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).

Culcheth?

Don’t people think you are taking the piss?

I'm like you! Dorset but not noticeably so unless I talk to certain people. I don't live there anymore though.

Dunno? Nobody’s ever said anything. It’s not the full accent, more that I pick up the rising intonation and rhythm of her speech.

It’s not JUST a neurodivergent thing. It happens to lots of people.

I lived in Australia for a year when I was 25, and my accent changed but I couldn't tell. When I returned people would ask where I was from, and didn't believe I was English. It gradually morphed into something apparently like South African. I now sound local to my hometown, except for a couple of words (like "home") which I'm told still have an Aussie twang (two decades after leaving Australia). I'm autistic and ADHD, don't know if there's something in that which makes it easier to adapt. Whereas my nan moved from Ireland in 1945 and never adopted an English accent, still had a perfect Irish accent until she died six decades later

A lot of English people adopt a Welsh/Scottish/Irish accent if they move to Wales/Scotland/Ireland because they get abused or at least treated worse if they continue to speak with an English accent.

Not everyone of course chooses to do this, and not everyone can, but it's usually easier to adopt the accent if able and try to fit in, fly under the radar. Do it for long enough, like eight years, and it becomes second nature.

I live in a part of Ireland with large numbers of resident foreigners, with English people the largest single group by some way. I can assure you that none of them sound remotely Irish, or are making any detectable efforts to mimic the local accent, as they presumably recognise perfectly well that it would go down poorly.

I am like this picking up accents easily and quite strongly. My British accent was fully acquired within a yr of living here. DH always knows when I've been with my friend from Manchester because i speak in a Mancunian accent afterwards. When DH and i first started dating the first thing he has said was i spoke exactly like my ex (who he knew), including all his mannerisms which i think is weird and very annoying and a friend of dh's has commented recently that i sound exactly like DH. To be honest id love to be able to shake it off, i just don't know how it happens. I am not neuro diverse at all.

If someone wants to keep thier accent they would. I have family all over the world. Australia... NEW Zealand.. New York. Florida all still Scottish. My cousins moved to Florida at 19 she is now 56 sounds like me. Scottish

I think its ridiculous when people start talking in a different accent.

When they let it

Don’t be ridiculous.

This thread made me rewatch the Friends episode (highlights) with Amanda with her fake British accent.

Dialect levelling is a thing, and it's not a very conscious thing. People adjust their speech to fit in. It's more likely to happen with women and the younger a person is, the more likely it is. People can consciously do it, too - there are language coaches for actors, elocution coaches and so on. I have a friend who consciously changed her accent when she was at school and being bullied for being posh.

Probably some people are more prone to it than others, in the way some people are more musical than others, and some people learn languages more easily than others.

Of course, it can happen the other way, too - People emphasising their accent or dialect to reinforce separation, like some teens in bilingual families sometimes refuse to use one of their languages, despite being fluent - it's part of being a teen and starting to separate ftom parents, and a way of acting up that isn't available in monolingual families.

So there are lots of reasons why people's accents and language change, and it's interesting rather than ridiculous.

No more ridiculous than grown ups moving county and losing thier accent...gies peace!

Have you read Bearhug’s post? Or listened to the experiences of other people on the thread?
I wonder whether it’s linked to language skills or musicality- that some people’s ears tune in and adapt.

It certainly isn’t conscious. I get simultaneously bamboozled by different accents, yet also pick them up. So have had a few bad moments over the years being totally unable to work out the meaning of ‘stame’ (steam, New Zealand), ‘court’ (coat, SWales), ‘nought’ (knot, Scottish teacher).

Yet within a few hours I sound like them. It’s handy for learning new languages though.

It’s not ridiculous, or voluntary. My kid’s could tell who I was on the phone to, by my accent. I became more Welsh sounding with my Welsh family members, or I’d pick up DH’s family accent talking to them.

Annoyingly, I can’t ‘do’ accents in a conscious way when retelling a story or anything.

As someone who grew up in foster care, this was very common with us foster kids. Make of that what you will. Even my foster sister now lives in the North East and youd think she had her whole life. She stayed there after uni and within a year of her graduate job, she had a full Geordie accent.

Sounds like my nephew . Did he attend speech therapy perhaps?

This is me. I can't help it and usually don't realise that I'm doing it. I switch in and out of different accents depending on who I'm speaking to. Despite what people like @Holisticwitch might think, it is entirely involuntary and I would have to focus really hard on not switching if I wanted to avoid it, which would mean not focusing on what the other person was actually saying. It is embarrassing and I wish it didn't happen, but it's just the way that my brain works. I've noticed that my dd does it a bit as well, though it isn't quite as obvious.

I do have adhd if it makes any difference. I'm also quite musical and exceptionally good at languages learning.

No, I can't "do" accents intentionally either. I can't just switch it on at will.

You seem to be struggling to accept that others have different experiences to your own. Are you generally this narrow-minded, or is it only in relation to this one thing?

I think other posters are right saying that some people are more prone to picking up accents. I have a friend who moved to Australia and within a year sounds like she was born and raised in the outback!

I'm from Yorkshire, moved to Milton Keynes, had two kids and moved back to Yorkshire when my kids were 9 and 3. Both kids still have southern accents despite having lived up here for the last 11 years? Really odd.