Why do people mimic accents?

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Just that really, it winds me up.

People say to me often "Oooh, you're proper Welshy aren't you?" In the most really over exaggerated Welsh accent. I just say "Yes, it's because I'm Welsh, would that be hard to work out?" Then they get the hump.

I've seen it when people meet someone from the North East and star with all the Way Aye Man shit.

Just why do people do it? It just makes them look and sound so stupid, like they'd never expect to meet someone from outside of their town, ever.

Because they’re twats.

@LunaNorth , you nailed it 👏

I wouldn't do that, but I do pick up accents when talking to people.

Put me somewhere for a couple of weeks, and I sound like a native

I've never met anyone who does that, but when I visit family in Australia I pick up the accent within days.

Half Welsh, half English here (Geordie)

I always think it shows a pretty low level of intelligence. Like do they think I've never heard Wey Aye Man before? Do they think it's original or funny? It does make them sound stupid, and it's cringey because the 'accent' is usually dreadful.

I guess they are the same folk that ask tall people "what's the weather like up there?" Or remark that someone is very short as if the person doesn't already realise that themselves. They are usually the same people who huff and puff about you not being able to take a joke when they have made personal remarks.

My in laws do this to my parents (West Country) and it drives me absolutely nuts. They do it in a manner that suggests not only do they think its hilarious but my parents will also be aware that they have 'funny' accents.

My friend does it. I love her to bits but I think it’s attention seeking…

I tell people to fuck off if they mimic my voice. They don’t tend to do it twice.

Yes.

They're also the kind of people who have never left home (in their mindset, regardless of actual travel), and genuinely believe only other people have ‘accents’, but they don’t. I’m Irish and remember years ago meeting some dopey woman from Barnsley Council at an event in Leicester. She spent the whole evening saying ‘Ooh, listen to your brogue!’ Ooh, I can hardly understand your thick accent’ in an extremely strong Yorkshire accent (which I had no difficulty understanding, and didn’t feel the need to keep drawing attention to’.

I hate it on the news when the presenter tries to pronounce the name of a Welsh town and then gives up with a wave of the hand and afit of giggles. Conversely they make damn sure they get the pronunciation spot on for some tiny, obscure place in Serbia/Mongolia/Lesotho or whatever.

I mimic accents, but not on purpose, it just happens. I don't do it in an exaggerated way though - I'm not taking the piss.
I also find it very hard to speak when I'm talking to people with more 'obvious' accents - because I'm aware that I mimic - and I don't really know what my own accent is at that point. So I just shut up.

This happens to me. It especially annoys me because I have a local accent, it just happens that many/ most of the people I socialise with are not local. So when they mimic my accent I always think - you're on 'my' turf here. Your accent is the one that should stick out!

I'm Scottish (although I have a relatively soft accent, thanks to years or working in international firms: I mockingly refer to it as my 'generic middle-class Scottish accent made acceptable for non-Scots). I'm actually Glaswegian, although you probably wouldn't be able to tell unless you were also Glaswegian and picked up on a few shibboleths in my speech patterns.

My Irish, Welsh and North English colleagues and friends refer to accent-mimicking as 'Doing The Voice' and much as I hate to say it, it is almost inevitably people from SE England who 'Do The Voice'.

All I can say is - please don't. It's very annoying, although it's a useful tell that that person is probably an idiot.

I can always tell if my husband has been texting/thinking about his sister because his childhood accent briefly reappears. It's sweet!

People who mimic accents do it because they are ill-mannered shits.

Well, the BBC certainly doesn’t seem to take pronouncing Irish terms or place names seriously — it’s not as if we’re not neighbouring countries with an intertwined history, yet news presenters still routinely mispronounce ‘Taoiseach’, ‘Dáil’, ‘Fianna Fáil’ etc.

There's a difference between someone picking up an accent and deliberately mimicking another person's accent in an attempt to mock them and make them feel uncomfortable.

I think type A, who mimic and try to take the piss, are idiots and type B, who pick up accents unconsciously, are less so.
I have had my accent mimicked so often, usually by an exaggerated upper class accent, which my accent is not, btw.

Having said that, I find that if I am walking alongside someone with a limp, I pick up a limp as well. It isn't a conscious thing and is probably something to do with the rhythm.
Anyone else do that?

Many years ago I was staying with a friend in another part of the country. She introduced me as "Scar, who is from Somerset". Before I had uttered a word I was subjected to " OO AAARR, Drink up thee zider", type comments. What friend had failed to mention was my accent was predominately Aussie, having lived there for most of my childhood. The look on their faces as I said in my original thick Aussie accent, "G'day, how are you doing.....please forgive me but I didn't understand a word you just said. I guess I'll just have to get used to the local dialect...it sounds lovely BTW".

My accent now is West Country with Aussie overtones so still difficult to imitate.

Absolutely agree. I quoted Welsh because of my heritage and the Welsh language does seem to be one big joke to the English but the same applies to Ireland and Scotland. Like I said, they don't dare behave like that with Indian, Russian or whatever else.

Same here

Eee by eck, etc

Which no-one said in real life, ever

It's so fucking rude, arrogant and as @LunaNorth said.

Yep, I'm a Scot, not in Scotland.
It's very tedious when this happens. What do they expect me to do? Laugh? It's not funny, it's stupid.
I usually just look at them perplexed and a bit concerned.

Picking up accents or mannerisms suconsciously is not the same: you're not deliberately being a twat.

@ginasevern Don't get me started on the endless mispronounciation of Scottish Gaelic as 'Gay-lick', when it should be pronounced 'Gaa-lick'.

The former refers to Irish Gaelic, although most Irish speakers prefer, understandably, to refer to it as Irish.

People who do it on purpose are twats.

The subconsciously picking up accents thing is apparently quite common. It’s meant to be linked to empathy, which always makes me feel a bit better, though I try to fight it in case anyone thinks I’m in the first group!