What makes us subconsciously mimic the accents of others in conversation

[marmar]

What makes us subconsciously mimic the accents of others in conversation
"Linguistic convergence” is something you’ve likely done at some point

By LACEY WADE
PUBLISHED MAY 30, 2022 9:00AM


This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Have you ever caught yourself talking a little bit differently after listening to someone with a distinctive way of speaking?

Perhaps you'll pepper in a couple of y'all's after spending the weekend with your Texan mother-in-law. Or you might drop a few R's after binge-watching a British period drama on Netflix.

Linguists call this phenomenon "linguistic convergence," and it's something you've likely done at some point, even if the shifts were so subtle you didn't notice.

People tend to converge toward the language they observe around them, whether it's copying word choices, mirroring sentence structures or mimicking pronunciations.

....(snip)....

What, exactly, is convergence?

But before getting into the specifics, let's talk about what convergence is and how it's related to other speech adjustments like code-switching, which refers to alternating between language varieties, or style-shifting, which happens when a person uses different linguistic features in different situations.

Convergence refers to the shifts people make to their speech to approximate that of those around them. This is an intentionally broad definition meant to encompass all sorts of adjustments, whether intentional or inadvertent, prominent or subtle, or toward entire dialects or particular linguistic features. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/30/what-makes-us-subconsciously-mimic-the-accents-of-others-in-conversation_partner/

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. I totally do that around British people ... it's like so automatic for me

Though I'm a Yank, I've watched SO MUCH British comedy and drama, and I lived in a BCC for 3 years as a kid ... granted it was Hong Kong but we were around Brits really quite often. When I came back to the States people used to ask if I was British for years.

I can also do a mean Cantonese accent, but I don't use it much.

British people are REALLY used to Americans trying to copy their accents and it's always collegial if I start using it when talking to a Brit ... you know, UNlike if I mimic Cantonese to a Chinese person.

[Tree-Hugger]

4. Same

I watch a lot of British content. I was also raised on Monty Python and Are You Being Served. Then I became a Dr. Who fan as a young teen. I remember mimicing British accents as a kid after watching the shows.

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. I have a southern accent.

Within minutes of meeting someone, they will be talking like me. All my life.

It’s very odd.

[Skittles]

11. weird

I've never done that, and I have been in the south for decades

[Tree-Hugger]

3. I do it.

I do it primarily with British and Southern accents. Outside of accents, I do it with speaking styles, too.

My own natural accent is muddy. I have a primarily Philadelphian accent, but with a bit of Staten Island flavoring. I have never noticed anyone mimicking my accent....unless they do it in jest to point out my pronunciation (I.e. wooder, cawfee, chawklit). What's funny is that a lot of Philly people will say I sound more New York. Suburban people say I sound super Philly. Staten Island people say I sound....Southern.

Humans are neat creatures and our behavior with linguistics and other aspects of speech is fascinating.

[luvs2sing]

5. I used to spend a lot of time with friends..

in rural southeastern Kentucky. According to my friends and coworkers, it usually took me about three weeks to shed the accent after an extended visit.

[gopiscrap]

6. when I was 5 years old I knew

German, French and Urdu in addition to going to Mass every Sunday when it was still in Latin and and moving to El Paso, with it's large population of Spanish speakers. i was a linguistic mess but do remember trying to approximate what I heard. I wasn't secure in English til I was about 14 by then I was living in Tacoma. When I was 19 I was a national singing tour but primarily based in Minnesota and Illinois. I found myself after that year talking like they did in those states. Even words switches like soda and pop etc.

[ChazInAz]

7. Mea culpa!

It took a while to ditch my native Hungarian accent in exchange for my mother's Welsh one! (I have no idea how my parents met! They never talked about it.) Losing that took even longer. I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood consisting entirely of assorted Slavs and generic Bohunks, and mirrored everyone's accents. This did not help in sounding "American", and I always sounded vaguely foreign until getting into theatre. Lots of vocal training gave me the "Mid-Atlantic" accent that we know from 1940's cinema...vaguely British. Get me tired or angry, though, and I still sound like Bela Lugosi.
Even now, I bounce accents back at people. My late wife's Irish grandmother went to her grave convinced that I was a nice County Cork lad with a foreign name.

[Igel]

8. A girlfriend from Tennessee moved to California.

Mostly lost her accent. Until she talked to somebody from home or visited home. Then she had it. Bidialectal.

I lost most of my accent (but not my grammar) when I moved from Maryland to Oregon. Now I find myself assimilating a bit to some of the phonology north of Houston--pretty generic, but with a few vowel mergers in specific contexts that drive me a bit bonkers.

The lexical part is probably just mostly priming. The rest is part of discourse pragmatics, showing good will and that you're on the same side so that the "game" of communication can be successful.

It might be interesting to see what happens if you get a group together and say that the guy with the Southern accent is an active KKK member and have the subject group be a group of Sanders progressives speaking a relatively standard variety of US English. There'd be open hostility so there'd be less conscious motivation to show good will and that you're on the same side. (Conversely, have the speakers have a NE accent and talk about having to revamp the Constitution and install a strongly socialist system with strongly RW speakers of fairly standard English as the subjects.)

Conversely, use ethnically marked varieties of English with appropriate sympathetic or hostile subject groups.

[mopinko]

9. i picked up a bit of an irish lilt from singing along w drinking songs.

it popped talking to a friend from mayo. but she lost her accent long ago.
suspect she now knows that i'm kinda nuts. if she didnt already.

[Bayard]

10. I've always kept the Kentucky accent

Maybe not as much when I lived other places for awhile, but still there. Especially after I talked to my brother on the phone. When I lived in Minnesota for several years, the Scandinavian heritage's would grab me and say--Bayard, talk for us!

[Skittles]

12. I mimicked me British mum growing up

I couldn't help myself

[Higherarky]

13. Once upon a time ...

I attended a multinational wedding. Groom spoke German as first language. Bride spoke French as first language. 6-year-old daughter spoke German, French, & English fluently. 4-y-o son spoke all 3 languages ... he would often use them all in one sentence. Precocious & fascinating.