Accent change and personality: Astrological profiles

[FruityLlama]

Hello everyone! 

For one of my modules at uni we are looking at if and why people change their accents over time- its kind of a sociolinguistic thing. One of the factors we were looking at today was personality because some scholars have identified a type of person called "a linguistic chameleon"- someone who easily changes their accent to the point where they can fit in with another speaker variety. Where I come from there are loads of distinct accents, but in terms of personality, of course it got me thinking about astrology  

So, my question is, do you know, or are you yourself someone who can easily adopt different accents? Do you frequently change? What are your placements, if you dont mind me asking? 

We were talking in groups and I noted down some basic astrological profiles of my classmates and what they said:

Pisces sun, aries moon, unknown ASC: changes accent in different situations- amplifies regional accent at work. 
Virgo sun, taurus moon, Leo ASC: rarely changes accent
Sag sun, cap moon: Undecided. 
Cap sun, cap moon, sag ASC: Rarely changes
Virgo sun, aries moon/possibly pisces: noticeably changed in a particular situation but apart from that, hasn't noticed themselves changing. This particular scenario involved a change in pitch actually- deepening voice to sound more manly--> aries moon right there? Don't realllllly see this person as a pisces moon, but I suppose I can't say much more than that. 
Pisces sun, cancer moon, sag ASC: this person wasn't in the discussion, but they are by far the best example of a linguistic chameleon. Went through phases of several accents when I knew them. 
Cancer sun, Aqua moon, unknown ASC (strongly suspect Taurus ASC though): doesn't change too much. Will amplify regional accent in certain context (work), but in all cases retains identifiable regional accent. 
Taurus sun, virgo moon, cancer ASC: Doesn't generally change but can in certain contexts

Myself: Taurus sun, taurus moon, cancer ASC. I can change easily, but a) I don't deliberately anymore and b) I'm not hugely aware of the lasting effects. I think I glottal more now that Ive moved to a place that has a very glottal-ey accent, but I'm definitely still identified as being from where I'm from originally. 

I noticed Elizabeth Taylor changed her accent a lot throughout her career. This is in part expected from 30s to 70s stars with a particular linguistic feature (r pronunciation became less desirable/seemed less posh), but I noticed that she went from a transatlantic accent to a more modern american accent. Forgive me with not identifying different american accents well, but I hope you understand. 
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Anyway, my last point was that I noticed Pisces especially seem to be more impressionable to this. I know they are stereotypically, as a personality too, but obviously this isn't a massive data base aha. Also, I think water moons help with the whole impressionability/empathetic whatsits, but cancer may also, by itself be a little reluctant to change completely. Cancer I think is good at impersonating, but not good at retaining or permanently taking on a different accents or dialects for that matter. All earth signs pretty stubborn as per  

So yeah, what do you guys think? I knew I could link astrology to linguistics somehow and I've finally found it!!

[FruityLlama]

Hang on, I hope it's ethical to put those people's placements down? I haven't named them so...

[Deleted]

Leo Sun, Gemini moon and Virgo Ascendant here.

I think I actually have the very opposite situation where I have a hard time getting rid of an accent. I was born on one side of the world and then moved to the other side when i was 2.5, grew up in the country and one of the first things 99% of people ask me when they meet me is "So where are you originally from?" just because I still have an accent. I have never been able to completely adopt the accent of the country I grew up in. 2 months ago I just moved to another country. I haven't taken on their accent and I don't see myself doing that any time soon either. I do believe there are some people who are chameleons when it comes to accents and end up changing it without even noticing, but I wonder how many people are actual natural chameleons and how many are just try-hards who try to do it just to show off and look cool because they can apparently integrate so quickly?

[Ava]

I don't see how it's unethical?

My sister is a linguistic chameleon. She has a Cancer sun, moon, and Mercury all conjunct. I don't know her rising sign (so I don't know the orb of her moon conjunction.)

I'm not a linguistic chameleon at all. I'm terrible with learning foreign languages, too. I'm a Cap sun, Pisces moon, Leo ASC.

[Ava]

@bonsai

LOL at "try hards." I was thinking of the conversation we had earlier about this.

[Deleted]

Hehehe. Heya Faith!

Unfortunately there are some who put on an act. My mum knew this woman who came from Russia to Australia and, when she talked to her family, apparently she injected so much Australian in her Russian that it was obvious she was going overboard, and I guess she realised that too because she never did it again.

[FruityLlama]

Bonsai: Thanks so much for your response! So you are someone who cannot change their accent at all as far as you're aware? That's interesting as I suppose you'd assume Gemini and Virgo/ mutable stuff would take to new accents easily. But your sun is fixed...I wonder if I should look at mercury placements...I know its very basic astrology comparisons here but y'know

Lots of people will maybe consciously change their accent for loads of reasons, foreign young people often conform to the peer group but in really subtle, interesting ways. Although obviously this Russian woman was over generalising the rules for the Australian accent. That can happen too. Foreign people may sometimes have battles of identity when it comes to linguistics. And by foreign I mean going from one language to another. Like, keeping the native vowel system, but adopting foreign consonants or vice versa. It makes sense I suppose when you think about people wanting to fit in though. But try hards would have a hard time keeping it up I reckon ahaha


Faith: Oh I just wondered because I know someone from the last forum talked about clients and stuff so I don't know. I don't think its unethical either but who knows.
Anyways, so again you have an earth sun, fixed rising... again I know its probably more involved but I thought I was seeing patterns in class today just going by basic placements. And your sister is interesting! I wonder if instead, just having lots of water helps with the chameleon qualities?

[FruityLlama]

Thanks to both of you for responding by the way! This would be so interesting to explore but probs wouldn't go down too well at uni hehe.

[Deleted]

Yeah, my Mercury's in Cancer. And just like you, I'm also a bit confused by fact that I don't change accents easily precisely because of my obvious mutual sign influence, and you'd think that'd make me more chameleon-like, but meh.

I agree when it comes to transitioning from one language to another, your accent can, and actually most likely will be influenced in some way as you grapple with the pronunciation of different letters and words in those languages. That's expected. I just mean those who reeeeeeaaaallly lather it on, but I hope there aren't too many people like that.

[FruityLlama]

I wonder if then its more of a mercury thing then, which determines the ability to. Sun/Moon/Rising might hint at whether someone would actually WANT to or not, and mercury would be whether they actually could. Because like you say, there are some people who would do it to show off and I guess showing off accents probably correlates to showing off mental agility...

Also, I got the impression that Cancer, being a water sign probably has some ability to access another accent. I know my Cancer sun friend is great at impressions, and the Cancer moon is great at it too, but I think to a greater extent and I still blame pisces sun ahaha. But Cancer is a sign that probably wouldn't feel the need, or would want to change that much away from their roots, right? Just going by the stereotypical descriptions. But your mercurial stuff has baffled me!

HMMM....

Let me see what those people's mercuries are doing...

EDIT: Oh mind you, Faith's sister has Cancer mercury....OMG this is going to drive me insane now ahahaha

[FruityLlama]

Virgo sun, aries moon: Libra Merc
Virgo sun, taurus moon: Libra Merc
Cap sun, cap moon: cap merc
Taurus sun, virgo moon: aries merc
Cancer sun, aqua moon: cancer merc.

All these who didn't change that much and accent was part of identity.

[FruityLlama]

Elizabeth Taylor had pisces merc
Total chameleon Pisces sun, cancer moon: Aqua merc
Pisces sun, aries moon: Aqua merc

Both aqua mercuries are at 9 degrees or so aswell

These are the ones that said they changed

[Deleted]

Maybe it's a cardinal Mercury thing as the ones you've listed whose accents didn't change much are all cardinal mercs. But then there are exceptions like Faith's sister!

[sven555]

One thing I have noticed is that people with the following placements possess some ability to adapt:

• Mercury in a Water or Air sign.
  
• Moon in a Water or Air sign.
  
• Mercury aspected by Moon, Venus and Jupiter or Uranus.
  
• Mutable signs find it alot easier to adapt. (Obvious considering that is what mutable means).
  
• Perhaps Neptune in aspect to Moon, Mercury?

As some others have said, Cardinal Mercury people generally struggle to adapt, but that might be because their brains are wired differently.

Taurus Mercury's also have the ability to adapt, but this ultimately depends on aspects from other placements.

House placements may have an influence too.

1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th

[FruityLlama]

Thanks Sven!

I understand that each sign might have their own motivations for *consciously* adapting an accent. But I think you're right about those placements and the ability to style shift so easily.

Definitely a combination of those things too. I wish I could do a proper study on this!!!! My lecturer actually just gave us essay questions in the end. Still contemplating whether I should present this idea but I can just imagine the thoughts that would go through their head aha

[Deleted]

I have Sun Moon and Mercury in Pisces and noticed it happens to me. All of a sudden I catch myself talking in an accent like the person I am with.
Its not something I want or even like doing it just sort of morphs into my talking.
I do try and control it but its hard to stop once its happening.

[anela]

I'm terrible with accents. I can't do an American accent to save my life, yet I started out with one as a toddler. I lost that when we'd lived in England for a while, and notice certain Americanisms slipping into my accent, but I'm still very English. To the point where I'm asked about it in public, or on the phone.

[FruityLlama]

Ooh exciting guys, thanks for replying! Sorry I didnt see this earlier though