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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think you don't change your accent...

119 replies

guiltynetter · 09/03/2015 10:29

in 8 months?

partners sister. went to live in Scotland from the north of England 8-9 months ago. saw her this weekend for the second time since she moved. started chatting to discover she now has a full on, strong, Scottish accent. we're not talking a hint of it, we're talking lived-there-all-your-life scot. I couldn't take her seriously! last time we spoke she was full northern.

am I being unreasonable? there's nothing wrong with the accent I just don't get how you can change so quickly! I'll prepare for a flaming...

OP posts:
RattieofCatan · 09/03/2015 12:32

YABU. I lived with aussies for 6 months, my accent was very noticeably different after that despite living in the UK still!
I pick up accents and slang like a sponge, I don't even realise until my parents point it out. 5 months with northerners and I picked up a weird mixed accent (before the Aussies).

I speak very differently now than I did even a few years ago and people who know me in Sussex can tell when I've been speaking to family in Essex because I switch back!

But my Dad has lived in England for 30-odd years, he still sounds very Iranian.

slightlyglitterstained · 09/03/2015 12:34

Similar to previous posters, I'm an unconscious mimic. I am actually not good at all at remembering what different accents sound like, so I can't pretend or mimic an accent at all, but mine shifts. Sometimes quite quickly.

BeCool · 09/03/2015 12:38

I've lived in UK for 20 years and still have a very strong accent.
Though when I go back to where I was born they think I sound very English/London.

I think there are a few factors - for example in London everyone has a different accent to the next person. But going to somewhere like Scotland or Australia you are submerged into more or a mono-accent environment.

If I speak to American's I unwittingly will start echoing bits of their accent in my speech. It's unintentional and embarrassing.

YesIDidMeanToBeSoRudeActually · 09/03/2015 12:39

My paternal grandmother came to the UK as a teen and lived here for over 80 years. She spoke English when she was here and integrated into the English community. She still however kept her original, strong, accent and told me she still dreamed in her native language. Towards the end of her life when she was suffering from dementia, she lost all her English and reverted back to her mother tongue.

Gruntfuttock · 09/03/2015 12:40

We were on holiday in Florida and got chatting to a local. After about 10 minutes we left and said goodbye and I added "Thanks for the adviiiiice" in a strong southern accent! Blush I couldn't believe what I was hearing and it was me saying it! Totally unconsciously I had picked up his accent in that short time.

RositatheSeata · 09/03/2015 12:40

Is she west coast of Scotland? I find that accent really contagious!

John Barrowman moved to the US when he was 9 or 10 so the Scottish accent is his original one. He put on an American accent because he was being bullied at school, but still spoke with his own accent at home with family. There's an interview with him and his sister here, they both do it!
m.youtube.com/watch?v=jtXFrvsa0Pk

SunnyBaudelaire · 09/03/2015 12:41

she might not want to be readily identified as English in Scotland?
Also it might sound like a 'full' Scottish accent to you, but it probably is not.

squoosh · 09/03/2015 12:42

I think John Barrowman comes across as a huge fake flicking between two such wildly different accents.

RositatheSeata · 09/03/2015 12:47

I had a friend at school who did this too squoosh - Scottish at school to fit in, but Northern English accent at home with her English parents. It's weird but I can see why kids do it. Her sister did it too. I don't see it as fake.

SunnyBaudelaire · 09/03/2015 12:53

anyway we all do it.
I used to speak RP at school and home and imitation cockney to fit in in our East End overflow town.
Still do speak both, I suppose

RattieofCatan · 09/03/2015 12:54

I wonder, those of us who seem to pick up accents, are any of you able to put on an accent "on demand", so to speak? I cannot fake an accent on demand and see a few others are like that too.

UraSnotball · 09/03/2015 12:57

Definitely possible.

I think it varies in how deliberate it is, though. Scots is perceived to be a nice accent so she may well be hamming it up.
We need a controlled experiment. Get her to move where I am (deepest Birmingham). If she picks up our accent it's definitely not on purpose Grin

RattieofCatan · 09/03/2015 12:58

becool I don't know, that might be the case for some but I think others do hold onto their accent regardless of the environment they're in. My Dad moved to a very predominantly white area after living in London for a few years and has been in the very-white area ever since, he's still stubborn with the accent Grin I can't understand him half of the time Blush

MrsHathaway · 09/03/2015 12:59

She won't sound Scottish to her neighbours.

YABvU but might enjoy a sociolinguistics course!

CallMeExhausted · 09/03/2015 13:16

I have no control over it, but have a tendency to pick up accents very quickly.

I went away for a 3 day weekend to a place only 4 hours away, but with a very strong regional accent. Somehow, over the weekend, I managed to unintentionally pick up a bit of the area's lilt and twang. DH was laughing with me when I got home as it took me a couple of days to drop it again.

I don't doubt that if I went for a while, I would come back sounding entirely different.

FelixFelix · 09/03/2015 13:19

My DP's cousin moved from down south to Chorley about 6 months ago and now has a thick Lancashire accent. It's so bizarre but amusing at the same time Grin

FirstWeTakeManhattan · 09/03/2015 13:28

Some people genuinely pick up accents very quickly. I do and one of my sisters does. My other sis has lived in Scotland for nearly 20 years and not a trace of accent.

I've got an allegedly posh Southern accent but have lived in Yorkshire for years and I switch between the two without noticing it, but someone else probably would!

EBearhug · 09/03/2015 13:31

Though I sound mostly Dorset, I do tend to pick up accents fairly easily, especially Valleys, as we spent a lot of time there as children, plus I go to Welsh classes, which tends to send my English a bit that way for a few hours. I think it's probably always going to sound Dorset underneath, though, rather than native. These days, I only tend to sound really strongly Dorset when back home; at work, I spend most phone calls with people whose first language is not English, so I think it's only fair to aim towards RP and avoid dialect words.

I don't know how quickly I adapt these days, but I do remember one October half term in Wales when I was about 10 - at the start of the week, everyone commented on my Dorset accent. We spent the week playing with the children next door. Back home the following week, they were all talking about my Welsh accent.

Children are far more likely to pick up accents than adults, and women are more likely to than men. In general, anyway. Obviously any individual might buck the trend. Also, you're more likely to pick up another accent the more you feel you fit in. Accents can be used to mark differences, whether consciously or subconsciously.

LackOfAdhesiveDucks · 09/03/2015 13:33

I lived in Kent for a year (I'm Canadian) and after a couple or months had a mild accent. My parents thought it was hilarious because I can't normally mimic an accent at all, but my English collegeues still thought I sounded very Canadian. After I moved back home I lost my accent again but whenever I visit England it comes back pretty quickly, as does using the different terms for things. I think it's fascinating.

TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams · 09/03/2015 14:00

It's called "Phonetic accommodation" apparently.

I also unconsciously take on the accent, speech pattern and cadence of people I am talking to if they have a strong accent. I catch myself doing it a lot and there's always the risk that people interpret you as taking the piss so I have to force myself to speak normally.

I live in London and sound English for the most part but I revert to sounding 100% Irish within seconds of getting off the plane in Dublin or on a Skype call to friends/family. If I visit a different regional part of Ireland, I will also assume their accent. DH has started pointing out "Mummy's funny voice" to my 4 yr old who is somewhat baffled by a parent who can sound completely different within seconds.

I have a cousin who has lived in the USA for 35 yrs. He sounds like he arrived a week ago. Weird how some people are totally unaffected.
I cannot "do accents" to save my life either, even Irish ones !

cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/4084/what-causes-some-people-to-unconsciously-imitate-the-accents-of-others
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300949/You-subconsciously-try-mimic-accent-person-speaking-researchers-find.html

Taz1212 · 09/03/2015 14:23

When DS(12) changed schools he went from having a thick West Lothian accent to a posh Edinburgh accent within months. His local friends still tease him about his accent but he doesn't seem to able to switch between accents depending on where he is.

Hygellig · 09/03/2015 15:44

I would be surprised to hear of someone changing their accent that quickly!
My mum never picked up much of a local accent despite living in the area for over 30 years - she may have made a conscious effort not to. But reading the replies above it's obviously something that can happen. Some people seem to very quickly assume an accent or a bit of an accent, whilst others sound like they arrived the day before. In my town, I've met people not originally from the area who now sound a bit like they are, and others who still have a very strong accent (New Zealand for example).

OhFlippityBolax · 09/03/2015 15:48

I'm a very good mimic and find if I spend any longer than a week around people of a different accent I'll pick it up accidentally. University was a barrel of laughs...

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 09/03/2015 15:48

I pick up accents really quickly too. I am also aware that I mimic the accent of the person I'm talking too (totally involuntarily & in despite of my best efforts not to!) The most noticeable in my day to day life is when I speak to a friend who lives in Plymouth & is Devon born & bred with a fairly strong accent. She just laughs at me TBH (in a nice way) Blush.

On the bright side, it really helped me in my French & German GCSEs Grin.

SmashleyHop · 09/03/2015 15:54

my DH is a master of accents. He's Scouse but if we go anywhere else he spends the entire time speaking in the regional accent... amusing annoying

I've lived in the UK for about 5 yrs now. My accent hasn't budged. I'm still as Yankeefied as it gets. ( Hey guys!! See ya later! Have a nice day!!) I've known several other Americans though that spend 3 months here and they sound like natives. It's strange.