Loosing/Gaining Accents

MogwaisGrandma

My husband is from Belfast, Northern Irleland. He's lost a lot of his accent over the past 10 years that he's lived here. A lot of the reason is he changed the way he spoke so people here could understand him better.

I have lived around various parts of the UK and have had to loose a bit of my Geordie ( Newcastle in the North East of England) accent for the same reason as above. When I go back home it comes back to full strength but people in Manchester, where I live now, put my accent as Welsh, Irish or Scottish.

Beana21

Lived in Connecticut as a kid and had a thick accent. Got made fun of pretty bad when I lived in South Carolina a few years. Spent some time in SoCal and now I've lived in southeastern Virginia for the past 14 years. I've slowly started to pick up the local accent, much to my dismay, but I have my own blend of speech. I still can't say "parkway" (pahkway) like the locals do here, and my old accent *really* comes out when i'm angry or have been drinking or am speaking to a fellow expat from New England. For my job as a 911 operator and to make callers trust and feel more comfortable with me I've learned when to lose or make stronger my Southern accent.

CallieM15

I alaways go into the local hawaii talk when I go back home.. Its how i fit back in!

karenjoy

My Husband is Canadian, he has been living here in England for 8 years, he has not lost his accent, although people still think he is American....:laugh:

juliecat1

Yes! Doing it right now. I'm from southern Indiana. We essentially have a hard Midwest accent with a touch of Kentucky. I live in Kansas city now and lose it from place to place. I'm at home in Indiana now and it's baaaaack. Twang city!

DelilahCat0212

When I was younger I had a heavy Danish accent now I just sound English.

A lot of Danes sounded English to me! I thought it was just me!

I moved from NY to Pennsylvania when I was 13. The kids in school were RUTHLESS...I lost that Lon Guyland accent pdq. I still have it when I am around my extended family or am really pissed off.

MoveTheMountain

Do people with specific accents from one place loose it in others? I mean, when I visited family in New Orleans, Louisiana I started picking up a slight southern accent. It took a week to fade back to my current accent. To those that had an accent one place, moved to a different place with different accents, did you loose your accent/adjust your accent to the current place?

I've lived in several different parts of the country, and done long term projects in several others. At this point, I don't even have an accent, although 20 years ago, I definitely had some New England/Bostonian going on.

I think it depends on the person. Some people are more sensitive than others to morphing their accents to fit where they are. I have a cousin who lives in Mississippi after moving there for school from the Boston area. She gets crap from everyone, since her accent floats around somewhere in the middle. We say she sounds southern, and they say she sounds like a northerner.

sundaywishes

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and moved to Arkansas when I was 19. I said things like "caw-ffee," (coffee) "muther," (mother) "wauta," (water) etc. I kept my hard Brooklynite accent for about a year, year and a half, but when I started working at a call center, it began to fade. My trainer said that my accent sounded "rude" since it was so hard, even though she knew I wasn't trying to be rude. I ended up putting on a "neutral" accent while at work and "switched it off" after work. But after doing that for over a year, my real accent did start to fade and now it only comes out in certain words, when I’m drinking or really pissed off. People out here will ask me if I'm from NY, NJ, or "the north" but when I go back home to visit everyone makes fun of how I've lost my accent. They say I don't sound southern, but that I just sound neutral in a sense. By the end of the trip I'm back in Brooklyn-ese full force, though. Just in time to go back to Arkansas and lose it all over again :sad:

I still say certain words with a Brooklyn accent, so it's like, "neutral word, neutral word, BAM BROOKLYN!, neutral word, neutral word." But I'll give my boyfriend's family hell for the way they say certain words, especially "pin," "pan," and "pen." It's all "pin." I've noticed Southern people have to clarify in normal conversation (with each other!) whether they’re referring to a "straight pin/pig pin," "frying pin," or "an ink pin," so you know what they mean :laugh: Also, the name “Dawn” is pronounced “Don”. I give it that long "awwwwww" sound (like an awning), same as in Shawn/Shaun (unless it's spelled Sean, then it's “Shahn”). Someone was telling me about their female friend Dawn, and for the longest time I thought they were talking about a man because they pronounced the name "Don."

YokoJ

Nope. Have a beautiful southern accent and i moved to L.A 4-5 yrs ago and my accent is still alive and thriving.

MaraDiaz

I pick up other people's accents sometimes, and speech impediments. It's embarassing!