As a bilingual or multilingual European; does your voice, accent, or intonation change when speaking different languages?
May 29, 2025
Do you notice any change in how loud you speak, accent, speed, etc when switching between different languages?
29 comments
Yes of course. I speak 3 languages and even my face expression changes while changing in between them.
Not really š . I picked up the second language in my twenties.
Our child who is bllingual from birth and lived in the two countries sounds “local” for both languages.
Yes it does, once one reaches a certain level of fluency, it should happen naturally.
Yes, for example I speak with a higher pitch in Italian compared to English and German.
I also gesticulate most when speaking Italian, a bit less with English, and almost not at all with German.
The volume doesnt change, but the tone, speed, yes, I hate my voice in my native language while in French or English, it sounds better š
I think it is inevitable as sounds are often produced a bit different between languages. So yes, I do notice a harshness, speed and tonal difference. And that is between fluent or near fluent. The worse I am at another language, the bigger the chance is that I probably try to pronounce it nicer as well. Accent wise I try to speak properly common, not suddenly go from posh English to hillbilly German for example.
Definitely. My native language is Hungarian. I have 3 additional personalities: British, American (U. S.) and French.
My voice, intonation, even my facial expressions change by switching languages.
Yes.
Portuguese is the lowest pitched one (followed by Catalan), and Spanish is the fastest.
I try to suppress my pitch accent when not speaking Swedish.
A lot! I’m French and the biggest difference is when I speak Portuguese (I’ve lived in Brazil). When they visited me there my parents noticed that it felt like another person was speaking. I’m much more lively, always smiling, even more outgoing somehow lol
Depends where you learnt it. My Greek was learnt at home so I speak with the same accent as my grandparents which is some little village near Limassol.
Yes, part of my personality even. And thatās not that strange, the parts of a language you know and have access to depends on many factors including social ones. A language is never just a language extended isolated into space, there is always a vast culture attached, which influences you more than you think when using that language. Language controls what you can express, and how, just as much as you control it.
Depends on how long and how often you speak that language.
Generally you can easily tell if the person is a foreigner and where they come from, German accent in English is super different from Finnish or French.
I know some Romanians who’ve moved to the UK a decade ago. At first they had a thick accent, but they settled down in the UK, most of their friends and neighbours are native Brits, so over the years the Romanian accent disappeared and got replaced by Cockney.
My UK boyfriend told me that my Dutch accent is most prominent when I *try* to speak English. If I don’t try hard and just speak whatever words naturally come to mind, my accent disappears
Yes! I used to do guided tours in a museum in both German, English and Norwegian and sometimes would switch languages if I for example had a German group, but was asked something in English or Norwegian by someone who wasn’t part of the group, and people commented surprisingly often that I had a completely different voice in the other language.Ā
If I concentrate very hard I can also speak German in my “Norwegian voice” and theĀ I have a Norwegian accent in German.
Yes. Since I’m Eastern European and whenever I speak English, I sound like those “Russian” mafia guys from the movies.
I’m not fully bilingual, but I can speak passable French and I purposefully change my accent. Do you really want to hear French with a Northern Irish accent? I think the French people already suffered enough at the hands of the Nazis.
Yes. The depth of my voice changes a lot too. I sound the deepest in Greek (native language) and the most high-pitched in French.
It sure does, I would sound like 1970 porno if I kept my Swedish cadence, intonation and some what voice in English.
I have very singsongy Swedish dialect, I actually tone it down when I am not speaking to people not from that area. I been told it sound like a song to Brits and sound very poetic.
My German isnt that good but yes very little Swedish intonation in it, they can still hear I am Swedish.
It changes to a point where I even say my own name “wrongly”, since pronouncing it isn’t a thing in reality.
I only speak two languages, but my whole freaking personality changes based on which one I speak š¤£
People tend to like me more in English, people find me confident, bubbly and intelligent. The pitch is higher.
In Dutch (mother tongue) people think Iām funny, but way too much of an over thinker. I sound more real, but Dutch people think Iām very weird when I switch to English. The pitch is lower.
In French people think Iām stupid. Because I donāt sound ācorrectā.
I don’t hear it myself but I have been told I have an accent when speaking dutch, my mother tongue is Spanish
Yes?
Surely that’s unavoidable once you speak more than a singular language.
It takes outright effort to speak English with Norwegian phonology lol
My entire personality changes based on language or environment. Iām professional and calm in German and English (language at work), funny and loud in Dutch (language with friends, we mainly meet in loud bars or concerts) and usually a less eloquent dumbass in Spanish (language with my wife, sheās a native Spanish speaker and has the upper hand).
Iāve also noticed that my face hurts a lot more if I speak for a long time in Spanish opposed to speaking a Germanic language. Not sure what that is about. But maybe as a native Afrikaans speaker, the Germanic languages are easier to me than Spanish.
Yes, my voice and intonation change a lot between Bulgarian, French and English. The accent as well but that’s different. Even my gestures change. Speaking a language is an almost complete cultural shift.
Oh yes! I speak in a much higher pitch, and with much more variation in the melody, when I speak in Swedish compared to English and Czech!
Yes. Dutch is my native language. When I speak German, I try to really sound German, otherwise it just sounds silly. Same with English. I know a few other languages as well, but I do not speak those well enough to sound like a native speaker.
yes! i speak polish, english, and a bit of russian. i’m rather loud and talkative in polish and english, but soft-spoken in russian. i talk a lot quicker in english.
i used to have a strong polish accent in english, but i learned to imitate certain american and british accents and now my natural accent in english is very dilluted and ambiguous, american-sounding, maybe similar to how new yourkers speak? but with a lot of influences from accents like those around Manchester.
my voice is slightly higher in tone when i speak english or russian, possibly because polish operates on very low tones in comparison.
29 comments
Yes of course. I speak 3 languages and even my face expression changes while changing in between them.
Not really š . I picked up the second language in my twenties.
Our child who is bllingual from birth and lived in the two countries sounds “local” for both languages.
Yes it does, once one reaches a certain level of fluency, it should happen naturally.
Yes, for example I speak with a higher pitch in Italian compared to English and German.
I also gesticulate most when speaking Italian, a bit less with English, and almost not at all with German.
The volume doesnt change, but the tone, speed, yes, I hate my voice in my native language while in French or English, it sounds better š
I think it is inevitable as sounds are often produced a bit different between languages. So yes, I do notice a harshness, speed and tonal difference. And that is between fluent or near fluent. The worse I am at another language, the bigger the chance is that I probably try to pronounce it nicer as well. Accent wise I try to speak properly common, not suddenly go from posh English to hillbilly German for example.
Definitely. My native language is Hungarian. I have 3 additional personalities: British, American (U. S.) and French.
My voice, intonation, even my facial expressions change by switching languages.
Yes.
Portuguese is the lowest pitched one (followed by Catalan), and Spanish is the fastest.
I try to suppress my pitch accent when not speaking Swedish.
A lot! I’m French and the biggest difference is when I speak Portuguese (I’ve lived in Brazil). When they visited me there my parents noticed that it felt like another person was speaking. I’m much more lively, always smiling, even more outgoing somehow lol
Depends where you learnt it. My Greek was learnt at home so I speak with the same accent as my grandparents which is some little village near Limassol.
Yes, part of my personality even. And thatās not that strange, the parts of a language you know and have access to depends on many factors including social ones. A language is never just a language extended isolated into space, there is always a vast culture attached, which influences you more than you think when using that language. Language controls what you can express, and how, just as much as you control it.
Depends on how long and how often you speak that language.
Generally you can easily tell if the person is a foreigner and where they come from, German accent in English is super different from Finnish or French.
I know some Romanians who’ve moved to the UK a decade ago. At first they had a thick accent, but they settled down in the UK, most of their friends and neighbours are native Brits, so over the years the Romanian accent disappeared and got replaced by Cockney.
My UK boyfriend told me that my Dutch accent is most prominent when I *try* to speak English. If I don’t try hard and just speak whatever words naturally come to mind, my accent disappears
Yes! I used to do guided tours in a museum in both German, English and Norwegian and sometimes would switch languages if I for example had a German group, but was asked something in English or Norwegian by someone who wasn’t part of the group, and people commented surprisingly often that I had a completely different voice in the other language.Ā
If I concentrate very hard I can also speak German in my “Norwegian voice” and theĀ I have a Norwegian accent in German.
Yes. Since I’m Eastern European and whenever I speak English, I sound like those “Russian” mafia guys from the movies.
I’m not fully bilingual, but I can speak passable French and I purposefully change my accent. Do you really want to hear French with a Northern Irish accent? I think the French people already suffered enough at the hands of the Nazis.
Yes. The depth of my voice changes a lot too. I sound the deepest in Greek (native language) and the most high-pitched in French.
It sure does, I would sound like 1970 porno if I kept my Swedish cadence, intonation and some what voice in English.
I have very singsongy Swedish dialect, I actually tone it down when I am not speaking to people not from that area. I been told it sound like a song to Brits and sound very poetic.
My German isnt that good but yes very little Swedish intonation in it, they can still hear I am Swedish.
It changes to a point where I even say my own name “wrongly”, since pronouncing it isn’t a thing in reality.
I only speak two languages, but my whole freaking personality changes based on which one I speak š¤£
People tend to like me more in English, people find me confident, bubbly and intelligent. The pitch is higher.
In Dutch (mother tongue) people think Iām funny, but way too much of an over thinker. I sound more real, but Dutch people think Iām very weird when I switch to English. The pitch is lower.
In French people think Iām stupid. Because I donāt sound ācorrectā.
I don’t hear it myself but I have been told I have an accent when speaking dutch, my mother tongue is Spanish
Yes?
Surely that’s unavoidable once you speak more than a singular language.
It takes outright effort to speak English with Norwegian phonology lol
My entire personality changes based on language or environment. Iām professional and calm in German and English (language at work), funny and loud in Dutch (language with friends, we mainly meet in loud bars or concerts) and usually a less eloquent dumbass in Spanish (language with my wife, sheās a native Spanish speaker and has the upper hand).
Iāve also noticed that my face hurts a lot more if I speak for a long time in Spanish opposed to speaking a Germanic language. Not sure what that is about. But maybe as a native Afrikaans speaker, the Germanic languages are easier to me than Spanish.
Yes, my voice and intonation change a lot between Bulgarian, French and English. The accent as well but that’s different. Even my gestures change. Speaking a language is an almost complete cultural shift.
Oh yes! I speak in a much higher pitch, and with much more variation in the melody, when I speak in Swedish compared to English and Czech!
Yes. Dutch is my native language. When I speak German, I try to really sound German, otherwise it just sounds silly. Same with English. I know a few other languages as well, but I do not speak those well enough to sound like a native speaker.
yes! i speak polish, english, and a bit of russian. i’m rather loud and talkative in polish and english, but soft-spoken in russian. i talk a lot quicker in english.
i used to have a strong polish accent in english, but i learned to imitate certain american and british accents and now my natural accent in english is very dilluted and ambiguous, american-sounding, maybe similar to how new yourkers speak? but with a lot of influences from accents like those around Manchester.
my voice is slightly higher in tone when i speak english or russian, possibly because polish operates on very low tones in comparison.