Do you use a different accent or dialect, depending on who you speak to?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have run into various instances where someone speaks with a different accent or in a different dialect, depending on who one is speaking with, or alternatively, has affected a more neutral accent or dialect in order for their speech to be more acceptable to people at large. Is this something anyone here does, and why?

I find the thought of someone looking down on you because of your accent to be quite chauvinistic. However, I’ve had the chance to consider this issue for myself. The fact is, I speak five languages and have learned others. I have some experience with this issue myself.

In English, this is not an issue across the board. I am from Toronto and my speech is what you could call a neutral Canadian accent. However, as I teach English overseas, I sometimes have to speak more slowly and more “as written” in order to be understood. The best example is this: in my local vernacular, when we speak naturally, we say “T’-RONNO” to refer to our city. I would say to students (and other non-English native speakers, “I’m from T’-RONNO”, and they would not understand me. So I found myself having to elocute “I’m from To-RON-to” when speaking to people. However, in general there is no reason to change my accent with English, at most my register.

In French, however, there is a different story. I learned French as a child, but would not consider myself a native speaker, just very fluent. As a kid, I was taught to speak very neutrally, almost like Parisian French. However, I later adopted some Quebec French pronunciation; as a student I also had two summer jobs in Quebec City, and later deliberately affected a Quebec accent, reasoning that I am Canadian, not French, and therefore should speak like a Canadian.

However, during my last stay in Canada, this cost me two potential jobs. Namely, I did tutorial part-time in the Toronto area, including French. In two tutorial agencies asking for a French tutor, the interviewer each time was a young woman from France. In the first instance, she told me to start speaking in French, and as I started speaking, she looked at me as if I were weird and seemed to lean away from me. I never got called back. In the second instance, the interviewer let me say just one sentence in French. Se then turned to her boss and said, albeit in a polite tone, “He speaks with a Quebec accent, not a Parisian accent.” I got an e-mail saying someone else had been selected but they would keep me on file.

I’ve heard that the French can be very chauvinistic toward those who don’t speak in a neutral accent similar to that of Paris. However, I wasn’t going to change the way I speak in my country because someone who came from abroad didn’t like it. Nevertheless, when I definitively returned to Prague, I was given some French lessons by language schools. At first I used the Quebec accent with my students, but then I heard them repeating after me, and I realized that if they went to France and pronounced the language the way I had taught them to, they might be looked down upon. Not wanting my students to be at such a disadvantage, I made the decision to switch back to a “neutral” French accent when speaking to students. This was a bit difficult for me to do as I had gotten used to the Quebec accent and even now I have to strain my mouth a bit to do it, but I do so as I want my teaching to be an asset to my student. A colleague of mine who was from Quebec told me that she does the same with her students, and only teaches the Quebec accent to more advanced students who already know French.

I also speak German (not as fluently as the other languages I speak), but I do something that some people would consider unusual: I deliberately speak it according to a regional accent/dialect, rather than Hochdeutsch (standard German). The reason is this (what follows is partly copy-pasted from an earlier answer I posted). I learned German in the Czech Republic, and the first German-speaking place I visited was Dresden (the capital of the state of Saxony) and the area around. I picked up some features of the Saxon accent and eventually, when I decided to improve my spoken German, I decided to standardize my speech according to Saxon, partly because I found it easier to pronounce than standard German (I think Saxon works better for someone who speaks English with a North American accent than trying to copy the Hochdeutsch accent). Since Sebastian, an ex-colleague who comes from Thuringia near Saxony and with whom I had had conversation lessons, wouldn’t teach me Saxon, I used various Youtube videos to learn Saxon.

I always speak Saxon German on the rare chances that I have to use the language (I did just last week with a family group of Germans from Dresden that visited my regular pub). However, as with the Quebec accent, were I ever to teach German, I would make an effort to use Hochdeutsch as it would not be useful to a student to learn a local accent like that (a thick Saxon German accent can sound almost like a different languge. The reason Sebastian wouldn’t teach it to me is that there are people in Germany who look down on people who use it. But I consider that chauvinistic and it was just all the more reason for me to adopt just that accent).

Anyone here have experience with varying your accent or dialect depending on who you talk to?

2

I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but have lived away from there since I was 18 – first in Madison, Wisconsin, and then in the Chicago area.

Green Bay (as well as much of northern Wisconsin) has a distinct accent and dialect, not dissimilar to the Minnesota/“Fargo” accent. I’ve mostly lost that accent and dialect, but when I go back home to visit, and am spending time with friends and relatives who’ve lived most of their lives there, it’s been pointed out to me that my accent quickly (and subconsciously) comes back, and I code-switch to start using local dialect words again.

Some examples of the accent and dialect (done for humor, but not far off from the truth):

3

I love that accent. As a Cohen Brothers fan, “Fargo” is a favorite of mine.

I noticed when he was “translating” and said “Drive your sorry ass back to Illinois”, he pronounced “sorry” the Canadian way, I.E., “SORE-y”. There’s a town in Minnesota called Warroad, which is only about 12 kilometers away from the Canadian border. I watched a video about that town’s hockey traditions, and the people there seemed to speak no different than Canadians (at least no different than someone with a neutral Canadian accent), right down to saying “SORE-y”.

4

I actually change my accent slightly depending on who I’m talking to. I also do it without thinking about it. I’ve been asked a number of times where I’m from, and no one that asks believes I’m from Maryland.

I did a semester in Ireland and have been back many times. I also have a good friend who’s Irish. I’ve been told I have a slight Irish accent. I was married for five years to a Russian woman, and have dated other Eastern European women. It seems that when I talk with people from Eastern Europe I also have a slight accent.

The other day I was at a Bed Bath and Beyond and the woman at the register asked me if I was ready. I only said yes and she asked me where I was from. She was Lithuanian and kept telling me I had to be from somewhere else because of my accent. She’s not the only one that’s said that to me. I think I slip in and out of different accents and don’t even notice it.

5

I grew up and have always lived in a rural part of Westphalia (Sauerland) and have naturally adapted the local accent. It includes grammatical quirks, colloquial shortcuts and idiosyncratic vocabulary. When I talk with my family and local friends, I speak in that accent, but whenever I talk to people on a more professional basis or to people who are not Westphalian, I switch to Hochdeutsch (standard German). That’s effortless, though I cannot avoid a slight Westphalian colorization of my speech, it’s even audible when I talk English.

@themapleleaf : yes, non-Saxon Germans use to make fun of the Saxon accent, but that’s mostly harmless ribbing because Saxon just sounds funny. Nobody really looks down on it, and there’s also much teasing about Bavarian, East-Frisian or other regional accents. Saxon is a special case and I think it has something to do with the fact that during the existence of the GDR, Saxon was the predominant East-German accent we West Germans heard and found it a bit exotic. All in all, Germany consist of so many peoples/tribes with different accents that making fun of them is a popular pastime and mostly in good spirit.

6

Err, that’s “Coen.” :wink:

And yeah, it’s called “code switching” and basically everyone does it but not everyone is aware they do it. I’m real aware due to having worked in several call centers talking to people from all over the country. When people get cues that indicate they’re talking to “one of us” they’re less likely to go all Karen on your sorry customer service ass so good agents learn quick how to give just enough of an inflection to mirror back whoever is calling. This is especially effective when talking to someone in the deep South because if you don’t sound country they won’t trust you and things will not go well.

7

I grew up speaking a very southern-fried version of US English. It’s mostly gone now. My usual register is something that’s mostly neutral, not super twangy or idiomatic, but identifiable as southern. If I am speaking with foreigners, then I take pains to completely neutralize my accent to sound like a bland midwestern radio announcer, taking care not to drop any g’s or add extra unwarranted phthongs.

Once I got really embarrassed when I was driving with a friend of mine from New York, and I got pulled over for speeding by the Georgia State Patrol. It turns out that when I’m in trouble with the authorities, I turn into Gomer Pyle in an attempt to supplicate. My Yankee friend couldn’t stop laughing, was shocked that I would shapeshift so abruptly like that. What can I say? We southerners understand very well what can befall people who don’t look or talk exactly right. If you’re in trouble, you conform, and you do it quick-like.

8

Ya’ll sure do talk funny up there.

9

Yup. I’m a real ‘when in Rome’ type of guy. It’s unconscious, it surprises me when I notice it.

10

Ope! Sore-y 'bout dat once, hey.

11

There is a guy in my city who has a different accent for everyone he talks to. If you have a tie on he will try and sound sophisticated, If you look like a biker he tries to sound like a thug, if you are black he try’s to talk like a stereo typical black pimp. I have been crossing paths with this guy for over 40 years and he gets my hackles up every time I see him.

12

My accent doesn’t change but I can go from USA English to UK English easily. I spend a lot of time talking to coworkers in London.

13

AFAIK, I still speak with the same accent I grew up with in Philly. But a couple of people I have met, who had lived there for a couple years denied that. I guess I do not have a good ear for dialects but Canadians instantly detect that I am American, while I cannot tell a Canadian at all from a general American accent.

On the other hand, I am fairly good at telling where a non-native speaker of English is from. I was once waiting for a commuter train and started talking to a woman. When I asked if she was from Zurich (she was obviously Swiss), she asked how I guessed that. I told her that her accent was that of a Swiss (German) speaking English. “Oh”, she exclaimed, “All my friends assured me I had no accent speaking English.” So I asked how she had been living here. She replied, “I arrived yesterday.”

14

It’s not a different accent, but I certainly sound different when conversing with a fellow subject-matter geek. Most of the time this is regarding movies, but it could be taking to a fellow Disneyphile, or to an artist about supplies, whatever. I can use jargon without defining it, or bring up a point or theory in which a plebian would rightfully be disinterested.

Near the end of my college days, my wife came with me to a party with a bunch of classmates (mix of film and video game at students). Apparently I code switched so hard she still brings it up nearly 20 years later as a disturbing experience.

15

Yes I code switch. Sometimes my switching depends on my level of intoxication.

ETA: This is the best code switching I’ve ever seen!

16

Not intentionally, but I have had the issue where I wind up mimicking the accent of the person I’m talking to. It’s less of thing now, though.

One example was how I’d switch from “you guys” to “y’all” when talking with someone with a strong Southern accent.

17

Hah. I love that dude. Been watching his stuff for awhile now. I believe he’s from Elm Grove, a bit west of Milwaukee. Growing up in Chicago and visiting Wisconsin all the time, I totally hear that kind of accent (or pretty darned close to it) all the time.

As for the OP, yes, I do code-switch, or whatever you want to call it. When I’m talking with my South Side friends here, my childhood accent comes out, as well as certain phrasings of words, like “hey, buddy, can you borrow me a buck?” instead of “Can I borrow a dollar?” My "th"s are likely to get lopped off into "t"s and "d"s.

When I’m in a more academic context (which isn’t that often these days), my register shifts to a “cleaner” accent with more exact “SAT words” and stuff like that. I pronounce my "th"s, I might use forms like “whom” which I wouldn’t use in causal conversation. I make sure I don’t shorted “-ing” endings to “-in’”. The level of diction just goes up to more how I would talk to professors while at university.

I also tend to subconsciously mirror someone else’s accent and patterns of speech. I sometimes feel I have to be careful with that so it doesn’t seem like I’m mocking them, but I haven’t gotten myself into trouble with it yet. Like when talking to British folk, I begin to (often) start talking non-rhotic and my word choice swings to British English. It’s not conscious – it just happens.

But, in general, yes my word choice and grammar will change depending on the audience.

18

I code switch a lot. When I speak with Asian’s from Asia in English, I switch to ESL (English as a Second Language vocabulary as generally taught in Asia) vocabulary and pronunciation. Of course, if someone is a Mandarin speaker, a Shanghaiese speaker or a Japanese speaker, then switch the language.

19

I honestly thought you were setting us up for a “because, whenever he sees me, his jaw goes slack and he makes a durrrr sound” punchline.

20

Actually, that’s a good one. When speaking with somebody who is at an elementary level in English, like, say, when you’re the foreign person who doesn’t know the language in a new country, but find someone who has some English knowledge, simplify your sentences: simplify your verb tenses, avoid idioms, etc., if you want better luck being understood. It’s amazing how often I would see folks just repeat the same sentence LOUDER when they weren’t understood by the native trying to be helpful, as if volume is the problem in communication. Of course, when I am hanging around with people learning English in a casual group, I try to keep it more balanced, and not ratchet down my level of English to a pidgin, as they usually want to learn and be around English speakers talking naturally, so they can pick up on their English skills. But for a one-off exchange at a store or asking for directions? Keep it short and simple. It seems so obvious, but I’ve seen tourists do it over and over – instead of rephrasing or simplifying, they ask more loudly or more aggressively.