Do you change your accent?

Question

When speaking to a person of a different nationality.

When my mom speaks to her "char" she changes her accent to how a black person speaks English. she does this unintentionally though.

I know people who change their accents when speaking to americans and Brits. do you do this as well?

Answer 1

Eish I am the worse for this!

If I am talking to a Zimbo then I use my Zimbo accent

If I am talking to a SA then I used my SA accent

If I am talking to Brits I then my accent will change to what ever dialect that pommy is!! lol

I must say it is rather fun! I now don't really have an accent as such.

Answer 2

No. I'd even go so far as to say that I don't have an accent, national, regional or otherwise. RP Oxford, and that's all. Of course, it means you have to be prepared for trouble from oiks, yobbos and colonials who have a chip on their shoulders... But it would sound quite ridiculous if I did try to "imitate" them!

Answer 3

I usually say "Eish", "Wena" and "Ow" a lot when speaking to darkies and also slow down my speech for their benefit.

Surprisingly some of them don't approve and have labeled me racist and condescending.

Answer 4

Nor , i don hafe a haccent...

Hey Larnie , don choon like that , Durban is my cuntry , but i hemmigrated to jozee..better bucks an all , you nor how it vyies...

Answer 5

Yeah sometimes, but mostly with afrikaans. My dad only talks Afrikaans to me, but the so-called "plat afrikaans". Most inland people talk like that. And whenever we talk for very long or spend sometime with him, I find that I talk like that and even my mother will pick it up. But thats all till I get back and chat with my friends Englikaans as we call it. Then I'm back to normal again!

Answer 6

Nope.... people already think I have an accent.

I once sent a joke sms to a friend of mine about a cow. It didnt get to her but some afrikaaner woman. I thought my friend was pulling my leg when I got the call the lady was miffed "why is yous sending me this message, yous saying I are a cow?"....  All the message said was that cows are frustrated because people rub their nipples the whole day etc etc and nothing happens.... (I've lost the plot)... I dont cahnge accents. :)

Answer 7

I know what you mean.... I used to find myself doing this too, not in a nasty or patronising way but in order to be 100% clear I would articulate all my sounds very clearly with rolled "r" s and "Xhosa" vowels. This would be only when the person obviously did not speak English too strongly. Failing that I would speak Afrikaans, again the Afrikaans of the "kontrei" not Stellenbosch University if you know what I mean.

Answer 8

no and i think ppl who do it are dumb. like white ppl who speak to their maids with a "black" english accent. Its demeaning. or black south Africans who speak with a "yo yo yo, wassup my n*gga" accent when they encounter an American. Thats just fake. Speak with your true accent, whatever that is

Answer 9

No,

But I always used to laugh at my neighbour when we were growing up.

Her family was from Scotland, but she spoke with a proper SA Accent, except when she spoke to any other Scot - like her parents and friends - then she spoke with a really heavy scottish accent.

Answer 10

Sometimes. I deal with them on a daily basis. Depends in what situation and with kind of people I am with, I have to adjust my pronunciation on some words with some clients who only speak the Queens English.