Has your accent ever changed when moving from your home state or from being around folks with different accents?

30 comments

1. Sure. As a kid, my accent would change between staying with my dad (Rhode Island accent) and my mom (Massachusetts).  So, every Monday my accent was different than on Friday. 

2. My family says my accent changed from moving 85 miles, from San Francisco to Santa Cruz for college. San Franciscans generally speak with a General American accent (think generic TV accent) whereas due to the prominent surfer/stoner culture, Santa Cruz has a heavy presence of the Californian accent (think SNL’s _The Californians_).

   The California accent apparently faded for me a bit after I moved back. 

3. When I moved to Southern California from the Midwest (lived in Illinois and Missouri for 25 years, one parent from Tennessee, one parent from rural small-town Illinois), people in California commented that they were surprised I didn’t have an accent.

   Now, 20+ years later, when I go back to visit family I can definitely hear they have an accent that I don’t have. I don’t know if theirs has shifted or mine has.

4. Bro I literally posted this a week ago HAHA. Glad to know I’m not the only one wondering.

   But yeah, grew up with a considerable southern twang. Moved up to northern Indiana, dated (actually now engaged to as of 4 days ago) a Chicago girl, roomed with guys from Missouri, Ohio, and Minnesota. They all had the accents to match.

   My accent is still mostly southern but a lotttttttt of shit comes out Midwestern now. Especially when I talk about football, anything that’s happened since 2021, or with my friends/fiancée and their families.

5. Yes. I grew up in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago with a mom from the northwest side- i have a generic midwestern accent with a little of the Chicago accent (not ‘da Bearss’ but I do say ‘coulda, would, shoulda’)
   I went to college and lived in Wisconsin for 13 years. It took a year to get rid of the Sconnie accent and if I visit friends or family North of the Border it comes back instantly.

6. For sure, I lost a lot of Boston when I moved to Vermont. I get it back when I’m home, especially around dads side, for a few days.

7. I worked at a waitress in New Zealand for 3 years and started accidentally speaking with a kiwi accent. I couldn’t help it and when I tried to sound more american it sounded even stranger.

   I’ve since read that people who do this have higher levels of empathy which I’m choosing to believe instead of being hard on myself for my ever changing blended accent.

8. I practiced a Canadian accent to blend in with my fellow geese.

9. Yeah, grew up in North Jersey but have lived here for around 30 years. Even after just a few years my brother noticed a difference. When I take a dialect/accent test it says Philly area.

10. Yes. I grew up in the South but have lived in the Southwest for 20+ years. I’ve lost most of my accent, but it’s very strong if I’m around other Southerners or if I’m very angry lol.

11. I haven’t moved but my Appalachian accent stays no matter where I go. everyone always comments on it.

12. I’m from OR. Spent four years in MA, five years in NC, and now six years in Melbourne. Been asked multiple times if I’m Scottish, so I have no idea what the hell is going on with my accent.

13. My speech patterns adjust slightly to match the accent of whoever I’m talking to, although my accent changed for almost a year because I spent a couple months with family in the UK as a kid.

14. I don’t know. Growing up, everyone just said I sounded “weird”.

15. I pick up my mom’s family’s accent when we visit them in Florida.

16. Yeah I’ve picked stuff up from my moves around the country. Most of my adult life was in the south, so I’ve got a little bit of a drawl now.

17. Yeah – born and raised in Brooklyn until I was 24. I moved to the UK for a few years and then to Colorado. I never had a strong accent, but I definitely sound less Brooklyn now. Partly on purpose because I got sick of people pointing out things I say “weirdly” or mocking me.

    My husband makes fun of me when I visit family because he says I start sounding so much more Brooklyn.

18. Philly/Canadian/British/Texas… all smushed together 😜😜

19. I grew up in the Midwest. I have a bit of a deaf accent when I’m tired that tends to sound like a New England accent

20. IDK if mine’s changed but when I go back to Chicago I notice people’s accents waaaayyy more than I ever did while living there

21. I was born in California, but I spent a decade of my childhood in Alabama. While there, I developed a pretty strong southern accent. Since moving back to CA over 20 years ago, that accent has mellowed out a lot, but every once in a while, a definite twang comes out.

22. I haven’t been a working class New Englander for more than 50 years. But that’s the way I naturally talk, the way I feel most comfortable. I can do “standard American,” but I only did it when my work required it on more formal occasions. Among family and friends, I talk like my roots taught me to talk.

23. I’m one of only four people in my family not from Appalachia. Having grown up in northern Indiana, I sound very Midwestern. But every once in a while some of that hillbilly talk slips out. It was especially strong when I was a kid and used a lot of my mom’s regionalisms like “lighting bug” for “firefly.”

24. Not me but my sister has lived in Texas for 10 years and her accent has changed slightly. She talks a little slower and she has picked up a little bit of a drawl but you can still tell she’s Philly trash

25. My dad grew up with a Boston accent in one of the working class suburbs. He lost it when he went to MIT, but he code-switches without realizing it when he talks to his family, or to a cop, contractor, plumber, or other blue collar guy.

    Was hilarious to watch. He’d talk to a client in “standard” American English, then turn around and give the production team their instructions in chowdah-thick Bostonian.

26. Yes. I lived in the Deep South US for a bit and I def picked up the cadence. Same when I was in Ireland. They have a different cadence to their words that I pick up/emulate when I’ve been drinking. It’s actually embarrassing because it’s not intentional.

27. I only moved from Kansas City to Des Moines (a three-hour drive and both very Midwestern cities) and I picked up some hints of Upper Midwestern vowel sounds. I hate it.

28. I originally had the MN accent, and once I joined the military picked up a southern accent. I came back here on leave and people were asking if I was enjoying my time here, obviously not realizing I was originally from here. I ended up deployed for a year and apparently worked in a little bit of an Arabic accent from trying to learn a little bit of the language. At that point, I got my discharge, started college and no one could place where I was from. Now throw in that I’ve been speaking Mandarin for about 8 years and I’m just a mutt when it comes to speaking.

29. Yes. I lived in rural New Mexico for a looooong time and was isolated from a lot of technology because I didn’t have reliable internet and became really close with my neighbors instead of the outside world. My voice took on a pretty strong affect which sounded like them. Sometimes it comes back and people think I sound strange.

30. Yeah. I kind of absorb the slang and even (slightly) the accent of people around me, or TV shows I’m watching, or things I’m reading….

    It’s not on purpose.

    But there was once I spent two months in the prairie provinces of Canada, and the accent started sneaking into my speech, and every time I noticed it I was like, Great. They’re going to think I’m making fun of them.

    (Nobody noticed but me and my partner, lol.)

    But if I’m around my friend who says “dude” a lot, suddenly I’m saying “dude” a lot.

    This is a thing humans do, and it’s pretty normal.