Why do some people pick up accents so quickly, whereas other people never change their accent?

[CalIie]

Just a question I have never had a satisfactory answer to.

I pick up accents ridiculously quickly. For example, when talking to my friends in Canada over the phone I will pick up a Canadian accent, I'll suddenly notice I am saying "aboot" or something and then become very self-conscious.

Similarly, when my Welsh grandfather was alive I would go Welsh over the phone.

My cousin and her husband moved to Australia 9 years ago. Her husband developed a full on Ozzy accent within a year, yet she still sounds very English, there is not even an Ozzy twang.

What about you guys? And any thoughts as to why this is?

I do this and have no idea why

My neighbour is from newry (we are in Glasgow) and I just find myself speaking like her after 3 seconds. I wish I could stop!

My brother hasn’t lived here since he was a teenager yet his Glasgow accent is stronger than mine!

@BlueThursday Haha, same thing happens to me. I worry the other person thinks I am mocking them but I cannot help it!

I love the Glaswegian accent btw

Can you learn languages easily and are you musical? Some people just have a good ear..

I can't even "do" a broader version of my own accent

Yes I pick up accents easily, I think its to do with my strong feelings to belong and blend in.

I think linguists believe it’s driven by the psychosocial instinct to “calibrate” your communication with that of those around you as converging linguistically with an interlocutor is a social skill which means you are more likely will be accepted as one of the group. We do it instinctively with other features of language when we speak to e.g. children or to people from a particular social group.

Which isn’t to say that people who don’t converge their accent and speech don’t have that instinct. It’s apparently less common in neurodiverse people, and becomes harder to do as you get older. It’s also less common in people who have travelled around less or been exposed to different linguistic patterns, suggesting it’s also linked to identity with the region where an individual initially learned to speak, and to simply having less practice at converging.

I'm from Edinburgh, but left as a very young child and gave an English accent. DH us from Stirling and has a strong accent. During the first lockdown when I only really spoke to him, my accent was pure Scots.

We lived in Singapore when I was a child, with Australians, when we came home everyone thought we were Australian.

I cant sing though nor speak another language.

I do this, but I'm pretty sure it's to do with my ASD and having to mask all the time to seem socially acceptable. But it is involuntary and I definitely worry people will think I'm mocking them

@QuestionsorComments

I can't even "do" a broader version of my own accent

Me neither!

I'm from NI but have lived in England over 20 years and don't sound anything other than Belfast!

I consider myself fairly flexible/ adaptable but assume those who pick up accents are the ones who are truly adaptable!

I am musical and good at languages, also accents, but I have never really picked up much of an accent when I've moved (and I've moved a lot).

I picked up the accent in one country really easily. I live in another now, and have for 4 years and I can't even do an impression of the accent. I can hear it perfectly but my brain can never seem to pick up the vocal rules of how things would be said.

My theory is my original accent is kind of closer to the first country i moved to; elongated vowels etc.

DH does this but is also shit at accents so sounds like he's taking the mick.

I am a v good mimic and pick up languages and instruments easily but never ape somebody's accent. In fact, I cringe when DH does it.

There is evidence to suggest that those people who do it are more empathetic.

I do this and just assumed it was my deeply ingrained desire to fit in.

Seriously - I’ve spent my whole life not wanting to stand out so I try and blend in 😂

Yeah I do this. I grew up bilingual though, so I always thought it must be due to that.

I'm sure I read that picking up an accent quickly means you have a lot of empathy.

I must be an empathy free zone because my accent is unchanged despite having lived 15 years in another country.

It's interesting. I lived in London for over 30 years and I still had exactly the same northern Johannesburg accent I had growing up. I now live in Ireland and I don't expect it to change !

I have a fairly strong regional accent despite living in various parts of the UK. I chose to keep my accent and I love to talk about my home area when people ask, despite not having lived there for over 30 years!

My neighbour has lived in England for over fifty years, but still has the most amazing strong French accent, even pronouncing her very English husband's name "Phillipe" instead of Phillip!

My 6 in-law cousins and their spouse all emigrated from Yorkshire to Australia between the 1960s and the 1980s. They were all in their 20s when they left.

They're now in their 60s to 80s, and listening to them you'd think they'd never left Barnsley!

SpouseS! They didn't all share one!

I have a very strong South African accent that is not budging, even after 23 years in the UK. I think it's more to do with the way sounds are formed in your language, South African is very different for instance. This is completely based on my own anecdotal evidence though!

@saraclara

My 6 in-law cousins and their spouse all emigrated from Yorkshire to Australia between the 1960s and the 1980s. They were all in their 20s when they left.

They're now in their 60s to 80s, and listening to them you'd think they'd never left Barnsley!

My great grandad, his eldest daughter and her children emigrated to Australia in 1963. My Dad's cousin was 6 when they left and nearly 60yrs later, she still has a thick South Derbyshire accent.

Interesting to hear other people's experiences!

Still none the wiser as to why people are so different. I am terrible at both languages and music, so that link does not work for me unfortunately.

I do this, even when I'm trying not to!
I worry people might think I'm taking the piss. Especially if they're not native English speakers.

I lived in the USA for three years and developed a fairly hideous mid Atlantic accent, to the extent that when I returned someone asked me how I was finding living in England. My siblings have lived in Australia for over a decade but sound no different to when they left.