A Conversation for Ask h2g2

Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 1

Maria

Why? when?... say the circumstances.

I do.
I´m from the south. There are many features within the meridional parlances. My area belong to the lisping one. There are other fonetic and lexical features.
Because of some socio political circumstances, the meridional speeches are labelled as uneducated. But that is just a prejudice based on ignorance. We just speak a dialect.
Your education is not shown in your fonetics, I think so, but many people in this country dont.

About a few years ago, I came to Madrid. It is assumed you´ll hear standard Spanish here, true , up to a point.
I came to find a job. I used to hide my accent at the job interviews and at the work place I spoke standard Spanish.

Now that I consider that my accent is not important at the work place, I moderate it anyway, because my job is based on talking and communicating with children, so I think it´s better for them to hear standard-ish Spanish.

At home and when I visit my hometown, I´m back to my mother parlance. My daughter, as soon as she talks with their relatives in Granada, she starts to use Andalusian accent. She finds it funny and she says it´s sticky.

When I speak English, I also try to moderate my Spanish-Andalusian accent. I do it because I enjoy how English sounds.

smiley - mistletoe


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 2

Deb

I think it used to be like that in the UK in that people would speak "posh" English (ie without the accent) to sound more educated, but in recent years regional accents seem to have become not only acceptable, but more desirable.

My accent has always been fairly generic almost unaccented English, although after nearly 20 years in the Midlands I definitely have a twang.

Growing up, I lived on the South East coast of England but my dad's family were from Derbyshire. When visiting my nan she would frequently say things like "It's not bas, it's boos" (bus) or "It's not batter, it's booter" (butter) smiley - biggrin She would no doubt be proud of my accent these days smiley - rofl

Deb smiley - cheerup


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 3

Dr Anthea - ah who needs to learn things... just google it!

as a Scottish girl living in England yes I moderate my accent
my natural accent is not quite glaswegian I have lived in England almost twelve years now and I don't purposely change my accent but I am aware that it is different I can hear the difference I say different words (dialect?) when I speak to other Scottish people or when I call home and speak to my family, I think a bit of it is due to the speed of the way we talk I'm in Lancashire now which has a slightly slower way of speaking than my native Ayrshire and as for dialect words.... it makes it easier to be understood and avoids confusion if I don't use them although I am trying to avoid them less these days
my husband tells me its almost like a different language when I'm talking to my mother but I have little conscious control over it


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 4

Wand'rin star

When I was studying English and Linguistics in the early 1960s, moderating the accent was known as "linguistic tact". When I did a phonetics course as part of my teaching English as a foreign language diploma in 1968 I was one of the four out of 26 native English speakers considered to have a standard English accent; I believe the recordings are still in the archives.
I hung on to this as a teaching tool for 40 years, but have often modified it for social reasons as many people seem to find it intimidating. I have used several regional accents on stage lover the years.
My French accent is West African, my German accent tends towards Swiss and my Mandarin and Polish are both "correct" but so hesitant that I'm obviously foreign. Given yesterday's football results one of my sons suggests we use a Welsh accent for a bit (we have the right surname for it) smiley - starsmiley - star


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 5

Rev Nick - dead man walking (mostly)

I'm Canadian, we don't have accents. smiley - winkeye

I have lived and worked close with quite a number of people from most points in Canada, the US and the UK. My own 'accent' is such a blend that no one can identify me - even when we did a couple of weeks of travel around England, Wales and Ireland.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 6

ITIWBS

Usually not, south west Oklahoma, similar to Ray Milland, but with some California influences, when in doubt I pronounce my vowels with Spanish phonetics, or if its something like illusive/elusive/allusive, I use the English long forms to avoid confusion.

On the other hand, if I'm conversing with peoples with strong accents, I tend to pick theirs up unconsciously.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 7

bobstafford

I think regional English or dialect is just a linguistic throw back 15th, 16th, or 17th century English. There are many words that can be traced to spoken Norse, Norman french, Latin and Scots.

Proper English of today was focused upon the standard educated spoken word of London and the south east. Spelling was simply standardized for the use in the rapidly expanding printing industry. This in turn was reinforced by BBC pronunciation.

There is no need to regard accent as wrong I like the variety

smiley - cheers


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 8

Milla, h2g2 Operations

My Swedish accent is such a mischmash that some people wonder if I'm foreign... mom from Skåne, dad from the Småland/Östergötland border area, learned to speak in Uppland, and refused to learn Skåne dialect when we moved there when I was six. Puzzling is a nice word for it smiley - biggrin
My English accent varies, depending who I speak to. American-ish with US folks, and more British type English with whatever fun words I remember with others. Very weird English when I was in China smiley - blush. And it's NOT intentional to be such a chameleon... to stick with one accent is a lot of effort for me.
I love to hear other people's accents though! Please continue!

smiley - towel


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 9

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

In the U.S., the Midwestern accent is thought to be the most broadly acceptable for national media consumption. I lucked out because my mother came from Michigan. My family just talks the way she does, and we don't get any remarks about our "accent."

I live in Boston now, where there is a strong "Boston accent." I've gotten used to it, so I always understand what people are saying. And people understand what I am saying.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 10

You can call me TC

I grew up in West Suffolk and till speak the way we all spoke around there. The accent is very different from 2legs's accent, which is from East Suffolk.

I don't need to change it to be understood. (Nor does 2legs, of course - the Suffolk coast isn't THAT far from London! - Try a Norfolk accent: that can be challenging!)

Since I have lived in a German environment, my French accent, which had a champenois touch, having lived in Troyes for a while before moving to Germany for good, has now become more German-Alsatian. I speak to people from all over France on the phone (oh boy, some of their accents!!) and have been asked if I come from Alsace.

Speaking German I sound very much like the locals here, which is not so bad in the pronunciation and being understood stakes, but the Northerners say the time very differently and I have to convert it to the 24-hour clock system to be unambiguous.

So, to answer the question - no, I don't alter my accent when speaking. I have, however, found myself thinking in an American (Californian) or, strangely, a Belfast accent, and, possibly because I deal in languages a lot, I can imitate accents reasonably well.

I do expect Swiss and Austrian callers to make some effort to speak High German. They are taught it at school and, despite considerable experience and knowledge of other languages, they can be difficult to understand. (Sorry, Tav!)

(Having said that, I love the Viennese accent, but most Germans find it annoying.)

Our German colleagues who only deal with German customers will often put a Swiss or Austrian, or even a Bavarian through to us, saying that they don't understand the caller. Oh yeah, and we in the export department (one Englsh, one French, one Italian) are supposed to understand them????


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 11

Gnomon - time to move on

I find it completely natural to moderate my accent to match that of the people I'm speaking to.

If I'm talking to a working class Dub, I'll use a working class Dub accent, complete with replacement of medial and final Ts with glottal stops.

If I'm talking to an upper-class British person, I'll use a more upper-class Dublin accent which will be easier for them to understand, without the glottal stops, and I'll modify vocabulary as well, avoiding words such as hot presses, pencil parers and messing.

If I'm talking to Americans, I'll speak slower and avoid swearing.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 12

You can call me TC

I've never heard you swear - but then again, I probably get a modified version of you.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 13

Gnomon - time to move on

I swear when appropriate.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 14

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

smiley - bigeyes


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 15

Sho - employed again!

I have what might be called a "standard" accent when I speak English. smiley - chef calls it "posh" but that's because he's from Middlesbrough.

When I'm in my home town (Sheffield) it does take on a bit of local flavour (although it doesn't stretch to calling people "love") and when I've had a few smiley - ale I can sound a bit Bristolian because I spent a long time there as a teenager.

When I speak German it will depend what I'm doing or who I've been speaking to. At work it will tend to be the German equivalent of my English accent: fairly correct and Hannovarian.
when I'm at a football match or in a pub it tends to be the accent from the town where I live, which is near the border with The Netherlands. People in Bavaria have placed me as coming from the Lower Rhine Area. But I'm also asked if I'm Dutch.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 16

Mol - on the new tablet

Similar to Deb. I was brought up in the Thames Valley by one Hampshire parent and one Nottinghamshire parent; and after 20 odd years in the Midlands, and married to a Lincolnshire lad, my schoolfriends now accuse me of 'talking like a Northerner' when I visit. So I suppose that means I've acquired an accent, which I don't moderate.

I live in the Northamptonshire uplands, the great watershed of England both for rivers and for accents. South of us, the green stuff is grahs, North of us it's grass (to rhyme with ass), and round here, either will do.

My mother in law is from America but has lived in North Lincolnshire for 60 years. Words she learnt after arriving here (eg pudding) she says in a Lincolnshire accent, but apart from that she still speaks like a New Englander.

My husband is the youngest of four children and apparently did not speak until one day at the age of 4 when he said 'can I have a drink of water please?' Years later someone told him this is reasonably common when a young child is brought up in a household where lots of people speak the same way but one key person has a completely different accent.

Mol


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 17

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

"she still speaks like a New Englander." [Mol]

smiley - biggrin


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 18

Florida Sailor All is well with the world

How did she grow up in the US without learning the word 'pudding' admittedly ours is far different from your, being a sweet desert here, but the name itself is quite common.

F smiley - dolphin S


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 19

broelan

I've lived in the Midwest US all my life, so I guess I have a Midwestern accent. Since it's the nationally preferred broadcast accent, I don't really have a need to moderate it; no one ever comments on it because they're used to hearing it.

That said, whenever I travel south I pick up a really annoying southern twang that I have no control over. It happens almost immediately and takes about a week to get rid of when I get home. (I've been told I also get this accent when I'm drunk, but it's always gone by the next morning so I never notice it smiley - cheers)

I try not to pick up accents when I travel because a part of me thinks it feels ingratiating.


Do you moderate/hide your accent?

Post 20

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

I talk like a hillbilly. smiley - laugh

In German, a professor told me, I sound like I come from the Eiffel mountains. So in German, I talk like a German hillbilly...


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