To find this a tad annoying. 36 year old American woman moves to the UK and begins developing a British accent overnight.

[Rainbunny]

To be clear, I like MM and and I'm very glad she married Harry but if she's really started with the whole accent thing it's silly. I'm afraid it comes across as a bit "put upon" and fake to me. She should be proud of her own accent, it's perfectly nice.

People "adopting" accents because they think it makes them sound better is just one of those silly things that bug me. I'm very sure I'm being petty about it but it annoyed me when Madonna did it as well. It's one thing to naturally develop an accent over the years but she's barely been here five minutes!

www.thecut.com/2018/07/meghan-markle-british-accent-video.html

People have different ears and some do this a bit. I do it a bit I’m afraid. My family at home laugh at my English accent although I still sound Australian to English people of course. With a touch of American because you know, I lived there once when I was young. So hate me. I couldn’t stop it to save my life.

It might not be fake. Google linguistic convergence. Its a thing. You adapt your language to fit in with your social group.

Also, as an actress she might well pick up accents more easily / more quickly than most.

Can't get worked up about it, to be honest.

I think some people automatically imitate people around them .

But Meghan hasn't just been around British people for a night! She'd be developing an accent by now , it's natural.

Pesky Americans. Coming over here and stealing our accents

I pick up accents just from having a conversation with someone. The number of times I have been asked what part of X, Y or Z I am from ...

I absorb accents without realising. Lived in Canada as a child for 2 months... had a mild accent by the time we left.

Lived in Scotland for two years, in a very rural location where a very broad accent was the norm. I adopted that fully... when I think back to the words that used to flow out of my mouth it’s crazy. They feel foreign to me now (back in England for years now).

I can’t put on an accent to save my life, but I naturally take them on without knowing.

My mother adopts the accent of the person she is speaking to. It can be very funny but is sometimes embarrassing. Luckily her social contacts are now limited but she used to merrily chirrup away in Indian or Irish accents totally unaware.
I think the Duchess is now surrounded by RP speakers so will begin to change the way she speaks. She’s an actress so very adaptable, assumably.

Them god damn Americans coming here stealing our princes and accents tbf she is an actress probably has anear for it and she has hardly been here a fortnight yes Madonna I am looking at you

I always pick up accents! I worked with some wonderful northerners (am Welsh) within three months I was being asked by new acquaintances where I originally came from!

Well I know it's a bit unreasonable, but if I can't display my petty traits on mumsnet where can i?

I also think my annoyance is partly due to my experiences of living in various countries overseas. I live in the USA currently and I have experienced people in conversation with me starting to copy my accent, either consciously or subconsciously. It's just really annoying to be talking to someone who suddenly starts copying your speech, it makes me feel like I'm being made fun of.

In MM's case it seems like a deliberate change to me.

I suffer from fake accent syndrome. I don’t mean to do it but I do echo the accents of those around me.

It's probably the result of elecution lessons so she doesn't sound as common.

It's probably not deliberate. My friend was born in Wales to Scottish parents. When she talks to me she has a Welsh accent but when she talks to her family she has a broad Glaswegian accent. She doesn't even realise she is doing it. It's automatic.

I'm another accent mimic. I honestly can't help it. A couple of times it's happened and people think I'm taking the piss. As she's an actor her accent is probably more fluid than most anyway.

Poor Joss Stone got it in the neck from crossing the Atlantic the other way

I think it sounds nice, she sounds like my children, kind of a cross between American and English. Although I hate the term British accent, she has an English accent.

Ugh I’ve just watched the clip. A life time of pointless small talk with strangers ahead of her, poor woman.

Yeah but considering that she spent what, 3 or 4 years in Canada and lived with a Canadian boyfriend, I haven't heard the slightest twinge of a Canadian accent...

This is known as echolalia. My children are scaley brats and absorb accents from all over the place. Not all people have a fixed way of speaking.

Personally I deliberately lost my Devonshire accent when I joined up as I hated it, and still do but it has led to problems with my family thinking I am a snob. We don't have to sit in our boxes if we don't want to.

Maybe the accent sounds English to an American but it’s not Dick Van Dyke does cockney!

I’m another who absorbed the accent of where I was living; not sure if it was an unconscious protective mechanism to fit in as a child which continued into adulthood.

It happens to some quite naturally when they're surrounded by another accent. Ease up.

That video didn't sound British to me. Am I the only one who's hearing an American accent?

It's called empathetic accenting and it's a trait normally associated with wanting to be liked by those around us.

I had a friend who was from Edinburgh. I could always tell when family or friends had visited, simply because her accent on a Monday morning was more 'Scottish' , so when she came in and said good morning with more of an accent I'd immediately comment she'd had visitors. It happens naturally that you adapt your accent to that of those around you.

I absorb accents too! Doesn't take me long at all.

She is probably having elocution lessons too which may make an impact on how she sounds.