So she's faking it but in reality she's like a virgin!

Some people's accent change with location and/or depending on who they're around, even when they're very much adults. It's rare it'll go the full way but there will usually be a degree of change. I know I was relatively young at the time (18-21) but whilst at Uni my accent changed slightly between home and uni, and some other people's changed quite drastically.

Don't stick up for her unless you want to claim her as one of your own!

I'm with you on this one - my wife's brother went to uni in London. His Yorkshire accent gradually dwindled and although there's traces there, he's started using the long 'a' sound in words like grass and bath.

 

One of her cousins went over to Tasmania after her post doc and has got a heavy Australian accent now with hints of British coming through. She's been there for around 12 years.

 

Conversely we've got Londoners at work here who've not lost their accents, so the whole thing must come down to who/what you're around, like you say, and the susceptibility of the individual to those outside influences. Also if you're proud of your accent you'll probably be more conscious of trying to preserve it, likewise, if you come from Romford (and have any wits about you) you'll be trying your best to disguise it.

I think you'd be surprised. It took less than a year and a half in Australia for my already confused accent to start changing. Nearly a year after I got back to the UK, people still thought I was an Australian. Which was annoying, as I thought I was sounding more and more British the longer I stayed in Oz.

 

Mind you, I met a couple of ten-pound tourists in Vancouver who had been there for nearly 40 years but who still sounded like they'd just popped over from Liverpool and Essex. The poor sods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a friend that moved to Dominican Republic. She visited after two years and had developed a Spanish accent. Which was weird because she couldn't say more than "hola" IN Spanish.

My accent shifts within hours when I'm talking to people. It is beyond my control.

I have that affliction too. And I'm always embarrassed when I realize I'm doing it - afraid that someone will think I'm mocking them.

Yeah people often think I'm mocking them but it just happens.

I think it's because we're PEOPLE PEOPLE, Lindy.

YES! That is so true. After all, there are so many other reasons to mock people - why would anyone pick on an accent?

Mine does that when I go south. After living in VA and FL for a few years I was back into talking lazy like they do. Do you think I still sound southern?

I never picked up the accent from ND though.

And besides, stop sticking up for Madonna. She's a cunt.

Exactly. Like liking poptarts for example.

I'm not defending Madonna. Though I would. Insofar as back in the 80s she was cool. She's not currently on my radar, so to speak, so I don't care.

And yes you do sound pleasantly southern. Not entirely southern, just a bit of that going on.

I've got the accent sponge thing a bit too. I've tried very hard to resist picking up too much southern though. I'm not going to start saying grarse or barth or anything, ew.

 

It's most embarrassing talking to foreigners and adopting their slightly broken English. What a pisstake!

 

I think this might be the most famous sufferer - former England football manager goes to work in the Netherlands and adopts comedy Dutch accent for interviews.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8

So the whole of the UK needs to move the the home counties (except Romford), and we can expect an improvement in the general enunciation of the nation! Nice!

Actually, you're just easy hos (metaphorically speaking!).

You're lucky that was a metaphor otherwise I'd be teaching you a lesson in manners, young man :Y

What is a meta for anyway? I hate those metas. They think they're above everything else.

It's just like a less extensive plateau.

Your confusing them with the ubers.