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.
this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2025
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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 🤣.
I’m somewhat similar, I’m living in Ontario but when I visit family in Newfoundland the Newfie accent creeps into my speech.
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.
imitate an advent
fun typo
😅
One of my siblings gets their "manager" voice on when they want to be particularly condescending at family gatherings.
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.
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
Is this like the "queens voice" people used to put on when they answered the phone in the pre-mobile times? We used to laugh at my mum and dad for putting on a posh accent when answering the phone. I'm not aware of people doing that these days but perhaps they do
Not an accent, but my girlfriend absolutely raises the pitch of her voice on phone calls and when meeting strangers.
I get it, I've noticed my own pitch changing based on circumstances. I (also a woman) raise my pitch with strangers too. It's like a subconscious "please be kind to me" sort of thing. Yet with my family, which is mostly men/boys, my voice goes lower. I don't think about it at the time, it just happens.
I automatically adjust my accent, intensity and vocabulary according to who I'm talking to. Not a thing I think about, but I started doing it when I was in tech support and customer service 20-30 years ago. Same kinda defensive thing, "Hey! I'm just like you and I'm on your side!"
Never thought about women pitching their voices higher. I've experienced that, makes all the sense in the world!
I used to have weekly band practice in a more rural part of our country, one I grew up in but don't live anymore. Every week when I got home from practice it took me a day to lose my old accent again lol
Very cool, but what's your reasoning?
Haha, I do think the "raising pitch around strangers" thing is a sort of protective behavior. Like a cuteness reflex of sorts, trying to show that I mean no harm and hope none will come to me. That's what I figure, at least. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of women subconsciously do the same thing.
Around family, I'm not sure. It's possible it's a throwback to being a kid and being told my voice was "whiny." Or it could be a side-effect of the deeper voices around me being louder, so I talk that way to make my voice clearer in the mess. I wish I knew, but that's what I reason it probably is.
(I know you were probably joking, but autistic brains gonna autist.)
I hope, rather than going back to your normal voice, you do extra bass with family.
That was a real accent, known as Received Pronunciation, and used by BBC presenters and old boys everywhere until it fell out of favour in the sixties and seventies as an object of ridicule. Actual posh people now don’t like to stand out like that and sound more-or-less the same as lower middle class.
Oh interesting. I wonder if that is why adverts, even in the 90's, had silly accents.
I was watching some old British adverts a few weeks ago. I thought to myself that I don't remembering them sounding the way they do. Might be what helped knock my local accent out of me.
Which accent?
Take your pick we have cockney, Cornish, Northern Derrry, Bath, Cardiff, North London, South London, Roadman, Peaky Blinders fan, Guy Ritchie fan, Norfolk,Norfolk inbred, middle class Roadman, Geordie, Macca, Uddersfield, Pom Pom Toddlers, Bingles Bo Jingles, Devon, Scouse, Posh news voice and Mr Blobby
You missed a few dozen. ;)
... Like all the ones from Scotland (from Sheltie accents to Perthshire accents) and all but one from Wales.
American here. Now you're just making shit up. :)
British accents change every 25 miles
It's Mr. Beans' accent technically Upper Class Twit?
Flobber dobber dobber
I live in Taiwan and have an American accent. I pretend to have a broken American English accent because a proper one confused some people. The Rs and Xs sounds I just convert to broken Mandarin English accent and everyone understands me.
That's funny. My accent in Spanish is... interesting. I learned the language as a teen, amidst meeting people online from all around the world. So my accent has become an interesting mishmash of sources, none of which sound English.
Side note, I can't stand how English-speakers pronounce Spanish words. All of the Spanish vowel sounds are all right there in English! I understand that Rs, Ds, Bs, Vs, and even Js might be difficult for English-speakers to pick up, but I don't understand why English-speakers don't use Spanish vowels correctly. It boggles my mind.
It's rare that English children who learn Spanish as the first foreign language that they're exposed to. If their parents are immigrants, then it'll likely be their parents' mother tongue(s), and if they're not, they'll likely be taught some French before any Spanish. That can then lead to a habit of saying any foreign word with a French accent.
Also, England has strong regional variations in accent, so you might be hearing people say exactly the same vowel sounds as they'd use when speaking English, but those vowel sounds might be totally different to how you're expecting that they'd speak English.
I can see that, I should've clarified that I meant American English speakers. I hear some of the most godawful Spanish pronunciations from fellow American English speakers. It's like they're not even trying. Perhaps it's related to learning how to read the language alongside speaking, but even so we're taught pronunciation rules.
I will concede, something in my brain processes language differently. On the one hand, I need English speakers to repeat themselves more frequently (despite being a native speaker.) Phone calls are hell, and captions on shows/movies go a long way toward my comprehension of the dialogue. On the other hand, people my age aren't "supposed" to hear some of the subtle differences in novel foreign sounds that I pick up on. I know not everyone hears things the way I do, so if I'm being too harsh on people who can't help it, I apologize.
British English is even worse with Spanish, I think. It probably varies by region quite a bit because I grew up around a lot of native Spanish speakers and didn't notice much heinous mispronunciation among non-Hispanics.
I force all my British people to do the accent 24/7 it's the least they can do after inventing Black pudding.