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?

I moved 25 miles in the same County and my accent changed!

My friend moved from the UK to NZ about 10 years ago and has definitely picked up the accent. Not strong, but you can definitely hear it

I haven’t moved abroad, but I moved away to an area of the UK with a fairly distinctive local accent 12 years ago and I do occasionally hear myself roll my Rs and the local slang words have crept in. Not consciously, but after a while it rubs off I suppose.

I moved from Australia to UK at 10

When I arrived I had an Australian/Scottish hybrid accent, as both parents Scottish

I now have an English accent

My mum, who hasn't lived in Scotland for 50+ years still has a Scottish accent

People are all different, they make different conscious and subconscious choices.

I have noticed that my db has taken on much more of a local accent as an adult than he had as a child: parents very RP. It is to do with the people he works with and the fact that he identifies with them. His accent is less pronounced when he is at home with the family and he also code-switches a bit in his language use. Seems a very reasonable adaptation to two slightly different cultures, albeit in the same country.

Out of my two adult children, my dd has quite a "posh" accent despite the fact that speaking the local accent naturally would probably have been useful to her as a trainee actress, ds has a very local accent which is clearly a subconscious reflection of where his allegiances lie.

As I speak a different language to my first one, my accent in my first language hasn't changed, but my second-language has changed to far more of a local accent rather than the school-taught RP accent. I think what has happened there is that English has come alive for me and imbued with a sense of place.

I pick up accents almost instantly and I think it's linked to speaking multiple languages. When I've lived abroad I make a conscious effort to be using the right language and speech patterns and a large part of that is mirroring others around me.

Now if I spend a lot of time with someone with a strong accent I have to consciously catch myself to stop myself doing it in English. It can be very embarrassing and it's even worse if I've had a drink...

Scot living in England for the last 27 years. Sound as Glaswegian as I always have. I think you only lose your accent if you're not bothered about keeping it really.

Accent really depends on where you are, Brits tend to keep their accent in the States because its a benefit.

It depends on language as well, English isn’t my first language, but as I started learning when I was eight I spoke with an English accent (in my case Nottinghamshire). I moved to north London when I was 17 and remained there (apart from university), I know have a north London accent with no hint of my Nottingham accent.

My accent changed in weeks
I worked abroad for a tour operator and the other girls I lived & worked with were from London. (I'm from Manchester)

My sister told me off when she came to see me 3 weeks later for talking like a southerner

A family friend moved to Germany in his late 20s. Being born and raised in the U.K.
After living there for 30 years he came back for his mother’s 80th birthday and spoke English with a German lilt, like it was his second language.

Megatron and Eastyandy I find the Scots never lose their lovely accent!

A few years ago we met a few great Aussie ladies - all nurses - in Thailand on holiday. One of the group was from Glasgow and had a really strong Glaswegian accent. I was amazed to hear she had lived in Sydney for 37 years. Never lost any of her accent at all.

I moved down south in the same country and my accent (or lack of originally) changed!

Dd2(5) watches things on tv and ends up unintentionally talking with the accent and until she watches something else.

I pick up accents very easily, many people do. I’m not a linguist though, interestingly.

It’s to do with your ear I think, but also your desire to assimilate within the group.

I wouldn’t want to pick up an American accent, but I’d have one in five minutes if I moved there.

My accent became much softer while away, I still sounded Scottish but lost a lot of the harsh Glasgow twang that people had struggled to understand. Now I'm back I'm as Glasgow as they come!

I've lived here for nearly 35 years. Although I've always spoken English, my fluency now is at an acceptable level..

I sound like a northerner. Maybe because I've married one and my children were born here, educated here and so on. I've picked up the local dialect over time. But my accent still has a hint of German in it. I still can't pronounce 'V' I say 'wan' instead of van. Often a source of amusement when my children were little. They'd make me say it. A lot.

Not my Dad's and DHs accent changes depending on who they are talking to, and it's completely involuntary.

My Dad moved from Nottinghamshire, via Teeside for university, to London as a young adult. Now in his 70s. Sounds like any professional Londoner (not a broad Cockney, the neutral sort of accent). But as soon as he's in the Midlands, it on the phone to his brother, it's like he never left his home town.

DH is similar... He's gradually become more neutral over the years as we've moved around Europe and the UK. But as soon as he's in Yorkshire with his mates, it's back to his old accent.

I've no idea whether mine has changed. When I was a teenager I could become more 'London' (but I went to the Grammar School, where there was an expectation on clear speech, so the accent was more neutral there)

My scottish Aunt lives in England. When we visit her she sounds English with a scottish twang.

When she comes up here she sounds scottish with an English twang.

She has lived there all her adult life but it amuses me how it changes depending on the accent she is around

@Rafflesway You're probably right, though I have a friend who moved to NZ around the same time as I moved to England and she sound so kiwi now. Except when she swears. I love her accent though.

Accents are actually pretty malleable and soften wherever you go. I know this because having lived in the very north of England, the centre of England, the south of England and now southern Europe, mine has changed a tad every time. I'd say living in a foreign country has ironed out a lot of my accent to a clear received English and I have no idea why because I actually talk in the foreign language most of the day. My kids fluctuate between my home accent and what I call "you tube American", punctuated by foreign language words which I constantly correct!

I've been in the UK for 13 years now. Over the first 6 or so years I had mostly lost my Kiwi accent, though it wasn't a very strong one to begin with. People could only tell when I said words like "penny".

After being a SAHM for the past 8 years, however, my Kiwi accent has returned somewhat.

25 years in the US and I still sound pretty English RP, but vocabulary and syntax have changed a little, I think. It's been a conscious decision not to lose it, though I certainly could have, but as Simon upthread says, English accents are very beneficial in the US and I teach and my students say that like to listen to how I speak (and hopefully pay more attention than they would otherwise do.)

Nope. Still very much English. My children have a hybrid accent, in a good way. It’s been interesting having DH working from home through all this and hearing him speak in meetings with an American inflection. He doesn’t normally at home.

I moved to Australia when I was 5 from the North of England. When I was 29 (43 now) I moved back to the UK in the South. It is funny English people can pick up an Australian accent and Australians an English accent.

Accent really depends on where you are, Brits tend to keep their accent in the States because its a benefit.

I wouldn't agree with this, based on my own experience. I've had people saying they can't understand me - it's just another "forrin' accent.

I've lived in the States for several years and still sound British, I probably have a slight American twang on certain words, but not much. I was recently asked whether I'd just arrived in the States!

My cousin moved (as an adult) from the UK to Canada and definitely has more than a twang about her.