If you moved abroad, has your accent changed?

[FortunesFave]

I'm asking because I moved to Australia almost 5 years ago and mine has not changed.

I know it hasn't because I went home before all the Coronavirus thing and everyone commented "Oh you haven't lost your accent!"

As an adult, I can't see how one WOULD lose ones accent!

Children sure...but my older child has not lost hers...she was 11 when we arrived. My younger now sounds Aussie because she was only 7 when we came.

I was listening to an interview with the woman who plays Serena Joy in The Handmaid's Tale and she sounds distinctly American but she can't have been in the USA THAT long? Lots of actors seem to pick up an American accent easily.

What about you?

Yes!

I moved to the UK and I've been here a long time now so my accent has changed somewhat. However - the people here still ask me where I'm from, and when I go and visit the country I came from they think I'm a Pommie - so I'm now 'forrin' everywhere!

A friend of mine moved to Australia 15 years ago and has still got her broad Yorkshire accent

We lived in the US for 2 years. I wouldn't say that my accent really changed, but I did say a lot of American words. I was all about the closets, cell phones and parking lots etc!

My SIL moved to Aus from UK 3 (ish) years ago and she’s full blown Australian now!

I have been in the US about 20 months and mine hasn't changed. I have an 8 month old baby though so I saw that mine might change when he starts talking. I'm not sure why. I am also a bit worried about him getting some of my accent and saying words I say rather than the American version and him getting bullied.

DH left U.K. 12 years ago and his is still strong, hasn’t changed at all I don’t think. I left my country for good about 24years ago and have lived in various places. Mine has flattened and changed. My family said I sound American these days. I know if I moved home I’d get my old accent back fairly quickly, I do it when I’m there on holiday.

A friend said she read something about people who are musical tend to pick up the new accent quickly. I’ve never looked it up.

I think some people take an accent on consciously.

Yes and no. I'm from NZ and have lived in the UK for nearly 20 years. I still have my kiwi accent, but it's much softer now than it was. It gets stronger when I go back for a visit though, then softens again when I'm back home.

I’ve been in the uk for 16 years and still have my accent although it’s milder . . I think once you’re an adult it’s very hard to change accent unless it’s done consciously. And that’s bad for the soul

Sort of. Am originally from Australia, but have live ed O\S for almost 20 years. The last 10 or so being in the UK. It was only about 4 years ago, when I went home that people commented that my accent had shifted. I think my accent has also softened since I've been away. I know when I get back from a trip back to OZ, people comment on how strong my accent has become, usually stays that way for a little while then reverts. I think it is also the vocab shift!

American, been here 18 years. I have the classic mid-Atlantic accent. Americans think I sound British and Brits think I sound American. I swear, I didn’t consciously change it and wish it hadn’t changed. I work in an area with lots of other long-term American transplants and most of them have the same accent I do.

I moved from Johannesburg to the UK and now sound Irish I'm told three times a day. My accent didn't get off the flight at Heathrow with me, it seems, but stayed on til Dublin.

I’m very English but even a phonecall with my colleagues in the US will have my picking up a bit of a twang!

A two week business trip and I start to sound like a native.

I am autistic though and have some interesting auditory processing issues/imitation!

I don’t know if any of you have heard of Tova Leigh the Insta person / mum blogger?
She has a really unusual accent. I guess almost sounds American? She grew up in Israel (I want to say, please correct me if I’m wrong), but she says her accent came from growing up watching American TV shows which I find bizzare in a cool way.

My accent is probably more British than American by this stage, but there are a couple of words that always give me away. I think to some degree it can depend on whether you have an inner monologue and how that changes.

I find that if I'm around someone who has a strong accent, I will come away from the encounter thinking in that accent for a while. It can actually make it difficult to speak and I will stutter a bit.

Mine has changed a little bit, but gradually. I’ve lived in a large city in the American Southwest for a few years now. And it does depend who I’m talking to. I’d say it’s flattened out into something kind of mid Atlantic-sounding when I’m in the US, but colleagues etc definitely pick up on a different accent. I do get asked if I’m Australian a lot! My DH says my native accent comes out a lot more when I’m talking to my family on FaceTime etc.

I’ve always been quite self conscious about losing my accent, and have tried not to, but people comment on it far less day to day than they used to, so I suppose I must have!

I lived in a shared house with Australians and started uptalking! I also lived in Germany for several months at the end of which I was talking English with German word order.

I'm CDN of British parents. I consciously changed my vocabulary and softened the accent to fit in at work here but I still stick out after thirty years. Weirdly my accent gets the the most comments when I'm "home" visiting - because the UK vocab is so old fashioned.

Not quite the same but my dad moved to England from Ireland in his 20s. He is now in his 70s and no-one can hear his Irish accent at all. But when his family visit or he visits them his accent suddenly becomes very strong. He's not aware of this at all but always makes me smile.

Nope, I'm still broad as, Kiwi, mate. My daughters on the other hand - but I think that was a matter of social survival!

I think maybe it depends how solid your accent was to begin with. I already had a wandering accent from living in a couple places in the US before I moved to the UK. I have never consciously tried to change my accent, it just seems to happen after I live someplace for a long time.

I don't really sound American anymore but I don't have a proper English accent either. I also get asked if I'm Irish a lot!

I spent a year in Oz when I was in my 20s and people that didn't know me thought I was an Ozzie when I got home. Maybe people pick up levels of accents at different ages, and it probably depends who you mix with.

It can happen in other languages too.

My DH is French, he moved to the UK when he was 20 and stayed for ten years. When he moved back to France, a lot of French people thought he was actually an English person speaking French, because his accent had changed.

It greatly depends on who you speak to in the country you have moved to - if you only speak English with other expats, you will retain your accent, whereas if you speak your language with non-natives, whether because you work in an international setting, or socially, you will have to adjust your accent to communicate effectively and over time your accent will change. If you moved country and your DH has the same accent as you, or you only ever speak his langage (eg if you are British and he is Danish and you only speak Danish together) yours is less likely to change. Otherwise ypu will both soften your accents slightly.
If you are just with other expat mummies, or family speaking your native language, nothing will change in your accent as the social setting in which you speak your language hasnt changed, only your physical environment has changed.
It also depends on how empathic you are in a conversation and how you engage with your social group to constructively take part in dialog.
So I do understand thats Brits moving to English speaking countries find their accents adapt gradually. It is a natural development and nothing odd.

English, moved to Ireland 20 years ago. I wouldn't say I have an Irish accent now, but my vocabulary and intonation have changed a bit, especially when speaking to native Irish people. I 'hear' English accents as harsher now - very strange listening to the BBC after being used to RTE most of the time.