Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?

If we ever have kids, they will sound distinctly Welsh.  Now that will confuse my family! 

I'm sure my family will get some strange looks in the future.  My hubby is British with a Northern accent...I'm American with a Southern drawl - not a Southern accent though (which I'm sure will soften slightly but not change too much)...my daughter has a Southern accent (which will probably morph into some kind of Southern American/Northern English accent thingy)...and if me and hubby have anymore children, they will most likely have a full-fledged British accent.  No one's accents will match...people will probably think we're international kidnap victims.

Neither of my parents are American. Within 2 years I was speaking with a flawless American accent by default. The same happened to my siblings. 

This is funny to me because I grew up with a girl who had British parents (they moved to America before she was born) and she had a strong British accent.  She had never even been outside of America. 

It's funny how the same type of situation results in so many different outcomes.  I have to agree that it is individual...some people will probably gain a bit of an accent...and some won't change at all.  I noticed when I was on vacay in England that I started to us British words more often (aye, ta, tara, etc) and when I got back to the US, I was still saying some of those things out of habit.  My friends said I sounded British.  But I have to agree with neysa...I didn't change my accent; I was just saying British words in my normal American accent. 

I noticed when I was on vacay in England that I started to us British words more often (aye, ta, tara, etc) and when I got back to the US, I was still saying some of those things out of habit.  My friends said I sounded British.  But I have to agree with neysa...I didn't change my accent; I was just saying British words in my normal American accent. 

Very true, I've noticed it also every time I'm over there I will use certain British words.  And I always say lounge instead of living room, rubbish instead of garbage, etc. when I'm talking to my husband.  The real good times are when he throws out a whole new word or slang term that I haven't heard yet.  I'm constantly asking for English to English translations.  Hahaha.

I don't agree that one's accent is set once you hit adulthood.

I lost my southern drawl when I moved to Chicago for 2 years. I lost my American accent when I moved back here and then lost my Scottish accent when I went out to Asia. It is currently a mid Atlantic version and creeping back to a Scottish version. A lot will do how much you still converse with people of your same accent (in Asia I was around almost all Americans, here I don't ever see any Americans). It doesn't apply to everyone. My father spoke with a heavy Leith accent but lost it about age 17/18 when he moved to the US. My grandfather and grandmother, on the other hand lived in the US for over 50 years and both spoke like the came off the streets of Leith and Glasgow yesterday. Go figure.

I knew Americans living in Aberdeen that found it difficult to understand their children as they were in the local school system and spoke with a strong Aberdeen 'fit like' accent.

The problem with Americans speaking British words (and vice versa) is they tend to pronounce it correctly but with the accent applied to the wrong sylable. That make sense?

Want to know what your real acent is? Have a shouting match with someone and it seems the original accent takes over.

I'm like springhaze: after three years, my accent is not British but difficult to pin down exactly as American. I definitely sound different than I did before I came here: I have tapes, and it's very obvious when you listen to them.

I'm the same. I don't hear the change but my family say I sound British however my UK friends say I sound American but a bit softer. People who don't know me at all mistake me for all sorts of nationalities.

Worse than that, I've apparently picked up a slight Yorkshire twang. A friend caught onto that recently.

Want to know what your real acent is? Have a shouting match with someone and it seems the original accent takes over.

How true that is.

Want to know what your real acent is? Have a shouting match with someone and it seems the original accent takes over.

LOL!!!!!

I don't agree that one's accent is set once you hit adulthood.

The problem with Americans speaking British words (and vice versa) is they tend to pronounce it correctly but with the accent applied to the wrong sylable. That make sense?

I very much agree with alot of what you are saying...my hubby said my accent got distinctively more American when we went back in August...again I noticed no change. It really is who you are around and a subconscious need to fit in.

The accent on different sylables is exactly why I think people think I sound British...adopting that alone changes the way you speak enough.

 

The accent on different sylables is exactly why I think people think I sound British...adopting that alone changes the way you speak enough.

This is true...even if you steal speak with an American accent, if you pronounce words like 'garage' or 'tomato' in the British way, people will think you sound British, despite the fact that your American accent can stay exactly the same.  Just walking around say 'cheers mate', 'ta love', 'put the rubbish in the bin', etc can make you sound British.

i spent the first 32 years of my life near the south side of chicago. ain't nothing ever gonna change this accent, man. 

I really don't think it is possible for one's accent to entirely change over time as an adult (maybe as late as early 20s).  This month marks my husband's 10th year in America, and he sounds as Scottish as the day he came.  Sometimes he drops the the "can nae" "will nae"  and uses "cannot" and "will not."   Still to this day I have not heard him use any of our regional words or adapt to our way of speaking here.  He still drops some letters out of words like they tend to do in Central Scotland and his r's are beautifully rolled. With that, I think your dialect stays with you for life. It may also depend how long you have lived in your particular region.  My husband came here at nearly 37 years of age and had never lived out more than 10 miles from where he was born, so I suspect his accent is highly ingrained in his brain, even if he stays here for another 10 years!  I hope it never changes.

One a side note...Linguists say as a child one learns to speak with the dialect of one's peers.  However, my oldest son has always said his his short a's further back in throat, you know softer sounding like his daddy (just imagine me from Oklahoma saying "cat" --"caayat" vs. a British person saying "caaht").  He also picked up on the "can nae" and "will nae." Plus he has always said "ket'le"  and turt'le" with a strong emphasis on the first syllable like a Scot...It's super-cute.  It wasn't until we moved to a rural area that he started sounding more like an Okie.  Now it turns off and on from school to home.  My middle son has some hearing loss so I can't see him picking up anything uniquely Scottish until we get there.  His speech pathologist has a fun time with him, though, and she does pick up on some differences in his speech due to having two very distinct accents at home.  He's never been to daycare and when he speaks intelligibly, you can definitely hear the Scots and Okie influence combined.  It's really funny sometimes--not that I laugh at my children or anything

I don't see myself being able to soften my accent any when we move across.  I know I will always have this heavy Texas-Oklahoma drawl and there's probably nothing I can do about it.  When we visited I smiled and nodded my head a lot; I couldn't stand the sound of my own voice- doh!  After two weeks, I found myself consciously trying not to speak in my own dialect, but I didn't hardly come close to sounding like any of my relatives-in-law from the central region of Scotland (but a little liquor did help my Scottish a wee bit) LOL!

This is true...even if you steal speak with an American accent, if you pronounce words like 'garage' or 'tomato' in the British way, people will think you sound British, despite the fact that your American accent can stay exactly the same.  Just walking around say 'cheers mate', 'ta love', 'put the rubbish in the bin', etc can make you sound British.

Ha ha!  Not the way I say them!  Sonds just like a Philly girl using British terminology.  Though, I do say rubbish to make myself understood at work, but not all the rest.

I am of the belief that once someone reaches adulthood their accent is pretty much what they will have all their life.  I know we all say certain words the way a Brit does.  But we say it wirh an American accent.  I don't think you ever loose that.  A child on the other hand, if spending his formative years in a different country could well pick up that accent. 

I find it difficult in that, since I have only been here for a year, I am still getting used to saying words the brit way, garage, aluminum, plant and such.  I incorporate these words into my everyday language but then when I call family back in the States, I stutter over which way I should say them.  I even get corrected if I say them the Brit way. People look at me funny if I say things like an American and family think it's strange if I say things the British way.   

I think this is true for me. I sometimes struggle to say "diaper" instead of "nappy" now when talking to my mom on the phone, and things like that. I have gotten pretty used to saying a lot of things in British (or even Geordie!) terms. My accent is still very strong, though sort of non-regional, so I do still sound very American, even when I do say things the British way. I've only been here just over a year, though. I would say a few Americans I have met that have been here a little longer sound a bit more British because of the way they phrase sentences and the inflections in their voices, even though you can still hear their American accent, as well.

I think some of it depends on how you react to your environment.  Even when I was very young (8 or 9?), I used to pick up and drop accents quite quickly, depending on what the situation was (or where we were living at the time).  As I got older and learned a few languages, the habit of *imitating* the accents around me got reinforced, and I now regularly confuse people who have to listen to me switching from speaking with a *slight* Spanish accent w/ my Spanish speaking friends, to a slight French accent with my French speaking friends, even if we're all speaking English together!
My DH and I have noticed that my American accent is most stable w/ him (out of all of the people w/ accents that I speak with), and we think it might be because I'm at most my relaxed and don't feel like I have to work to be understood.

That said, I asked for the "restroom" yesterday without thinking, and the woman behind the desk thought I was tired and needed somewhere to take a nap!

Linguists say as a child one learns to speak with the dialect of one's peers.

Very very variable. I went to school with tons of immigrants. Some arrived younger than I did, some older. Some only came to the US right before high school, some have been educated entirely in the US. By graduation, you could never tell for sure who was who by how they spoke.

I agree with that - I think it's as variable as the individual.

My mom arrived in the US at the age of 19 from the UK, and I don't remember her ever having had an English accent ( I was born before her 20th birthday) - but I think a linguist might be able to tell now, 50 years later, that she was not born in the US...she can't do an English accent to save her life though!

I've lived in the UK for over 4 years, but I'm a terrible mimic and well into adulthood (ahem!) ...I don't think my accent will ever change.  With that said, I do pronounce many words differently these days, and when I hear my voice on my phone message, I'm always surprised because it sounds like a slightly different accent than the one I used to have...my DH also tells me I sound 'more American' after getting together with my American friends.  But, no one in my American family has ever said I sound like my accent is changing.

As someone else mentioned, there was a time - probably a year into my new life - where I would have a problem trying to figure out which word to use when I was taking to any of my family members by phone - I really had to think about the American word.  These days, I don't even think about it, whatever comes out, comes out, and no one has complained so far!

a Mid-Western "non-accent"

It's a common misconception that Midwesterners don't have accents; we do.  I grew up in Wisconsin, but have lost my accent in the nearly ten years since I left.  However, when I go back there it returns in force.  The first time I came to the UK I had to make a conscious effort not to imitate the accent, and a few months later when I was living in West Virginia I had to make a conscious effort not to imitate THAT accent.  Like Jennie I think I pick up accents fairly easily.  But I don't sound British, despite having adopted several words like rubbish, loo, keen, etc. 

Personally, I think that when expats' American relatives think that they "sound British" it has a lot to do with their own expectations.  My family really hopes that I will pick up the accent, so when I call them they really, really try hard to hear it in my voice.  I think I'm likely to pick it up eventually, but it'll take years.