6 ms·

I am very accent suggestible, but I also can't do accents to save my life. If I start talking to someone from the South, or the UK, there's alike a 75% chance I

I am very accent suggestible, but I also can't do accents to save my life. If I start talking to someone from the South, or the UK, there's alike a 75% chance I'm going to start (poorly) mimicking their speech, and I'm always worried they're going to think I'm making fun of them.

type0 5y ago
I start to talk with an accent when I'm around people speaking in accent, but it only happens under the influence of alcohol. Always puzzled me, not like I'm doing it deliberately, almost becomes a sort of shtick.
- vmception 5y ago
  I skip syllables for brevity after a little alcohol and people think I’m Bri’ish
  - Moodles 5y ago
    We Brits either ignore t’s or actually pronounce them as tee, whereas for Yankees it comes out as a dee for some reason. I did actually read somewhere that linguists think the British/American accent before America was a separate colony was most likely more similar to an American accent, so actually it was the Brits who diverged their accent.
    - dboreham 5y ago
      There are also today many accents and dialects in Britain. To my ear some US accents sound similar to Bristol and some Scottish accents but not at all like an English RP or London accents.
    - vmception 5y ago
      I read that too, I think further research should look at the dutch because many dutch speaking English sound very American and their colony New Amsterdam was in what is now America even earlier.
    - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
      It’s more like they both divulged from a common ancestor, and are both equally different and alike. See also: humans didn’t diverge from chimpanzees, but both from a common ancestor.
      - Moodles 5y ago
        Ok? THat's probably somewhat accurate as accents are always changing, but I'm literally just citing what I read from some actual linguists.
  - airhead969 5y ago
    I go from sounding like an average Londoner to speaking in Received Pronunciation. The only problem is I'm American and not in London. I have no idea how that happened.
    - vmception 5y ago
      Same, I’m American in USA I just tell people I travel alot and my friends English from all over the world rubbed off on me. I would actually say that for a longer time I have consciously avoided regional slang, as American colloquial English is not usually any close to academic English and it is very easy not to notice. But Europeans have no clue what you’re saying if you are simultaneously slurring words, completely altering sentence structure, using idioms, and complete slang. So maybe it just gravitates towards an enunciated and generic international form of English? Skip a syllable and there it is.
      - airhead969 5y ago
        Maybe we should form a band and call it: The Fake British Accents ? My paternal grandmother was from Cape Cod; lived in Britain, Germany, and the Philippines; and ended-up in San Jose, CA with a New Englander-British (no pun intended) accent. My dad had somewhat of a latent British accent from eating gristle and corporal punishment at an all-boys English boarding school. Two Norwegian brothers: one was my roommate, had lived in the US for 10 years, and always spoke English like he was drunk and still working on the language; the other had never been to the States before but sounded like he lived in the US for 90% of his life. I'm wondering if it's language speaking/interpretation plasticity skill are more innate to the individual. (I'm probably more like the first brother and sound like a rube in every language.)
  - antihero 5y ago
    I'm British but when I am drunk people think I'm Australian.
MetallicCloud 5y ago
My wife is exactly the same, and has the same concern. She's convinced if we moved to England, she'll involuntarily pick up their accent in a few months.
shoto_io 5y ago
Same here. German though. Most people are fine in my experience. 5% get irritated.
the_only_law 5y ago
I am from the south. Last weekend I was at bar, talking to someone from Miami, just generally shooting shit. A little later 2 men, who put bluntly but accurately looked redneck, asked me what I was drinking and my accent and diction suddenly shifted for a second. This sort of thing happens often, I’ll find myself speaking differently for different Uber drivers, etc. the accent also comes out while trying to portray certain emotions or when I’m particularly tired, which I wish I could suppress.
- every 5y ago
  When necessary or simply appropriate I too can downshift into the Texas vernacular...
  - airhead969 5y ago
    What yall be talkin about, usin all them big, five-dollar, city words? Not one of them "cowboys" with a big hat and no cattle, I hope? ;) My mom's extended family has an actual long-horn herd around Seguin, so they get a pass on wearing boots and a Stetson. Meanwhile, my upstairs, sociopathic yuppie, mid-West hipster transplant neighbor walks around in cowboy boots on a solid floor for no reason (and no cattle) and has a man-bun despite it going out of fashion about 2016. I wouldn't even pretend to be a "cowboy" on Friday nights without actually roping and herding cattle, otherwise I'd feel like a poser. :Waves from ATX by way of SJC; parents by way of San Anton; grandparents by way of Nocona, Vernon, and Wichita Falls:
    - Aloha 5y ago
      I like cowboy boots as a substitute for dress shows, a nice pair of dress boots are dress shoes that I can be on my feet on all day, without killing my feet (even ones with a high cut heel). I also have leather soled pre-aged oilskin boots that have been covered in mud at various points in their life (the best 50 bucks I ever spent - you cant go wrong with 50 dollar pair Tony Lama boots, the pre-aged material means they felt wore-in right from the first time I pulled them on) - yet clean up nice enough that I can wear them to a meeting, as well as rubber soled western style boots for work (two otherwise identical pairs, one in steel toe, the other in not steel toe - I loath the narrow toe box of the steel toe ones). That said, I don't wear boots or anything with a hard heel inside my house, for fear my downstairs neighbors would kill me in my sleep. ;-) As far as me? I'd love a ranch, with cattle, but in the mean time, I'm perfectly fine being all-hat, no-cattle, besides, a cowboy hat is practical here in Texas (was in Washington too), and frankly so are boots most of the time too, besides, western shirts generally look nice, and wear well too.
dec0dedab0de 5y ago
I am the same way, I first realized when I was talking to foreign tourists on the bus in Disney world and my parents yelled at me for mimicking their accent. I was like 8 or 9
airhead969 5y ago
I once made a car-full of IITians LTAOs at my "Indian" accent that they asked me to do when I normally don't. I grew-up with numerous accented English-speakers, and I found Indian was the easiest. I can't do Scottish, Welsh, or Irish to save my life.
- dkdbejwi383 5y ago
  > IITians LTAOs Sorry, but what does this mean? Also I don’t know which “Indian” accent you mean, but I find Welsh English and Hindi have a similar prosody
  - andromaton 5y ago
    People that attended IIT in India. Laugh their a* off.
    - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
      > IIT Indian Institutes of Technology, for those playing at home.

type0 5y ago

I start to talk with an accent when I'm around people speaking in accent, but it only happens under the influence of alcohol. Always puzzled me, not like I'm doing it deliberately, almost becomes a sort of shtick.

vmception 5y ago
I skip syllables for brevity after a little alcohol and people think I’m Bri’ish
- Moodles 5y ago
  We Brits either ignore t’s or actually pronounce them as tee, whereas for Yankees it comes out as a dee for some reason. I did actually read somewhere that linguists think the British/American accent before America was a separate colony was most likely more similar to an American accent, so actually it was the Brits who diverged their accent.
  - dboreham 5y ago
    There are also today many accents and dialects in Britain. To my ear some US accents sound similar to Bristol and some Scottish accents but not at all like an English RP or London accents.
  - vmception 5y ago
    I read that too, I think further research should look at the dutch because many dutch speaking English sound very American and their colony New Amsterdam was in what is now America even earlier.
  - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
    It’s more like they both divulged from a common ancestor, and are both equally different and alike. See also: humans didn’t diverge from chimpanzees, but both from a common ancestor.
    - Moodles 5y ago
      Ok? THat's probably somewhat accurate as accents are always changing, but I'm literally just citing what I read from some actual linguists.
- airhead969 5y ago
  I go from sounding like an average Londoner to speaking in Received Pronunciation. The only problem is I'm American and not in London. I have no idea how that happened.
  - vmception 5y ago
    Same, I’m American in USA I just tell people I travel alot and my friends English from all over the world rubbed off on me. I would actually say that for a longer time I have consciously avoided regional slang, as American colloquial English is not usually any close to academic English and it is very easy not to notice. But Europeans have no clue what you’re saying if you are simultaneously slurring words, completely altering sentence structure, using idioms, and complete slang. So maybe it just gravitates towards an enunciated and generic international form of English? Skip a syllable and there it is.
    - airhead969 5y ago
      Maybe we should form a band and call it: The Fake British Accents ? My paternal grandmother was from Cape Cod; lived in Britain, Germany, and the Philippines; and ended-up in San Jose, CA with a New Englander-British (no pun intended) accent. My dad had somewhat of a latent British accent from eating gristle and corporal punishment at an all-boys English boarding school. Two Norwegian brothers: one was my roommate, had lived in the US for 10 years, and always spoke English like he was drunk and still working on the language; the other had never been to the States before but sounded like he lived in the US for 90% of his life. I'm wondering if it's language speaking/interpretation plasticity skill are more innate to the individual. (I'm probably more like the first brother and sound like a rube in every language.)
- antihero 5y ago
  I'm British but when I am drunk people think I'm Australian.

MetallicCloud 5y ago

My wife is exactly the same, and has the same concern. She's convinced if we moved to England, she'll involuntarily pick up their accent in a few months.

shoto_io 5y ago

Same here. German though. Most people are fine in my experience. 5% get irritated.

the_only_law 5y ago

I am from the south. Last weekend I was at bar, talking to someone from Miami, just generally shooting shit. A little later 2 men, who put bluntly but accurately looked redneck, asked me what I was drinking and my accent and diction suddenly shifted for a second. This sort of thing happens often, I’ll find myself speaking differently for different Uber drivers, etc. the accent also comes out while trying to portray certain emotions or when I’m particularly tired, which I wish I could suppress.

every 5y ago
When necessary or simply appropriate I too can downshift into the Texas vernacular...
- airhead969 5y ago
  What yall be talkin about, usin all them big, five-dollar, city words? Not one of them "cowboys" with a big hat and no cattle, I hope? ;) My mom's extended family has an actual long-horn herd around Seguin, so they get a pass on wearing boots and a Stetson. Meanwhile, my upstairs, sociopathic yuppie, mid-West hipster transplant neighbor walks around in cowboy boots on a solid floor for no reason (and no cattle) and has a man-bun despite it going out of fashion about 2016. I wouldn't even pretend to be a "cowboy" on Friday nights without actually roping and herding cattle, otherwise I'd feel like a poser. :Waves from ATX by way of SJC; parents by way of San Anton; grandparents by way of Nocona, Vernon, and Wichita Falls:
  - Aloha 5y ago
    I like cowboy boots as a substitute for dress shows, a nice pair of dress boots are dress shoes that I can be on my feet on all day, without killing my feet (even ones with a high cut heel). I also have leather soled pre-aged oilskin boots that have been covered in mud at various points in their life (the best 50 bucks I ever spent - you cant go wrong with 50 dollar pair Tony Lama boots, the pre-aged material means they felt wore-in right from the first time I pulled them on) - yet clean up nice enough that I can wear them to a meeting, as well as rubber soled western style boots for work (two otherwise identical pairs, one in steel toe, the other in not steel toe - I loath the narrow toe box of the steel toe ones). That said, I don't wear boots or anything with a hard heel inside my house, for fear my downstairs neighbors would kill me in my sleep. ;-) As far as me? I'd love a ranch, with cattle, but in the mean time, I'm perfectly fine being all-hat, no-cattle, besides, a cowboy hat is practical here in Texas (was in Washington too), and frankly so are boots most of the time too, besides, western shirts generally look nice, and wear well too.

dec0dedab0de 5y ago

I am the same way, I first realized when I was talking to foreign tourists on the bus in Disney world and my parents yelled at me for mimicking their accent. I was like 8 or 9

airhead969 5y ago

I once made a car-full of IITians LTAOs at my "Indian" accent that they asked me to do when I normally don't. I grew-up with numerous accented English-speakers, and I found Indian was the easiest. I can't do Scottish, Welsh, or Irish to save my life.

dkdbejwi383 5y ago
> IITians LTAOs Sorry, but what does this mean? Also I don’t know which “Indian” accent you mean, but I find Welsh English and Hindi have a similar prosody
- andromaton 5y ago
  People that attended IIT in India. Laugh their a* off.
  - dkdbejwi383 5y ago
    > IIT Indian Institutes of Technology, for those playing at home.