Friend and her accent

[ByKindLilacFinch]

Not an AIBU, just interested if anyone else has experienced this.

my friend has never had any kind of accent (well spoken, sounds like a news reader). Over the last few months has started pronouncing words differently. She sounds a bit like she’s from Russia but has been in the UK a very long time and the accent is subtle but it’s there.

I’ve asked her why she is speaking with an accent and she just looks at me blankly. I know I’m not imagining it as we both met someone new last week and they asked where she was from as she didn’t sound British.

I’m curious as to whether anyone can shed any light, just really curious.

Reminds me of someone I went to school with. Went to Birmingham and came back with a full blown Bermingham accent. He sounded ridiculous and got the piss ripped out of him. He was there a week.

If you're really concerned for her health, recommend to her that she records herself reading something for 5 mins, and then she can listen to it when she's alone.

Other than that or picking the accent up from someone else, she could be from a troubled past.

Not sure why you are so preoccupied with it. My accent shifts constantly depending on whom I am spending time with. I was brought up in a multicultural family, picking up accents is a thing one develops when one needs to switch between languages all the time. I usually pre-warn people with strong accents when I first meet them that they may notice me slipping into their accent as our conversation goes on and not to get offended. On any given day, I can easily go from South African to Oxfordshire. And it has nothing to do with my level of intelligence or desire to impress.

There is almost no distinction between Russian and Ukrainian accent when they speak English. Zelenskyy speaks perfect Russian as well (no accent), even though, I am sure he avoids it now.

I've lived in the UK all my life. Roughly 7 years ago people started asking if I was from Australia. In my current job people ask me when I am going home and give me sympathy for how long the flight is and they're flabbergasted to find out I'm British.

I am not Australian and this only started when I was around 20 years old. I don't notice it myself and I have absolutely no idea where the accent came from. It is certainly not intentional.

If you've known her 10 years you don't know that the RP accent she's had around you is her natural one, maybe she's dropped the fake one?

You win the internet today 😂😂😂

I'm an 'accent sponge' too, and I know it annoys some people and/or they think I'm putting it on. I'm good at learning languages; I should think the two characteristics are connected.

Re OP's friend - my first thought was a TIA but I prefer the Beautiful Russian Spy theory!

Maybe she made a new russian friend somewhere? Years ago, i made a new friend from Birmingham and we spoke everyday for hours. Months go by and my accent started to change a little lol no lies and even i realised the influence her accent was having on me. I'm from london

Is she in witness protection maybe? Or hiding from an ex?

Or as said a medical issue but her husband would notice surely if her accent changed overnight.

my husband grew up in Bristol, and doesn't really have much of an anything accent. occasional bristol colloquialisms, like referring to trainers as Daps. that's it.
whenever we've visited Bristol, his accent comes steaming back iin, it's hilarious

Mirroring accents is really common for lots of people not just autistic people. I have a boss who does this really obviously. The Welsh accent she comes out with is quite something. i would just guess OP that your friend has some Russian friends and has picked up a bit of their accents

If I binge watch a TV show and really like one of the characters then unfortunately I pick up a very slight accent without realising it.
(The Crown was a nightmare)

When I moved to the UK I completely lost my kiwi accent in around 2 months.

It really sucks as I don't particularly notice it, but others do. Something is very weird in my brain when it comes to accents, so I wonder if she is similar?

Brain tumour?

Given the OP doesn’t know anything about her origins, the suggestion that she may actually be Russian or E.European is an interesting one.

I don’t know if I’m autistic but I do know of mirroring as an autistic trait.

I do mirror accents and have done since I was in my teens annd learnt French & German at school and lived in Germany for a couple of years and think I picked up some mirroring from there when speaking English here. Also I do it with Scandinavian languages, South African and Australian.

I don’t like doing it either and worry it looks like I’m taking the pee if I do it when speaking to someone with an accent in real life.

I follow quite a few foreign people on YouTube and find myself doing it more with certain words and they’re words I’ve heard YouTubers say a lot.

I think it’s very normal. I know a lot of people who do it without realising

This thread has reminded me of something……

My grandmother was in a car accident abroad and there was a huge amount of stress trying to get her home as she needed to be medically evacuated and it was all a bit of a nightmare. Anyway my aunt managed to speak to her and afterwards was going on about her speaking in a weird accent. My mum (who is a very practical type) was not very interested in accents (both aunt and grandmother were more the dramatic type) and I remember her saying on the phone “never mind about the accent - did you get the details of her travel insurance so I can call them and get her home!”

By the time granny was home her accent was back to normal so I had forgotten about it. But this has just reminded me.

I am quite fascinated now to discover that this was a real thing.

OP, I was born and grew up in russia (have been in the UK for many years).

Are you sure it's a russian accent? Would you see the difference between russian and say polish accents?

Due to my work I often meet new people and while most of them do see I am not British straight away, quite a lot of them can't figure out the accent (Bizzaryly a lot of people say Sweden, US, etc). My accent is definitely russian and I have not lived anywhere else. I don't think people here can easily recognize how the rest of the world speaks, for example smaller eastern european countries.

Regardless of this, I hope your friend is ok and not sick.

Perhaps she's a Russian spy and is tired of hiding her real accent. She may be trying to live more authentically.

Could you record her on your phone without her noticing and play it back to her (immediately then delete it of course.)

She's probably a Russian spy who is getting careless. You'll be ok, just don't stand too close to any windows when you're with her.

A friend of mine with a local (South London) accent had a road accident and was in a coma for a while. He's made a full recovery apart from the fact he now speaks in a broad Australian accent. He's never even been to Australia.

Living more authentically would be a bad decision for a spy!

It sounds like she's got Russian/Eastern European roots, maybe even family and her accent is slipping back to what it was originally. Wouldn't be surprised if she speaks Russian/Polish etc with family ot friends and with age/time she's more lax about sounding British.

Would explain why she's so secretive about her past - and denies her roots. Maybe it's not a nice past, one she'd rather forget or has run away from. I think the past always catches up in ways you don't imagine. If she were a spy she wouldn't be acting so mysterious or be a freelancer, they take on boring, everyman jobs and invent a boring family history to fit in I'd have thought!