Poshing up and chavving down your accent...

[LustfulInMiltonKeynes]

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

Anyone else do this?!

Sometimes I make myself cringe!

Same here expat re picking up foreign languages.

I have a very strong regional accent so i attempt to talk a lot clearer at work as i deal nationally with people and nobody is understanding me if i dont. I think by default of doing that i end up sounding a little posher. I dont dumb down though i dont think.

I sound rah enough as it is. I haven't had a mockney since I was a teen.

I do sometimes put on an east coast US accent if I'm bored and stuck on a customer service phoneline.

@polkerris

Maybe the ‘chavvy’ accent was her original one and she just reverted when she spoke to her sister. You maybe only knew her after she had a new, posh accent !

A woman I was at university with had a queens english, public school image and accent to go with it. I then met her mum and sister who had strong Essex accents. I asked her why they had such different accents and the woman said that she had deliberately cultivated a ‘posh girl’ accent from the start of university. I don’t know why she did that, but she did have a very well spoken bf with a lot of old money behind him. He was a giant arsehole, but I wonder if she was trying to impress him and his family a bit.

I have an Irish father and a scouse mother, so my accent is quite strange anyway, but every time I go over to Ireland I end up sounding like a local very quickly (as in before the end of the day). I apparently also sound very Irish if I've had a drink.

My mum's scouse accent is barely noticeable and mine isn't strong either (I was frequently asked why I 'talk so posh' when I was in school)

I definitely sound more scouse or more Irish depending on who I talk to, but I never pick up any other accents. I just seem to veer between those two (I'd rather just have the Irish though, even if it's not a particularly nice Irish accent)

Me I am working class and I don’t speak to say my in laws to how I would speak to my friends

Also teachers ect I think it effects how people treat you

I think everyone does it to some extent don't they?

I was brought up in an East End overflow suburb, and went to an independent girls' school in North London, the mention of which makes certain MNers wet their knicks.

Therefore my accent is...confused, even into middle age.

Someone who has not known me long mentioned it recently..he said,

'how come one minute you sound all well-spoken and then you are talking like an extra from EastEnders'

Yes @metoodear. I think some people make assumptions about me based on my Irish accent too.

We have a trainer at work who has this weird way or speaking I can not describe it its not accent but mannor if I listen to her for more than 30 mins I start to mimic her

I once rang my sister after a training afternoon and she immediately asked why I was talking funny

So relieved I'm not alone in doing this!

I'm from Essex, living in Australia for 20 years. Had plenty of good-natured teasing regarding my pommie accent, and I intentionally adopted an Australian accent. However when talking to anyone from the UK, I unintentionally pick up and copy their accent straight away.

I also work with someone from South Africa. I love her accent and find myself copying it when talking to her, and she possibly thinks I am mocking her, but it just happens unintentionally. I don't know what to say to explain it!

I always thought that I do this due to originally forcing myself to adopt an Aussie accent, but maybe that's not the case then...

My son used move from talking as Jeremy Clarkson to broad Yorkshire accent depending on what he was talking about.

Memories from private school->posh accent
Memories from state school-> Yorkshire accent.

He doesn’t do it anymore, but I noticed his accents gets a bit posher when he is talking about science

I do it ALL the time. family absolutely take the piss out of me for it.

I wish I could! I sound posh, that’s just the way I speak, I got picked on constantly for it at primary school. Less so at secondary fortunately (vair naice girls’ grammar).

DH massively changes his poshness depending on who he’s speaking to. When talking to a builder, gas man etc he finishes every sentence with ‘mate’, without pronouncing the T. He thinks it sounds friendly....even though he never ever calls anyone else ‘mate’....

Maybe the ‘chavvy’ accent was her original one and she just reverted when she spoke to her sister.

Don't think so as no-one else on that side of the family spoke that way! The sister moved to a very rough area and her accent morphed into the way they were speaking.

I used to think this was really cringey. Until I realised that it was not that different from speaking different languages to different people which I do on a regular basis.

In southern Europe diglossia is completely normal: using the regional accent for informal encounters and the "RP" accent for work/formal settings.

I think the English get particularly hung-up about this because they us to assign social class. So somebody who alternates between accents looks like they're trying to hide something or evade classification.

Not intentionally but it definitely happens. I sound posher when I'm angry or anxious or feel challenged. When I relax it's very different.

Kids in multi ethnic areas do this all the time, mix Caribbean patios with Greek slang and posher for school. Fusion language, fabulous.
My friend is london, her bloke is northern, they live in Scotland and the kids are really broad. Lots of people have different language or accent at home. We are from the country but live in the city for years. Go all yokel as soon as we hit the motorway home.

Not poshness but my Welsh accent is a lot stronger when I'm speaking to someone welsh

I do this without thinking. DH always points it out and I cringe so hard at myself!

No, never have, never will. I'm me. Take me as I am. I won't change my accent and try to sound posh for anybody. I'm proud of my roots and where I come from.

It's normal. Most people do it to some extent.

There's a strong element of perception as well. At work, I frequently get told I have a posh voice, because I have a non-local accent that they can't place and I do flatten it a bit for work.

My mum insists that I don't have any particular accent at all.

When I talk to people from the south and south-east, I am quite aware that I have a reasonably strong accent with a lot of nasality going on and really mangled vowels.

@BlondeB83 has it correct. It is a thing and there have been studies done on it. Nothing to be embarrassed about because it's a useful linguistic tool to further understanding/acceptance.

Yes, I change accent and vocabulary depending who I'm with.

" Until I realised that it was not that different from speaking different languages to different people which I do on a regular basis. "

exactly - like if I said to a London cabbie 'just rahnd to Tyers st please ma' " then he is less likely to rip me off than if I had said it all posh..:)

People are starting to mention adopting foreign accents so I have to share with you Joey Barton's French accent. That's fantastic, isn't it?