cosmicjunkie

That's two who have said this now! Hahahahahahahaha I hope my accent will be just as useful!

Lothianlad

I'd rather drink ink than desecrate my soft Edinburgh Scottish accent with any kind of American accent - I've heard American accents all around me here in my home city ever since I can remember, and even if I had gone to live in America for any length of time, long or short, I would have resolutely refused to change my native accent, even if any kind of Americanisation would make for clearer comprehension and therefore avoiding any problems.

I've heard Gerard Butler, a fellow Scot, state on TV that he makes a determined effort to enhance his Scottish accent in his private life when in America, where he is much of the time anyway, and that he always delights in hearing all the British accents around him whenever he lands back at Heathrow airport, which is pretty amazing really when you consider the fact that many of the accents you hear there are anything but British, and that includes many of the airport's services staff!

He also says that the first thing he does once he has passed through all the immigration procedures at Heathrow airport he makes a bee-line for the nearest cafe where he enjoys a pot of tea and bacon rolls, the best tasting since he last left Heathrow for America....his words not mine.

Both Joan Collins and Julie Andrews still sound very English English to me, a Scot, with barely a trace of Americanisation, and both of those ladies have been living in America for centuries now, apparently.

SarahG

Yes my accent has changed. Born and brought up in Edinburgh but left when I was 18 and spent a year in Michigan. When I returned to the UK I had a very different accent and it was commented on a lot. (Some people thought I was Canadian) I think it changed as a way to help myself be understood as I had a very strong Scottish accent before I went to the US. I then spent 11 years in England I found myself saying certain words with an English accent. Now I have been in the US for about 18 months my accent is changing again. When I am with my OH and kids I suppose I sound more British. When I speak with my mother my Scottish accent becomes more pronounced. When I am with mainly Americans I have a sort of half and half accent. My kids accents are changing but they are 5 and 7 years old. My daughter has asked me if she can call me 'Mommy' rather than 'Mummy'.
It does not bother me in the slightest if my accent is changing. My accent doesn't make me the person I am so I don't care what I sound like. Anyway, having a changing accent does lead to interesting conversations with people in grocery stores, bars etc.

robin1234

Sometimes it is the little one syllable words that are the problem. We were at a supermarket a few weeks ago & I couldn't find the beer. So I said to an employee, "Excuse me, where is the beer?" He looked nonplussed so I repeated it slower. He thought I was looking for "butter" .. not sure how he got there; I solved it the way I usually do in these situations, saying something like "I'm looking for a six pack of Stella Artois and some Guinness.." So then he got it. In other words, use a brand name or a series of multi-syllable words and you're fine!

MsElui

im must admit - after repeating myself endlessly in places like subway - i now say a single word in a otherwise flawless english accent to make my wait shorter.

Yes, I would like some TOMAYTO please. or I would like some WADDAH please. Its actually pretty funny to watch the lightbulb go on in the servers face when they realise what i am after after being totally baffled by the words the first 5 times i say them.

paddingtongreen

Such arrogant pomposity .

The purpose of speech is to aid communication not to prevent it. Most of us have several accents at any given time in order to communicate with different groups of people. I have a "Mid-Atlantic" accent now because it eases my way; my vowels and consonants are English but my word selection and syllable accent is American. I use "Do you have any...?" instead of "Have you got any...?"; "garage" gets emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first. I sound English to Americans and American to the English, at least for the first few days of a visit as I slide back to English English.


When I was young, I had a cockney accent for school and a more standard one for home and yet another when we spent the summer at Grandma's in Somerset. I've worked with Geordies and Glaswegians who have different accents, I could not understand two Geordies or two Glaswegians having a private conversation but they both use a more standard accent at work.

Both Joan Collins and Julie Andrews have sufficient standing that people do adapt to them; their accents are important attributes for their business so they work on them. The rest of us must adapt or live very frustrated lives in a tiny world of our own making because we won't modify ourselves to fit our new community, "We're British, we ain't going to change one tiny little bit!".

Yorkieabroad

My mum still answers the phone with her "telephone voice" which may or may not lapse once she knows who she is speaking to

zooqookoo

I think accent comes out stronger when talking with other brits

Poppy girl

This is very true.

SultanOfSwing

I don't think so, no. Occasionally at work when I have to leave messages for people and I have the option to review it, I'll have a listen to see what I sound like, and I don't detect much of a change.

My sister said I don't sound the same but I haven't really adopted 'Americanised' speech, I just talk the same way I always have and people can understand me. I translate wherever necessary

robin1234

One option would be to only communicate via the Semaphore Simulator. There would be absolutely no possibility of confusion then.

Nutmegger

Give it a few decades and see what you sound like! I never wanted to adapt the way I speak, but over the years intonations and usages crept in just from being immersed in them day in, day out. I hear my recorded voice and am horrified by what it sounds like; but, as others have said, when I'm back in the UK or speaking on the phone to UK friends, the pendulum swings back towards sounding more British.

SultanOfSwing

We'll see. I hope it doesn't change. No offense to Americans but I'm rather fond of my accent. I fought hard to develop a polite, well spoken tone. No easy feat when you spend 99% of your time in Belfast

Nutmegger

I liked mine too -- I record books for the blind, and used to get the call for books with a British protagonist. Folks here still think I sound British, but to me I sound like the creature from the depths of the middle of the Atlantic!

Ridski

I've been here 12 years and my accent is mid-Atlantic with full use of American terminology. My couple of jobs while trying to find something that with decent pay was as a waiter and in construction with salt-of-the-earth Joisey types who were quick to take the piss out of anything you said funny, so I quickly adapted. If I'm home for more than a few days my accent actually over-compensates and I end up sounding like Grant Mitchell, when in fact I was brought up to have a posh-ish Hampstead accent. The hardest part of going back is having to re-translate words I say now to words I grew up with, while at the same time trying to keep up with how modern British slang has changed in the last 12 years.

The blank looks I gave people when I was first invited out for "a few Britney's" got a few laughs.