Accent Shift

The oddest occurrence has happened to me and I felt the need to share and discover if this has happened to anyone else.

My original accent is a light Southern, but here lately I have randomly started talking in a British accent. For the life of me I can't understand why. It is terribly frustrating as I liked my original accent.

Has this happened to anyone else. Is there even a reasonable explanation for it?

Nadia

Yes, it's happened when two of us get accidentally blended, which for us means sort of glued together for a period of time. Have you done an inventory to see which alters are there and which have accents?

My getting stuck halfway between my and Jack's accent one night was scary because the accent was way too outrageous and I had to work the next day. Fortunately, we separated after an hour or two and things went back to normal. Other alters haven't much cared getting stuck/blended with him because the job and reputation weren't involved. In fact, they had fun with it.

Is it possible than someone else is in front even though you still feel like you're in control? Jonathan has taken over many times where I feel like I'm out front but I'm not. Even he doesn't realize it's him, not me. Fortunately he has no accent, though his speaking is more formal than mine. So if he were to end up talking a lot, we might eventually notice. It's a sort of mode he goes into -- like his own different ego state -- that has special characteristics, including making very generic choices and not thinking of himself. If it was ever a conscious mode for him, it isn't now.

I also have a thing where I slip or switch into a British accent when I'm reading aloud because I'm finding it hard to concentrate reading silently. I might start with my own American accent but it will switch to English and I then distinctly feel that I'm being read to, not reading, though I feel like I'm in front! I think it's somehow connected to Charles, though he's only five. Communicating with him has been too triggering for him and our system, so I can't ask questions the way I would of someone else. When I started asking myself (on this board) why the accent change happens for reading and why I generally refer to it as "switching" to that accent, I became aware of his presence shortly afterwards. So he and the reading accent seem linked though I can't imagine quite how. My grandparents were English so it's somehow connected. But Charles' accent and the reading accent isn't theirs as far as I know. There are a lot of things in my system I still haven't figured out.

Hopefully you'll figure it out soon. Does the British accent feel unforced, rather natural? If so, it might indicate an alter, just a guess.

Any kind of speaking outside of the normal is difficult socially, in my opinion. We can't control when it happens, and it switches when we switch (which is kind of often with these alters). So I think the change must be incredibly noticeable.

A little of ours talks really funny. Makes up her own words and own grammar too for that matter. It's a bit unwieldy when we are with ANYone else but most especially in public. Instead of saying, I don't know, for example, she says 'zonno. Has this word spishy (cross between suspicious and fishy) and gives everyone crazy nicknames. Also does this accent that I can't explain and no one else can imitate.

I also talk in a Japanese accent sometimes, which is generally related to when I am thinking Japanese. English (although our native language) comes incredibly difficult at such times. We are assuming that that is due to an alter who only speaks Japanese, but we aren't sure yet. Linguistically and neurologically, we think there might be another explanation.

And randomly today, I started speaking in a British accent. It was awkward, as it is perceptible. This sort of thing reliably happens on the same occasions (although I couldn't tell you what the occasion is), so it is also probably due to an alter.

It is rather normal in our system to ''switch'' accents. For example, I speak with a French accent, while May and Tasi speak with a British one and it can be pretty easy at times to know who is out. I have had people who didn't/ don't know about DID notice that something is not right and question me about it. And of course there are the kids that speak in a childish voice ( even though it's not really an accent, it is different from what it ' should ' be ). And at times, when we are out at the same time somehow, we tend to ' borrow ' each other's accent

Sometimes when Marie is near but not "out", we'll start talking with her country accent. Or when Valera's near but not "out", whoever's out will start talking with her Russian accent. It usually doesn't last, though, at least not for longer than a day. (We've found that rest/sleep tends to be a kind of "reset" for us).

~A mixture of us(?)

Definitely

You can see a post I made on the same thing here:
dissociative-identity/topic101876.html

If I remember correctly, you have someone in your system that speaks British, right? Maybe she is closer to you when this is happening? Maybe ask her if she knows why she might be influencing you?

This definitely happens to me! A lot of the people say I sound British (though I honestly don't think I do), but I will randomly start speaking in a slightly Russian accent, which is completely inexplicable because I don't know of any one of us who has a Russian accent! I usually just pretend it's randomness, but it confuses me.

Thank you all for your replies, darlings. I had not taken into consideration that is could be our new British alter, Ascha, influencing my accent. I would muse more about this but I cannot stay out long. I will speak with her and determine is she is close when I'm out.

Nadia

You're very welcome

If you do discover the cause, if you're willing, it might be helpful to future readers of this thread to let us know what turned up.

Another point for some in this situation is that alters whose natural accent is other than the host's or the "normal" accent may be able to fake that normal accent. Over here, Jack is able to pretend not to have an Appalachian accent and grammar. Being co-conscious with him, I can feel the attempt is forced and slow and not quite on point, but it's good enough not to draw attention. It wouldn't work for more than a few phrases with friends or work colleagues but that's mostly because he's 11 and his body language, attitude, etc. don't match.