To want to exaggerate my northern accent

[noraheggerty]

I was born in West Yorkshire, lived as a child in Co Durham and N Lincolnshire then after a few years in Cambridge I moved to Sheffield where I stayed for 20 years. People always comment that I don't sound very Northern, although I've lived in the North for about 42 of my 46 years!

I think the reason is that W Yorks, S Yorks, N Lincs & Co Durham all have very different accents. Especially in the case of Co Durham which is where I learnt to speak. When we moved from there people laughed at my accent and said they didn't understand me so I worked hard to get rid of it. Also my parents don't come from any of those regions, my mum is from Cheshire & my dad is from New York! My mum had been taught to speak "properly" by her middle-class-aspiring dad and she worked as a teacher and tried to keep that up to pass on to her pupils, and of course to me.

So I never had one particular accent that stuck, and I learned that using my mum's Teacher Voice would at least get me understood! Which was then reinforced when I studied at Cambridge with a load of poshos!

I lived down South again for a year recently & now I've just moved to yet another Northern city. I've noticed that my accent was morphing into something like RP and losing any trace of any of those regions. I hate this, because it doesn't reflect who I actually am & where I come from.

The other night I went to a party with some new acquaintances and something possessed me to exaggerate my accent so it became a broad Sheffield/West Yorkshire mix. I felt more accepted by them as I no longer sounded "posh" & felt like one of the crowd. It felt quite natural to me once I got started, as though I was expressing a part of me that I don't normally express, as opposed to feeling like I was acting or putting it on. Although now I'll have to remember to do it whenever I see them 😬

I'm quite tempted now, given that I'm living in a new town & meeting new people, to just start speaking that way and reinvent myself as it were. I can't decide if it's a pretentious, deceitful affection or if it's actually fine to make an effort to speak in a way that I feel reflects the person I feel I am inside better than the teacher voice does.

YANBU at all OP - I did an equivalent of this in 1993/94 in order to sound more ‘working class’ - but my partner at the time told me to stop !!! But I get you OP and YANBU !

It's a linguistic strategy (either sub concious or very conscious!) called accent divergence (where you emphasise that you sound different to create space/ distinction between yourself and that group/ person), and accent convergence is when you mimic their accent to feel a sense of belonging.
Linguistics geek over here 🙋🏼‍♀️

I can’t imagine that after 42 years up north your accent could possibly morph into anything RP unintentionally. You’re of an age where accents are unlikely to change much.

You beat me to it 😄 I thought I’d found my linguistics moment to shine.

But no, YANBU OP. We all diverge/converge our accents subconsciously anyway, you just have good reason to do it.

That’s not true. Accents change at any age. Granted they’re likely to change more quickly when you’re young, but they change all the time.

Do whatever makes you happy op but it’s a bit sad to have to change your accent to fit in (however that is). It’s reverse snobbery really.

They do change all the time, mine varies depending on who I am with. I work with a lot of International clients so have to speak very clearly with no accent and not use regional words or slang BUT if I am with local people I get more "Yorkshire"
DD never had a strong Yorkshire accent but she started Uni further south last September and most of her friends are from much further south, her accent has certainly changed a bit

I get you .. I have a totally different accent to how I grew up (cockney and now non regional - I think) but I know the pressure to fit in and be yourself

the only thing is I wouldn’t change my accent too much as then if you meet people who no longer know you - then how would you speak then?

I am curious as to whether your accent actually “passes” if you’ve never used it, and it isn’t your natural way of speaking. You have to be a good actor to mimic another accent. I know that when I go back to where my accent developed tends to be broader, but I had it in the first place, whereas it doesn’t sound like you did. Straying Off topic but I think a shame when parents try to avoid regional accent in their kids, it is clarity of speech that matters.

I was bullied for my accent as a kid and of course felt the pressure to change it but resisted. It's MY accent. I worked with someone who changed her accent at uni to fit in and felt quite judgy towards her as I felt it showed weakness of character. However this is about authenticity, and if you feel more authentically you with a certain way of speaking then go for it.

Yes good point, but it's not exactly that I've never used it, it's more that I've lived in many different places & picked up bits here & there, and the Sheffield/Yorkshire part is certainly there, it's just a case of exaggerating it.

If I were to try and fully imitate another accent I couldn't do it for love nor money.

Yes that is a concern! Not sure how I'm going to navigate that

I’m 44 born and bred in South Yorkshire,I don’t sound “Yorkshire” compared to most people,I’m not posh by no means,I have a potty mouth,I just don’t have the Yorkshire accent for some reason,so I get where you are coming from op.

Gosh OP, I'd just concentrate on being the real you once you've worked out what that is.

Be proud of it and don't put so much focus on your accent.

You're going to exhaust yourself by being fake every time you open your mouth.

Oh it definitely can. A year down south and I even started losing the "u" sound in "butter"! And it definitely wasn't intentional.

It's because I never had a strong regional accent to start with, so it didn't have far to go.

There's some vowels I've pronounced RP since childhood, the vowels in bake and stone. Actually this is quite common in the north, among middle class people ("General Northern English" I believe it's called these days)

In Co Durham you say "bee-uk" and "stoo-un" and people picked on me for that in Lincolnshire so I consciously changed it and for some reason (I was 7 so who knows) I started saying them RP rather than in the local way. Probably I asked my mum to help me say them properly. After 20 years in Sheffield it's easy for me to pronounce them in a Yorkshire way if I put my mind to it though. (More like "bairk" and "storn")

That’s a bit like me then! I know my original accent has softened and when I go “home” everyone else’s accents sound really strong, whereas in reality they are same as ever, just my ear is tuned differently. I love being amongst my home accents, and I am sure that I subconsciously speak differently when I am in their company. It wouldn’t surprise me if you end up subconsciously - taking over from your current conscious attempts - regaining a bit stronger Yorkshire and nowt up wi that! (I would absolutely love an East Yorkshire accent).

Not quite the same thing, I know, but I do this subconsciously.
I become scouse if I speak to anyone with a strong accent of any sort. I was born in Liverpool but haven't lived there for the last 45 years. I normally have very little accent, other than being obviously northern in my vowel sounds, but I have a strange habit of, for want of a better term, sounding less middle-class, depending who I'm talking to.
I don't know I'm doing it but my partner will point it out later, mainly because he's not Liverpudlian and finds scouse hilarious 🙄

This is what part of me is saying too. Of course, at the end of the day, you are right. But maybe doing this is part of the journey I need to take to work out, as you say, who the real me is.

It sounds like hard work. My accent became profoundly more London when I stopped working as I don't need to adapt any more. I also love slang and idioms and I'm vaguely aware that a lot of that could get lost due to how many people there are here from other places. My good friends from other countries love learning new expressions, particularly the one who works as a translator. I also swear A LOT due to growing up with a dad who worked on building sites, he trained us young.

Completely recognise this OP.I had a senior role dealing with clients across the country so “moderated”my accent unintentionally . I notice though when I’m with certain friends I become broad Yorkshire, lass!

I think it’s fine, but it would be better if you adopt it all the time, even at home, so that you’re not caught out.

I think we all adapt our language and accent, even unconsciously.

I was born and bred in West Yorkshire, went to Uni in Sheffield and settled in Manchester. I was horribly bullied by my colleagues when I first joined the Police because they thought I was 'posh'. A rumour went round that I'd had elocution lessons to get rid of my Northern accent which of course I hadn't. I'd never really thought about my accent until then and certainly never made any attempt to speak in a particular way.

My best friend who now lives in the South however describes me as having a very Northern accent. I have noticed though that my sister who is a doctor with the same upbringing as me and has lived all her life in West Yorkshire modifies her accent depending on who she's with. Sometimes it's very W Yorkshire and other times much less so. Not sure if it's conscious though.

However

I'm impressed with you for not changing it. I was a terrible coward as a kid and would have done anything to fit in!

Hmm, is that what I'm still doing now? 🤔

Alternatively you could don a cloth cap and carry a small whicker basket with a pigeon in it.

Then you won't have to put on an accent.

I can so relate to this. I'm from Lancashire but have lived in the South East for a long time. My accent is now very neutral, though I still have a few northern giveaways such as "a" in bath and "u" in stuck. Most people are surprised when I tell them where I'm from!

I definitely change my speech when I meet up with friends from Lancashire or go to see my favourite football team. It seems to happen fairly naturally, I don't really think about it much.