I recently traveled back to Singapore which is my mother’s hometown. There are a lot of unique things about it’s people and culture but one of its most iconic characteristics is their Singlish. I travel back to Singapore almost every year as I’m lucky enough to have a mother that makes a great effort to let me reconnect with my roots. What never ceases to amaze me is that every year I go back I almost instantaneously change my American accent to Singlish when I arrive at Singapore. It’s almost like a button was pressed. Why is this?

Everyone has an accent. An accent is a certain way things are pronounced and everyone pronounces things slightly differently. Language is a fluid art. Your accent is constantly changing as multiple factors such as the people you interact with and your environment effect it. The peculiar phenomenon of talking a little bit differently after listening to someone with a distinctive way of speaking is referred to by linguists as “linguistic convergence”. People tend to converge toward the language they observe around them, whether it’s copying word choices, mirroring sentence structures or mimicking pronunciations. It is very similar to the speech adjustment of “code-switching”, the act of switching from your accent to a different accent. Code-switching can also be an example of convergence, as long as the shift is toward an interlocutor, which is the person you’re talking to. Code-switching can occur for other reasons, too, like how you feel, what you’re talking about and how you want to be perceived. In that case, code-switching is not linguistic convergence. 

In this article, I will be referring to linguistic convergence and code-switching interchangeably and treating both as the same concept. People are automatically drawn to code-switching to feel more empathetic to the people they’re interacting with. Code switching is about finding effective ways to communicate with another person. If someone speaks to another person in a language the other person understands or in a style that puts that person at ease, the likelihood of making a connection with that person increases. People inherently want to belong and fit in. So if the majority of people in the area are speaking Singlish, I would feel more inclined to code switch and speak Singlish instead of using my American accent. Code switching is often unintentional and occurs naturally, again, due to a person’s inherent crave to fit in and be part of the group. This idea of code switching almost at a subconscious level is called “unintentional mirroring” or the Chameleon Effect. 

Certainly, the majority of accents we meet are accents we cannot replicate. The reason I’m able to code-switch so well from American English to Singlish is just frankly due to the amount of time I’ve spent in Singapore interacting with Singaporeans. When one has this opportunity for contact with speakers of different linguistic backgrounds, it can often affect the way one uses language, whether they are actively aware of it or not. I have spent enough time to pick up Singapore’s specific accent, allowing me to unintentionally mirror their accent during my stay there. Regardless, the Chameleon Effect is embedded in human nature. People inherently want to bond with others and feel safe when interacting. Spending an extended amount of time in a specific environment, like myself, only dramatizes the Chameleon Effect, but it doesn’t change the concept.

Modoono, Matthew, et al. “Where Do Accents Come From? Linguist Explains.” Northeastern Global News, 30 November 2023, https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/11/30/where-do-accents-come-from/. Accessed 10 July 2024.

Rakshit, Devrupa. “Is This Normal? “I Adopt the Accents of People I Spend Time With.”” The Swaddle, 11 August 2022, https://www.theswaddle.com/is-this-normal-i-adopt-the-accents-of-people-i-spend-time-with. Accessed 9 July 2024.

Wade, Lacey. “What makes us subconsciously mimic the accents of others in conversation.” The Conversation, 20 May 2022, https://theconversation.com/what-makes-us-subconsciously-mimic-the-accents-of-others-in-conversation-181771. Accessed 10 July 2024.