Poshing up and chavving down your accent...

[LustfulInMiltonKeynes]

...depending on who you're talking to.

Anyone else do this?!

Sometimes I make myself cringe!

We live on the edge of Liverpool and I don't really have a strong accent compared to others around me but i have lived away for uni and worked in America so I think it has changed over the years.

My ds is 15 and says I'm "posh" which makes me laugh. If I'm away from home it is quite clear to anyone where I'm from and of course I do have my phone voice which always comes out a little bit Hyacinth Bouquet

My ndn sounds like a fishwife and that's on her posh mode

I'm acquainted with a BBC newsreader who is very neutral and clearly spoken on TV, but is thoroughly Irish when not at work. (They get "Irisher" as they get more drunk too! )

I can choose to fit in sometimes with others. I couldn't ever do something like drop a T or have bad grammar. I went to private school etc and my parents spoke pretty well - whatever well means. I can sometimes adapt a bit eg I give a lot of talks including to people from abroad - last week eg I spoke a bit slower due to the many different nationalities in the audience for example and if I used a fairly specific unusual English word I would then either explain it or use a synonym to help them out.

I do this, in that I do find my voice changing slightly depending on who I'm speaking to. It is totally involuntary and I hate it, but I understand why it happens - I hate any sort of scrutiny so I think I'm always subconsciously trying to blend in.

halfwit love your description! I also sound like Bridget Jones at work, which is a million miles away from my "home" rough Midlands accent (not Brummie) - I went to a posh school and spoke fancy to fit in, and find I use it as a shield to give me confidence at work.

So pleased it's not just me! I always feel I must be secretly a bit 'fake' for adapting to whomever I am with but its involuntary - I really can't stop it

I wouldn't call it going posh, but as a Glaswegian, if I didn't slow down and change some vowels, nobody outside Glasgow would understand me.

That's so bloody British though, to make it be about class. DH also speaks a strong dialect in his native language and nobody thinks it's chavvy, it's just the way NB people from that area speak. I heard my BIL and SIL get married and the officiant did everything in dialect - I would love that, if you could have a wedding done in dialect in the UK.

I try and tone down my accent a bit on the phone at work because people have complained in the past that they couldn't understand my accent (I covered the South-East but have a pretty generic and not especially strong East Mids accent so find this rather hard to believe but meh, whatever!) but generally no, I speak the same whoever I'm talking to other than that

@Miladamermalada

Surely ‘would’ve’ sounds like ‘would of’ which is why people spell it incorrectly in a sentence. Verbal usage isn’t the problem.. unless you annunciate the ‘of’ a lot...

I originate from the Brum area, but was close friends with a couple of 'posh' girls at school and then moved to London for uni so my accent has always been pretty neutral with no accent and no I don't change it to fit in personally. I think people notice if you do it and NO they don't like it; people can always tell if you are talking down for their benefit. Remember when George Osborne used to do when talking to the 'plebs' - horrendous! People prefer authenticity to whether you've got a 'posh' accent or not.

My mum used to do a posh voice it was really obvious. I don't bother, people can take me for me, voice and all.

Yes. Talking to my family I have a really rough sounding Barnsley twang. I try my best to tone it down when teaching. At one bit I tried to tone it down when talking to my children but I gave up because my normal voice my mother comes out massively when I shout.
I don't have a phone voice though. My mam does and I used to find it so embarrassing!

I’m so not posh - inner city working class parents etc but have a tone in my voice that makes people think I am posh. Odd. I even say ‘beetroot’ without the ts.

I do this - but also with accents. Totally unintentional. Embarrassing because it sounds like I'm taking the piss

My dad does this and it's brilliant. He had a very rough, deprived upbringing. But worked hard to learn to speak nicely and carry himself well. As soon as he's with his brother or ilat the garage or something his actual accent comes out and it's hilarious!

I do it but not to extremes as my accent screams ‘home counties’ whatever I do but there are degrees and it is useful to be able to vary the tone to fit in with your group.

I do this I’m a complete mimic and I absorb accents like a sponge. My mum once chided me for coming home with an Essex accent (Essex housemates at uni!) I even pick up accents from people whose first language isn’t English (much to the amusement of my Polish housemates).

It’s embarrassing and I’m worried people will think I’m mocking them. But I don’t know how to stop it! It’s not a conscious thing.

I do this, but not intentionally at all. I also do it with accents, which is excruciatingly embarrassing when I catch myself. Sometimes, I find that I've even adopted other people's grammatical errors, like the inappropriate use of the definite article. I cringe when I hear myself doing it, but it's completely involuntary.

Glad I'm not the only one.

Yes, I wouldn't describe it as 'chavving down' though - I just drop a few consonants. Since leaving school and mixing with mainly privately educated middle class types (thanks to uni) my accent has definitely poshed up. DH speaks very well too. My working class vowels definitely slip sometimes though, when I'm angry or excited.

I do this a bit, though I fight my accent becoming too anglicised as far as possible, (Irish living in SE England). I don’t know why, I just want to keep my accent! I’ve been here ages 🤷‍♀️.

I think if I’m with university friends, my accent goes a bit like theirs... so a bit ‘posh’ I guess. I have to make a concerted effort to stop it, as I do think I sound a bit cringe.

Fwiw, whoever was horrified at their poor grammar etc, having been to a grammar school, I went to a vair naice all girls school and one of the girls I went to school with has the worst written grammar I’ve ever seen. She did a level English as well. I’m sure she didn’t use such poor grammar when we were at school. I think you do start to take on what you hear in day to day life. Would of, brought / bought etc. I’ve heard them both come out of my mouth in the heat of the moment. I would never write them though, as I have more time to think it through.

I think it's called code switching. I do it all the time. I have my normal voice, my 'street' voice and my 'phone' voice. My phone voice is also my pissed voice.

@SnowGoArea I have exactly the same afflication re other people’s accents - I start to pick them up quite quickly. Once spent the day with my Irish friend, next day an Irish bloke at work asked me which part of NI I was from so I do it quite convincingly by all accounts!

My own regional accent wavers depending on who I’m talking to - I naturally suppress it when giving presentations etc, but it’s more like when I see individual customers my accent will unconsciously become stronger or weaker depending on theirs. I’ve always considered it a verbal form of mirroring (ie with body language, which I also seem to do without thinking). I think it’s probably useful in terms of relationship building, something I need to do with people quite quickly for work.

It's really annoying: I can't put on regional/national accents if I actually try to (e.g. all my family are Welsh, but if you suddenly ask me to say something in a Welsh accent I am hopeless), but can't help myself picking up the accent or intonation of whoever I am talking to, and I hate hearing myself do it sometimes.

Australian and South African accents are particularly contagious, but it also applies to different types of British English.

I am good at picking up correct pronunciations in foreign languages, which is pretty much the same skill and much more useful, however.

My mother used to do this. She would speak perfectly normally except when speaking to her sister when she'd sound exceptionally chavvy.

I don't change my accent at all, ever. I have a standard easily understandable Scottish accent but am aware I can speak quite quickly. so slow down when speaking to foreigners.