Poshing up and chavving down your accent...

[LustfulInMiltonKeynes]

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

Anyone else do this?!

Sometimes I make myself cringe!

I do this too. In my role as an English tutor I know I need to pronounce words correctly and not shorten or remove letters as my West Yorkshire accent does . My Yorkshire accent is stronger when around friends and family or drunk. If I am in the South and talking to a posho, I ensure I speak ‘correctly’ too.

Hahaha - very timely thread! I was talking to my daughter about this only yesterday and remembering my beloved Welsh mam who died two years ago and had a very posh phone voice. It was so funny to hear - she'd go all Hyacinth Bucket, with not a trace of a Welsh accent, when she answered the phone - absolutely hysterical.

In real life, I too have a variety of voices depending on who I'm talking to. I can range from proper Cockney geezer to modulated middle class England and all varieties in between. I also have an 'angry' voice apparently - and people know I'm pissed off about something, not because of the words I use but the tone in which I speak.

Me and the other half also have a terrible habit (which I am sure is going to get us into trouble one of these days) of slipping into the local accent when we visit other parts of the UK. It's not intentional and not meant to be rude or offensive to the locals in any way, but it's just something that we do and need to stop!!

On a fab holiday in Yorkshire we were having dinner in a gorgeous country pub and there were a group of youngsters on the next table with the broadest Yorkshire accents I have ever heard and proper 'thees' and 'thas'. It was so wonderful to listen to ... but after that when chatting to each other in the car as we toured round, we'd occasionally slip into mimicry!

Same in Cornwall last year - doing the Cornish accent. Why I have no idea. Thankfully it's just between ourselves, but I'm terrified one day we will accidentally slip into our fake local accents in front of people and cause offence!

i will tell you what cracks me up, and that is the 'special' accent that some Brits put on when they are talking to someone with English second language...as though it will be easier to understand for them or something....

I do this but it's not really intentional.

I now have an accent which is much different to the local accent of the area I was born in and live in. for me, personally, I really don't like the local accent so as a young teenager I worked hard to alter my accent to a more 'neutral' one (if such an accent exists).
However my original accent does come out when I'm stressed, angry, excited or if I feel I need to I can switch between the different accents easily.
I would say that my learned accent is a basic well rounded Lincolnshire one, without the awful nasally and drawn out chav sound of the particular Lincolnshire town where I live. Just a few miles up the road from here and we get into East Yorkshire and I bloody love their accent.

MN snobbery and lack of knowledge about accents strike again.

I didnt know people did this until I watched The Departed.

My husband doesn't do this But he does talk more like an American when he talks to me. I didn't realise he did until the first time I met his family and heard the difference in words he used with them. I also change lingo I use when talking to American family vs British.

I certainly would say things like college instead of university to Americans and that kind of thing or I might say "nappies that is diapers in the US".

I've lived in a variety of places around the country and always like to think my accent is fairly every woman. Until I hear my self speak on recordings. Then I understand why everyone tells me I sound like Clare Balding!

I blame the compulsory elocution lessons at school.

I do, but it’s helpful in my line of work, I work with families from all different backgrounds and professionals and am often a go between between the 2 so it helps for people to think I’m on ‘their level’. Lots of our parents are very mistrusting of ‘posh’ sounding professionals. I think it helps that I moved around a lot as a child so do not have a ‘fixed’ accent.

My husband pointed out I do this, I didn’t even realise I did it! I think it started through work as we have to explain things very clearly so I try to sound familiar to the person I’m taking too.

I do this - I also end up talking in the accent of the person I am talking too, wherever they have come from, if I don't listen to myself and stop myself from looking like I am taking the piss. its involuntary though.

Yes! It isn't intentional but I've always taken on accents of those around me. Even for short periods. I went on one of those adventure holidays for kids when I was about 8 and spent the week with a girl from Birmingham. I came home with a brummy accent.

I mostly sound a little more "local" and shouty around a certain group of friends and acquaintances. And then at work I tend to just speak normally and then with family I'm quite well spoken as they are and my mum would get arsey if I dropped my ts 😂

I involuntarily go into ponsy twat mode when I am pissed off. I got into my Australian accent when I talking about Australian things or swearing. Horribly embarrassing but I really can't help it. And I sound like an idiot when I read aloud. Either a drunk Irish man or an American trying to imitate the queen

Whenever I call my friend who's in the US, I will inevitably pick up her accent at some point. And the crazy thing is, neither of us notices until I think "why did that word sound weird?" and then I suddenly switch back to posh British (even though I'm from a grotty area), at which point she notices!

I do this a bit actually. I am from Shropshire but a stones throw from Wolverhampton - I sound quite Yam Yam after a few beers or if I am agitated but most of the time it’s just a midlands twang. Put me with a bunch of people who are all Wolverhampton and I become properly broad! It’s not deliberate but it does happen. I don’t take on other people’s accents from other places though, my sister does that and is mortified by it! Totally involuntary though

Gosh, my accent's all over the place. I'll admit that! But I've moved around a lot.

If I'm on the phone, or I'm trying to be assertive wth my DC, I seem to posh it up a bit. No idea why. I think I get it from my DM, as she used to do this too. Or when she was angry, but trying not raise her voice

I do. My natural accent sounds like Liam Gallagher. I posh it up at parents evenings, interviews etc.

People tend to think I’m pretty rough based on my natural, Salford accent.

My SIL has a very posh accent and I invariably put on my very best Hyacinth voice. The only trouble is if I spend too long with her I invariably revert back to a cross between Stoke and Manc.

I tend to start emulating accents around me. I’m usually fairly RP.

I was speaking to somebody at work who clearly prides herself on being ‘posh’. How I laughed like a hyena when she started slipping and saying ‘frew’ instead of through. I don’t care how people speak, but trying to be well spoken when clearly you aren’t is pretentious and fake.

Surely most people take out the local dialect and vocabulary if they have a strong regional accent when speaking to 'outsiders' so they can be understood - but revert back when amongst 'friends'.
Children do this routinely at school.

So relieved I'm not the only one who slips into the local accent when visiting other parts!

As you have all said, it's completely involuntary and absolutely not meant to cause offence ... I just find myself doing it, so glad I'm not the only one!

I do! I have a very broad Yorkshire accent and it’s fine at work or with family but I definitely have a telephone voice. My husband’s uni friends are mostly from London or surrounding areas and his accent completely changes when we visit them, it’s hilarious listening to him.

I don't necessarily posh it up, but speak a bit more 'proper' when speaking to people from another part of the country/world I have to consciously slow down my talking, as that's what people find worse. I also feel like I stick out like a sore thumb when I'm not at home (but In the UK), and for whatever reason it feels more prominent. I don't know if I subconsciously become more common or I just feel like I am as I'm not surrounded by people who sound the same.

I have a whiny Scouse accent👀😇

Rarely. People can take me as I am and if they don't like it they can get fucked

I don't pronounce my Ts properly, I don't pronounce my Rs properly, I don't pronounce my Ls properly, or my Hs, I pronounce "th" as "v/f/d", and "Ng" on the end of words as "nk" or simpky "n".

One, two, free...