Sudden accent change

[Neuroticmillenial]

A friend of mine moved to a different part of Wales around 8 years ago when she was 27/28. I can’t believe the change in her accent. She has a really thick, strong Welsh accent. She’s been diagnosed autistic so thought maybe it was her way of masking or trying to fit in, but she says it just happens every time she moves. I believe her but it’s just bizarre listening to her stories as she’s originally from England.

I had a strong cockney accent until we moved to Wales when I was a teenager. I’ve lost the cockney but everyone remarks how I don’t sound Welsh. I’m in my thirties and apparently I sound “posh” or like someone from a military family (or an international student 😂)

AIBU to wonder how someone’s accent can change so drastically as an adult? (I vote I am because it doesn’t affect me, I guess I’m just nosey).

I’ve lived in South London for 25yrs, grew up on the cheshire / wales border, so don’t have much of a strong accent. It’s changed slightly, I can hear myself revert back when I see my old school friends, but that’s more expressions rather than an accent. People still say you’re not from around here, so my old accent is still there.

I code switch a lot and my accent changes according to whom I'm with.

When I was 16 I went to work the summer season in a hotel with a Scottish couple. I came back with a Scottish accent. It lasted less than a week though. It was very strange to open my mouth and speak and hear myself sound so different.

One of my best friends joined our Southern school at 14. She came from Durham and sounded like Cheryl Cole, after a year she sounded like us.

My DH has a friend who moved to Australia in his 40s and now he sounds more Australian than his Australian wife!

Amazing how our brains help us fit in by assimilation.

Accents fascinate me. Not ND.

Am prone to slight accent modification depending on who I’m speaking to. Code switching definitely a thing, I heard my Welsh relatives do it all the time as a kid.

I spoke to a non-native English speaker this week that I originally knew 20 years ago. His accent has changed so much in the intervening period. He had a very, very strong French accent when I last talked to him. He now sounds mostly south London but with a hint of French. Not a surprise but it was like I was speaking to a different person.

I have another associate who has learned English in the last 5 years (refugee). Really very slight accent at all. And then I know another person who has lived here for 20 years and still has incredibly heavily accented English and no understanding of dialect words or euphemisms/ colloquialisms at all.

sorry. That went off on a tangent a bit. It’s just so interesting!

😂

Some just do, maybe to fit in?

I have 3 accents that I switch between depending on who I have spoken to recently/am currently speaking with. Two of them are regional - ie my county’s accent, and the accent from the next county over (lots of people move here from there so I’m around the accent a lot). The third accent is that I become much more “posh” or well-spoken after speaking with one of my parents who is from the south of England.

I’m not neurodivergent fwiw.

Funnily enough, DH and I were talking about this the other day. I really wonder whether those that do this have a very musical ear I.e., those that are naturally musical tend to pick up and mimic accents…

@ThrowAway987654321 i definitely think this has something to do with it. I am just thinking of another person I know who is extremely musically gifted. I knew where his partner came from before he’d even said, as he’d taken on her accent a bit. He has a very uber privileged London upbringing, she is from somewhere with a very strong regional accent.

I think some people just pick up accents more easily than others, while others hardly change.

My Dad was born in Kent but moved to Huddersfield, where his mother was originally from, when he was about 13. His father was from county Durham. My dad is now 70 and still has his kentish accent! When we used to stay a few days in Dover before heading abroad, it used to get noticeably stronger.

Yet his sisters all picked up the Huddersfield accent!

I am from the Greater Manchester area, same town as my mum but often get told I don't have a particularly strong local accent and I think it's because of my dad's accent.

I did my degree in mid Wales and although I didn't develop a strong Welsh accent, I definitely had a Welsh lilt after a year or so!

Where I'm from if you're from the country you're called a culchie. I'm from the country and I moved to the city when I was 20. My DH tells me if I'm at home for a day with my mum or dad, I always come home with my slight city twang completely replaced by the culchie accent 😅

Some people have an unusually “good ear” which means they unconsciously echo accents they hear - in fact, often cannot help doing so.

Autists sometimes have a thing called echolalia - involuntary repetition of previously heard speech.

I’m from the midlands and my accent is ‘meh’. I can impersonate accents well.

I would be one of those people who would soak up an accent very quickly if I were to move areas. A binge of MAFS Australia and I start thinking in an Australian accent😵‍💫

This is really interesting. I find myself adapting my accent to those I am talking too, it's not a conscious thing, when I realise I am doing it I try to stop, but if I am really interested in a conversation I may lapse back into their accent. I worry it may seem like I'm mimicking them and it will come across as very rude.
I have wondered at times if I am ND but never pursued a diagnosis. Is the accent thing a feature of ND?

I am good at accents, and pick them up embarrassingly easily. I have one Glaswegian colleague and I end up speaking in her accent during meetings 🤣

I do this unconsciously, always have, in fact I have to be careful that people don't think I'm doing it deliberately to mock them. At college we had a girl from the American South, and after half an hour talking with her I sounded like an extra from Gone With the Wind. As another poster commented, my husband can tell if I'm talking to a Welsh relative on the phone because my accent changes, though I've never actually had a Welsh accent.

Culcheth.

I love the american accent.

About 19 years ago i stayed with relatives in Cleveland Ohio i didnt pick up the accent though.

I've lived in Canada for 16 years and still have a very strong Lancashire accent

I sound fresh off the boat

the american accent.

American accents? There are lots of them. Not as varied as the British Isles, but there's certainly not one accent.

It varies. I pick up and mirror accents very speedily. Half the reason I struggle in France is that my accent is good and therefore people think I am far more fluent than I am and I get "lost". DH has a stronger English accent but is fluent.

DH has a faint Yorkshire burr that gets stronger when he is very tired or has had a drink or three. He left Yorkshire about 46 years ago. One of his sisters who has lived in Aus for 35 years still has a broad Yorkshire accent which I find unusual.

For me it takes a couple of days and I change accent. My DH is always mocking me for how I switch from English to American accent depending on whom I'm talking to. English is not my mother tongue but it doesn't explain it- I do the same with different accents in my home country as well. It's not on purpose and I feel ridiculous when someone points it out.

It’s the original telephone voice maybe?

I have worked amongst various accents and being autistic have soon picked them up as a way of fitting in