Heh, reminds me of a family member that has his “normal” accent, and then a “stronger” accent for when he is with friends. I’m not sure he realises he is doing it xD.
We American Southerners tend to redneck out among our own, pretty normal otherwise. Ex-wife’s mom from Mississippi would go ALL out when home among friends, sounded like Steel Magnolias up there.
Most people subconsciously adapt their accent in some way, but there are two broad habits: you might adopt characteristics of the accent you’re hearing (to fit in and to be better understood) or you might do the opposite (to assert your own identity amongst people who are not from your background)
I go mega Yorkshire when around Yorkshire folk. There’s a sort of song-sing quality that, if I use it among antipodeans, makes me utterly incomprehensible, so I don’t use it and sound quite generically northern.
I’m in Ottawa, the city, now but I was raised in the Ottawa Valley where there’s a distinct accent and I actually get your family member. 99% of the time I speak “normally” but if you get a few people from the valley together, the accent just sort of comes out. I don’t think it’s an intentional thing rather just a sort of natural human mimicking thing we do
fun fact! when you put a bunch of people from different nationalities in a room together, and lock them in for prolonged periods of time - their accents will eventually blend into one. linguists have noticed exactly that happening to scientists at polar research stations, where you get stationed usually for 6 months at a time. linguistic mimicry is a rather strong thing
Yeah I totally get it, not knocking it at all, it can just be amusing sometimes to hear someone speak a certain way, take a phone call from a mate, and sound noticeably different 🤣.
Heh, reminds me of a family member that has his “normal” accent, and then a “stronger” accent for when he is with friends. I’m not sure he realises he is doing it xD.
We American Southerners tend to redneck out among our own, pretty normal otherwise. Ex-wife’s mom from Mississippi would go ALL out when home among friends, sounded like Steel Magnolias up there.
Most people subconsciously adapt their accent in some way, but there are two broad habits: you might adopt characteristics of the accent you’re hearing (to fit in and to be better understood) or you might do the opposite (to assert your own identity amongst people who are not from your background)
I did the latter a lot when I moved from Yorkshire to a posh university down South
I go mega Yorkshire when around Yorkshire folk. There’s a sort of song-sing quality that, if I use it among antipodeans, makes me utterly incomprehensible, so I don’t use it and sound quite generically northern.
I am not quite sure what you are on about. Everyone has an accent. It is always present whenever you speak.
Never said they didn’t.
But it’s not “always present”. If you can imitate an accent, you understand how.
fun typo
😅
I’m in Ottawa, the city, now but I was raised in the Ottawa Valley where there’s a distinct accent and I actually get your family member. 99% of the time I speak “normally” but if you get a few people from the valley together, the accent just sort of comes out. I don’t think it’s an intentional thing rather just a sort of natural human mimicking thing we do
I’m somewhat similar, I’m living in Ontario but when I visit family in Newfoundland the Newfie accent creeps into my speech.
fun fact! when you put a bunch of people from different nationalities in a room together, and lock them in for prolonged periods of time - their accents will eventually blend into one. linguists have noticed exactly that happening to scientists at polar research stations, where you get stationed usually for 6 months at a time. linguistic mimicry is a rather strong thing
Yeah I totally get it, not knocking it at all, it can just be amusing sometimes to hear someone speak a certain way, take a phone call from a mate, and sound noticeably different 🤣.
Some places have entirely different dialects, even different languages, for that.
Even some places in Britain. (Wales springs to mind.)
Welsh or even Wenglish ;) the eisteddfod wuhz propah tidy like
One of my siblings gets their “manager” voice on when they want to be particularly condescending at family gatherings.