Reply to How to lose a regional southern accent?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have no tips, but I wonder what makes some people shed an accent more easily than others? I had a strong Boston accent when I went to college in the DC area and then remained here after college.  I did not actively try to lose my accent (in fact, I liked having a recognizable accent), but by my mid 20s it was pretty much gone. It's been literally decades since anyone asked me if I was from Boston.

But it does pop out occasionally--yes a bit if I've been drinking, but also when I'm around a person with a Boston accent, I start to slip back to one, completely without intention. And there are certain words from childhood that I just don't say much in adulthood so they never got rewired, so to speak. E.g., the candy Starburst. Unless I concentrate, I still say it with almost no R at all, lol.

OP, do you hear your own accent? There was a time in college where my ear had become attuned to the mid- Atlantic and gentle Southern scenes all around me and I could actually *hear* how different I sounded. It was very disorienting, and I think it was the beginning of the end of my accent. [/quote]

My best friend growing up had a mid Atlantic accent until she spent her 10th grade year in England. When she returned to the states at the end of the school year she called me and I had no idea who I was talking to. Pure British accent. She lost that accent by the time school started in the fall. She has lived in Wilmington NC for about 15 years now and has a southern accent. I’m sure there’s a term for people who change accents easily like this, but I don’t know what it is.[/quote]

This is me. To the extent that I have to be careful, because I’ll unconsciously pick up accents while I’m talking to someone and I’m afraid they’ll think I’m mocking them.  I have a good ear for music, too.  Just like some people have perfect pitch, some people have an ear for accents. My DC has it, too — he’s a great mimic. I grew up in the South, but I have a mostly neutral accent now. It comes out when I talk to my family on the phone. My husband says he can tell who I’m talking to by my accent.

I actually do try to retain some of my original accent and I’d think hard about losing my accent on purpose, though. I had some law partners from the South who did M&A work, and they’d clean the clocks of the NYC lawyers who’d never dealt with them before and underestimated them. The further north they went, the thicker their accents got.  I think it’s sad that our accents are becoming so homogeneous and losing their regional character. [/quote]

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