Sudden Accents

Oriel

This annoys the hell out of me.

I went to Uni with a guy. He went to Canada for a year.
He cames back with a strong Canadian accent. He still does to this day as far as I know. He like American planes and missiles. Note: He was strange to begin with.

I went to school with a girl. She went to America for two years.
She now talks like she has lived there, like, all her, like life. She had stalker abilities.

There's a really annoying BBC Northern Ireland news correspondent. She has really annoying American accent. I don't dislike the American accent per se, but she has an really annoying one.
And now I find out, that she had a job interview with my company within the past five years, and she spoke then with a strong northern Irish accent.

Note - All these above people, could be described as strange or erratic people.

I have plenty of "stable' friends who have spent more than this amount of time in foreign countries.

I myself spent 16 months in Dublin. I didn't come back speaking in a southern accent.
A friend of mine has been living and working in Switzerland for many years now. He still speaks in a NI accent.
Loads of friends have spent years in Engerland, and they speak in the same accent that they left with.

What happens to the ones with sudden accents? All they all weirdos or what?

stepbar

Sounds like that ad for Pat the Baker

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=SfJ3z2SqRqk

MooseJam

some places you go to you have to speak like they do or you aren't understood so you pick up the accent

monkeyfudge

The American accent is a very infectious one... if you spend a long period of time around it you'll start to pick it up... You should be able to kick it quickly enough one you get out though.

giddyup

The ones with the sudden accents are I would suggest weak minded fools with self-esteem issues?

I was staying in a hotel near Westport once. Lovely girl serving us in the bar all weekend with a strong american accent. Asked her where she was from in the States. Answer - Tralee. We were a little surprised and asked her the shtory with her accent. She said her mother had a B&B with a mainly US clientele and she just picked it up from them. She did seem quite pleased that we asked her and therein lies some of the answer. I reckon it's a very attention seeking thing. We were instantly weirded out and we steered clear of her for the remainder.

I agree that in certain circumstances you change the way you say things in order to be understood but if you don't revert to normal speech in your normal environment..well...you're just looking for a shlap.

Zaph

giddyup wrote:

The ones with the sudden accents are I would suggest weak minded fools with self-esteem issues?

Maybe some, but not all. My sister has a very keen ear for accents, and one time she was in Northern Ireland for a long weekend. When she came back she was speaking with a definite northern accent and it took several days for it to vanish completely. Initially we thought she was putting it on, but she was completely unaware of it herself. A couple of people have told me they've seen this sort of thing with friends and family as well.

Willymuncher

I've picked up some of the American accent because people don't understand me here otherwise, I don't like it though because I'd rather talk like a bogger.

My wife had an accent after living in Ireland for 6 months, she was unaware of it till we came to the US and everyone started making fun of her for it.

Hermione*

I think some of the people with the sudden American accent think their lives will become like somthing on the O.C. if they sound as if they're on the show. It's like people who persist in calling their mother mom. No Irish person grows up calling their mother mom. It really bugs me!

On the other hand, my sister (born in Offally, educated in Limerick, lived in Galway for eight years) had no noticeable accent of any sort until she moved to Donegal, where she developed an accent in less than twelve months. Her husband, a Dubliner, has only been living there for about ten years but his Donegal accent is now so strong that people don't believe he's not from the county. It's very strange, my sister no longer sounds like herself :rolleyes:

giddyup

3 good points there so I withdraw my sweeping generalisation.:)

Blush_01

Was in NY for 4 days, had a twang when I came home (which I didn't notice, or I'd probably have shot myself).
Was in Cork for 3 days, a woman on the train asked me what part of Cork I was from, whereas she didn't think my friend (actually from Cork) was Corkonian at all.
I have never had a particularly strong accent, especially not when compared to my brother and dad. But my mother is from Leinster and my dad is from Munster, so maybe that's why.
I'm sure my accent has changed over the past 4 years in Dublin, but it's not a Dublin accent.

Who cares HOW a person speaks, as long as they're understandable?

Besides the people who change accent to adapt to a new situation/fit into a particular social group, there are also suggestions that people whose accents change rapidly have a musical ear. A work colleague used to pick up the accents of new employees at work almost immediately, and the worst bit was that they used to think she was taking the p!ss out of them, when she didn't even realise she was doing it.

WindSock

I have an americany accent from time to time. I blame telly though. Much of the media I am exposed to is from the U.S.

InFront

My accent varies a lot. My parents have non Irish accents and when I talk to them I sound like them, when I talk to my friends with Dublin accents I sound more like that, so much so that my parents find it hard to understand the words I'm saying, and vice versa with friends. For the first few weeks of college, I remember lots of people temporarily developed Cork accents because there were a few Cork people in the year and the accent is very infectious.

It's bound to be a sub conscious thing... indeed it's to be expected in many ways, we quickly mimic the gestures and facial expressions of those around us, there's nothing sacred about accents.

Tzetze

My family moved to Ireland (my father's home country), from England, when I was five. My brother and I both had pretty well established English accents at that stage. But not long after starting school in Ireland, we quickly lost them. I have vague memories of us being the odd ones out, so to speak, and we most certainly lost our accents quickly so we could 'fit in' more quickly.

These days (30 yrs later), my brother has an accent that fits in perfectly where he lives in rural Ireland. Mine is still somewhat neutral, sort of somewhere between an Irish and an English accent. Yet when either or both of us are around English relatives, we find the English twang becomes more dominant again. Similarly, my father will revert to a pseudo-English accent when around English people, just as he did during his 20 years over there.

It's all about acceptance really. It's human nature for most of us to want to fit in with our peers. As for the people who return home after a relatively short spell away and persist with the adopted accent, perhaps it's because they feel less of a need to 'fit in' on their return as they're back on home turf, and don't realise that they're still speaking their strange accent?

Ruu_Old

I have a friend who was born and raised in Alabama but the house in Chicago. It happens as soon as she goes back to visit her folks then it is back to the southern accent.

Tzetze

boreds wrote:

I have an americany accent from time to time. I blame telly though. Much of the media I am exposed to is from the U.S.

A large proportion of English-speaking Dutch people I met while living there, spoke their English with American accents. I quit asking if they'd learned English in America after the ones I had asked all replied that they'd learned and heard most spoken English through american TV and movies.

GAA widow

Did a bit of psychology in college......v. basic, therefore I'm no Dr. Phil. One lecturer told us that a sudden change in a person's accent is a sign of weakness of character.

marco murphy

I hate american accents. Like, Oh my gosh.

Coileach dearg

I'm actually afraid of losing my accent. I've been in Australia for 2 years now but thank feck there's no hint of the Australian accent coming through. My girlfriend is actually starting to pick up a bit of an accent from me! Quite an achievment I'm sure you'll agree.
As far as I'm concerned and I speak for every culchie here, the day you lose your accent is the day you lose your identity!

Overheal

I stubbornly kept my accent for years while her in Ireland: the only thing that really changed was the terminology - you cant really say 'pants' here in a conversation and be taken seriously. Lets just not get started on cross-terms.

What I did do in that regard though is pick what I liked - I like to spell it Color, I put 'like' at the end of my sentences (because I hate dumb blondes, and anything to disassociate myself, you know?)

Of couse I lived in a house with my father (very stubborn personality, hence a proud, New-England accent - though he also adopted the 'terms') and I also lived with a Dublin family of 3 but I suspect me and my Dad won the culture war in the house

But when I got to college I had decided before I got there because I wanted to try on the Irish accent. People still pick me out as American but I enjoy the Limbo: neither here nor there. To me it was about becoming more rooted here and to yes, fit in. I got a little bored of the snide observation that my accent hasn't watered down in 7 years. Annoying to me only because trust me: there are far worse American accents than I have in my arsenal.

As far as people spontaneously adopting the accent: I can get really pissy when someone I'm talking to begins to suddenly 'mock me' with their attempt at talking through their nose :rolleyes:

Fajitas!

I lived with three nordie girls for a year, followed by a nordie guy for a year... The accent comes out in me from time to time.

I'm originally from Cork, so it only takes a few hours with a Cork accent for me to pick it up.

Quiteluckily, I don't have a Waterford accent, though I've lived here for 16 years.

Black Swan

You don't like what they like to sound like? Like what's the prob? Like get real!

whiskeyman

I'd browse boards.ie for half an hour before work each morning, and I can't help adopting an accent that involves going 'WTF??!', 'ROFL!!' a lot, telling my black colleagues 'I'm not racist, but'... suggesting 'Atari Jaguar' at brainstorming sessions... Shouting at my Dublin colleagues to move their meetings to the Dublin office if the discussion topics only relate to Dublin business...then shouting 'YORE MA!!' incessantly at heated meetings.

It usually wears off by lunchtime, when I go back for my next boards.ie fix.

nice1franko

It's the sign of a feeble idiot

_feedback_

Oriel wrote:

I myself spent 16 months in Dublin. I didn't come back speaking in a southern accent.

Why would you come back from Dublin with a southern accent????!!

I've two cousins from Mayo, one living in Belfast and one in Glasgow... both have respective strong accents and it bugs the sh1t out of me.

Mr. Presentable

My sister assimilates in a couple of days. It's very funny really - almost like she has no identity of her own. Ever see the Woody Allen film "Zelig"?

Caliden

When I was 12 I went to Bradford for a weekend on a soccer trip. We stayed in the houses of the guys who played for the Bradford youth team.
Sunday morning the day we were supposed to leave the mother in hte house comes up and says "MAWW-NIN'" (that's supposed what morning sounds like in an english accent!) and I say back "maw-nin'".
It was more a case of mimicing someone than picking up an accent but it freaked me out because I was tired and said it without thinking.

thelordofcheese

elviscostello wrote:

Why would you come back from Dublin with a southern accent????!!

i'm guessing a southern ireland accent. or maybe a southside accent. One or the other.


Anyway, apparently, my accent is "very irish" when i'm over here in scotland, and the only time i picked up an accent was for a few days when i went to cardiff, and got some bastardised irish/welsh accent, no idea how. But back home i've been mistaken for english, australian, new zealand, american and canadian on various occasions. Kinda annoying, but at least no-one can tell i'm from sligo.

monkeyfudge

nipplenuts wrote:

My sister assimilates in a couple of days. It's very funny really - almost like she has no identity of her own. Ever see the Woody Allen film "Zelig"?

Very good film.... Forest Gump sort of ripped it off though.

Fwaggle

I'm Scottish but I've been living here for about 6 years and I'd say my accent is somewhat diluted, but I certainly don't sound Irish. No-one could understand a word I said when I first came here so I had to tone it down

I get people asking me all the time if I'm from Donegal

My family take the piss out of me for the Irish phrases that I've picked up though - I blame Waterford with their "well boy" and blaas!

HammerHeadGym

Actually, it's a leftover from our childhood. When we are learning to talk, we don't just start understanding words, we mimic sounds until we are copying what we hear, to the best of our ability. This is how we learn to ask for food or communicate distress. In most people it dies off to a signifigant degree so that only a couple of words will be picked up for the average traveller, but in some people it is still quite strong, hence the assimilation. It is about the body identifying itself as one of the tribe as soon as possible to be guaranteed resources. Certain stimuli, such as high threat, abandonment etc. will result in a more active assimilation.

So say Allan and Barbara Pease anyway. They are two of the world's leading anthropologists at the moment.

cormie

Blush_01 wrote:

there are also suggestions that people whose accents change rapidly have a musical ear.

This is what I've heard too.

I also know somebody from Kerry who's been in Dublin for the past 30 or so years and every time she speaks to somebody from Kerry, her accent is reborn:)

scargill

A friend's brother went to London for 6 weeks to work in a bar over the summer months. When he came back he sounded like Derek Trotter. the guy is a tool btw.

This same friend has developed some sort of posh Dublin accent recently. I don't know where the hell it has come from but it's a bit strange. I'm no psychologist, but I think he is trying to appear "posher" and more well off. He thinks he is some sort of businessman / dealmaker when we all know he is a sales rep.

I have another friend from Cork - been living in Kildare for years so we have flattened his accent in Kildare. If he goes home for the weekend his Cork accent is recharged....but after a few days we drag him back down to our flah haccent.

*meant to go unreg...ah well !

MrPudding

nipplenuts wrote:

My sister assimilates in a couple of days. It's very funny really - almost like she has no identity of her own. Ever see the Woody Allen film "Zelig"?

My 8 year old daughter is the same. I have a northie accent, my GF has a french accent and my daughter has a Dublin accent, though she use to have a northie accent.

The thing is her accent will start to changes with a few hours of exposure to a new accent. It is very funny.

She speaks French with a Normandy accent mostly, but after having a sleepover with a Friend from school who is from Belgium we could hear a difference in her French.

If she spends a weekend with my sister in Teddington she will have an Englisg twang at the end of it.

It is very worrying as we are now living in the UK and I think her accent when she speaks english is lovely, she will have a sh1tty english accent in a matter of weeks though.

MrP

oneweb

giddyup wrote:

Answer - Tralee. We were a little surprised and asked her the shtory with her accent.

<snip>

well...you're just looking for a shlap.

Thanks for that, needed a giggle

Apparently I don't really have any sort of discernable accent so I'd be horrified to realise that I'd picked one up somewhere. (lol, sorry, I realise I make it sound like an STI or somethin ) I've had 3 mates go to Oz and come back *exactly* as they sounded before. Some places just have infectious accents, but it's a good point that those who pick them up really quick seem to be a bit, umm, odd!

Slutmonkey57b

OP: Your friends dropped their NI accents in favour of something else - surely that's a good thing? Listening to the northern accent is like having sandpaper dragged across your ears. Did they stop shouting everything at the top of their lungs and arguing with people too?

Tar.Aldarion

MrPudding, that is one huge signature.

biko

Fwaggle wrote:

I get people asking me all the time if I'm from Donegal

A Sottish accent can sound like an Ulster accent.

galah

interesting discussion...

Actually, picking up accents is one way of blending in, and trying not to stick out - call it integration if you will. I don't think it has anything to do with low self-esteem or anything. It's probably easier if you have an ear for languages, and if English is not your native language - simple because you're more susceptible to the accents, and not fixed on one in particular.

I'm originally from Germany, lived in Ireland for a year, came back with a very strong Galway accent, then moved to Australia for two years, picked up 'Strine, and then moved back to Galway - now, 4 years later, it's a messy mix of rather strong Galway-isms plus a couple of words still pronounced in an Australian accent. (and the odd word pronounced with a German accent, but that doesn't happen all that much...)

_blank_

cormie wrote:

This is what I've heard too.

I also know somebody from Kerry who's been in Dublin for the past 30 or so years and every time she speaks to somebody from Kerry, her accent is reborn:)

My gf is from just outside Tralee, and everytime she speaks to her parents or siblings on the phone, I struggle to understand her.

connundrum

I used to have a strong South African accent, but quickly lost that when I moved to Offaly and developed a bogger accent. Once I moved up to Dublin that was lost in favour of a Northsider accent.

But all is lost when I'm in the company of different groups of people ie. if I'm standing on the Hill you can be sure that its Northsider all the way, whereas when I'm down in Offaly on the beer its bogger all the way.

I guess its a natural reaction to change accent. I can stand having to repeat myself, and would rather speak in a manner that people around me can understand.

FlutterinBantam

I unfortunately have developed a Dublin accent from speaking in gutteral tones through clenched teeth and in words of one syllable.

Giztwoadembleedinpakeracrispantwentyjohhniebluederepale huhuhuh

bandit*baby

nice1franko wrote:

It's the sign of a feeble idiot

Hardy .... i study in Cork and the majority of the people i communicate with on a daily basis are from - come on now guess where - Cork, I've always had a relatively neutral accent just a bit of a Dublin twang so its obvious that after 2 years of living, studying and working in cork that i start to pick up the accent
now i've returned to dub for the summer it took 3 weeks before my accent returned to normal
and its not delibrate i don't even realise that i'm speaking with an accent whether its a dublin one or a cork one

_feedback_

thelordofcheese wrote:

i'm guessing a southern ireland accent. or maybe a southside accent. One or the other.

Ah yes! the OP is from Antrim!

WindSock

I have also manually adapted my accent, so as not to pronounce things like-Whash, and thashh. One thing that really makes my skin crawl is the irish conversion of t's to sh. And it's particularly prominent in females.

Unpossible

I had to tone down my accent when I moved over here. It took a few months but I managed to speak slower and made my accent more flat. Its worked to my advantage because now I automatically change speeds depending on who Im speaking to. When Im talking with other native english speakers I speed up a little and if they are Irish then my old kerry accent starts to come back. The only problem is when I go home I usually spend a week speaking slower than I need to

I have also started to pronounce the word "finland" the way the finns do.

jdivision

Some people say I get an American twang on certain expressions. I'm really surprised by that because I don't think I do. I tend to mutter a bit and it usually happens when I'm trying to speak as clearly as possible. Don't know whether it's related or not. the sudden aceent thing drives me mad too (particularly country girl becomes Dort girl in two months) so being told I have a bit of an American one was a bit annoying!!

Fratton Fred

I still have my English accent (Actually, I don't have an accent, you lot do:D ) but I have started to use irish words, such as press for a cupboard or laneway for an alleyway. My daughter's accent is changing and she has developed a lovely English/Irish accent, but I have told her i will never ever be Da! the day she calls me Da is the day we move back to Berkshire. My wife is getting her Irish accent back and gets asked where in England she is from less often, which really pleases her:)

I have to say, some people in the Sandycove/Dalkey area have the wierdest ****ing accents ever (and dress sense). This "Mid Atlantic" accents just sounds false and put on..roish. wtf is that all about

tolosenc

I grew up with my mum having a Dublin accent, and my dad having a strong British Colombian accent. I speak to my mum with a Dub accent and Dublin mannerisms/Idioms, and speak to my dad with the Canadian English I got from him. I read somewhere that that is akin to bilingualism at a more simplistic level.

Those of you who say picking up an accent is a sign of weak character, I'd question that. If I went to live in Cork, I'd pick up a bit of Cork in my accent. If I went to Germany I'd pick up a bit of German. What you hear and read everyday influences your speach patterns.

Tzetze

Those of you who say picking up an accent is a sign of weak character, I'd question that.

I'm of the opinion that it stems from a desire/need to fit in with your peers/surroundings. I wouldn't equate this to having weak character. It's more a survival instinct.

Sheep in wolves' clothing, if you will.

zuutroy

I found myself saying 'eh' an awful lot after living in Toronto, and then the usual ones like 'garbage', which you got used to using just to be understood.

Mr. Presentable

zuutroy wrote:

I found myself saying 'eh' an awful lot after living in Toronto,eh and then the usual ones like 'garbage', which you got used to using just to be understood,eh.