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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.)
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
American here. Now you’re just making shit up. :)
British accents change every 25 miles
It’s Mr. Beans’ accent technically Upper Class Twit?
You missed a few dozen. ;)
… Like all the ones from Scotland (from Sheltie accents to Perthshire accents) and all but one from Wales.
