMouseAndPenfoldx · 18/01/2025 20:05

It depends on how pronounced it is. Most people’s speech patterns shift gradually over time. It’s entire a totally natural phenomenon, no matter how much people like to imply it’s fake (usually with some level of superiority).

I know you say and works alone and doesn’t socialise much, but that’s unusual in itself. Most people have at least a few people that they come in regular contact with. If she genuinely is a recluse, maybe she’s picking it up from a TV show.

behappybee · 18/01/2025 20:04

I once worked 8 weeks helping out a branch in Nottingham . When I came home my friends were all saying I was talking differently, I didn't even notice . Is she studying anything with those accents / love interest online ? Does she have any family overseas ? Xx

BitterTits · 18/01/2025 20:03

What about recording her, then playing it back to her? All kinds of unethical though.

Wren77 · 18/01/2025 20:03

Oops multiple suggestions of this already!

BarbaraHoward · 18/01/2025 20:02

DiddlyDaddlyDoo · 18/01/2025 19:57

No helpful advice but my sister changed accent as an adult and it's so annoying because it's clearly fake. It's just a weird thing to do

We are all born and bred in Manchester and about 4 years ago she developed a really thick Yorkshire accent. She's almost 30 too... weirdo 🤣

Does she live in Yorkshire?

I couldn't imitate a Northern Irish accent and then I moved here and pretty much instantly developed one.

Wren77 · 18/01/2025 20:01

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome

Foreign accent syndrome?