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

[guiltynetter]

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...

I am the same as you seeline. I pick up South African very easily and Australian, French and German. I studied the latter two at A level so perhaps some people who are good at languages are more easily able to pick up accents?

I'm American and have lived in the UK for 11 years. My accent is still obviously American, although I have toned down the inflections a bit. I can't even feign a British accent.

I moved to London 18 years ago and although I am French speaking, nobody can detect an accent - except when I write, some of my grammar and structure gives the reader a clue that I am not native English speaker. My very good friend is from Paris and she has been in London for longer than I have and she has a lovely French accent - she swears she will never loose it. Some people pick up accents much easier than others, it's nobody's fault!

That has to be deliberate on the part of your friend. How cringe-making - wasn't there an English football manager who went to work in Holland, who was made a mockery of on You Tube because he was recorded giving
an interview on Dutch tv in a fake, adopted Dutch accent?

Mind you, I know people who have changed the spelling of their names to Gaelic, so as to sound more Celtic.

Not sure about a football manager in Holland but Joey Barton who is from Liverpool (I think) had a brief stint in France and started speaking English in a French accent! Cringetastic and pointless. At least try and learn French you numpty!

donna air sounds completely southern now, yet ant and dec don't.

i need to get out more

Mine did its biggest shift within a year of moving to the UK - I am roundly mocked by my family for it.

I deliberately changed mine very quickly - at Oxford uni in the 80s was teased for having a "quaint nothern accent". Within a year I didn't have it any more. Lacked the confidence at the time to tell the person to bugger off.

There are others like me!
Without knowing I am doing it I take on the accent of where I am. It can happen very quickly but if I tried to 'put on' an accent I can't for the life of me
even if it is an accent I have picked up at some point in the past while visiting somewhere.
I am originally from Liverpool and had a Liverpool accent but not a very strong one. I have lived in the south for over 9 years and had lost my Liverpool in weeks however when I go back or talk to family or friends on the phone hints of Liverpool come back, the longer I am there the stronger it gets. I do the same in Ireland, I once picked up a hire car on arrival and chatted to the staff about Liverpool and dropped it back 2 weeks later to be asked where abouts in Ireland I was from. (I did spend allot of time in Ireland as a child mind).
I would love to 'keep hold' of my native Liverpool accent, people are always shocked when I tell them where I am from. I have tried but it just doesn't work, it slips back into the area I live now or worse, sounds like I am trying to put on a Liverpool accent.

I hope people don't think I am doing it on purpose or think there is 'more to' it like a poster suggested. It just seems that some people are programmed to pick up the speech pattons of the people they are around and others are not. Just one of the many differences that make up the human race.

On various occasions over my teenage years, I picked up a Devon accent from staying in rural Devon a fortnight, a Spanish accent during an hour's dinner with friends, an Aussie accent from marathoning a TV show, and an Irish accent from spending four hours with a guy from NI. I fully believe it's possible to have a permanent change after eight months.

I think if you are good at languages you can change your accent very quickly. I k is someone who will morph accents depending on where she is/who she is with. I also know someone who reverts to her mums accent when she speaks to her (you can tell when her mum calls!).

My dad's wife is from Sheffield. Has lived here for over 35 years, her accent gets thicker by the year I swear!

some people can. my voice changes depending one which group of friends im with. i hate it as i feel some people might think im putting it on but if i was asked to do it on the spot i couldn't. i seem to just try blend in with whoever im with.

My accent is a whole mix! I have lived in England, Australia and South Africa. Each new word I learnt I learnt in that accent.
I would adore elocution lessons so I'm not such a mix up.

I don't believe you can change and accent just like that. I do however believe some people are very good mimics, and will subconsciously mimic/imitate whoever they are with for a given time. That isn't the same as an accent change

OP This does sound quite unusual. I have lived in SE England for almost 30 years but originate from Scotland. I have two different Scottish accents depending on where I am at the time.The person you know is maybe trying very hard to fit in and also has a good 'ear' for accents. Also a point about accents. Everyone has one -even the Queen. Hers has changed quite markedly during her reign. We all have our own idiolect or unique way of speaking.

I've heard that people who are musical pick up accents very quickly. I haves NZ friend who lived in London, who picked up a very posh accent.

I've lived all over and mine is a weird mix, but I hear myself changing my accent if I talk to someone from home for example. DS1 has a mixed accent and can put on the local accent at whim. It's very amusing.

I start sliding into accents during conversation with people with a strong accent. I'm not making fun of them, it just sort of happens. Especially on vowels & distinctive sounds.

My mother consciously lost her American accent when shopkeepers etc would refuse to serve her (small Home Counties town in the 70s); my dad lost his West Country one when he went to university in London after piss-taking from his 'upper-class twit' roommate. So both sounded pure RP as I grew up, though people who didn't know any Americans except on the TV would identify my mother as being one - no-one else did.

When my mother started travelling back to the US more and then cheap phone calls came in, her American accent flooded back. Though my dad never starts sounding at all like his family - I suspect he tries not to even though his RP accent is now his real one.

I just get people refusing to believe my accent is from wherever I am - it's a vague southeast England with deaf over-enunciation that makes people think I'm either from 50 miles away or Dutch or Swedish. Though Sarf Lahdan vowels and glottal stops and 'innit' seem very catching - many locals have strong foreign accents mixed with clear south London!