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.
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
😅