Do you alter your speech?

[Empired]

Yeah, I tone down my accent for school and on Skype and things because I hate how posh I sound. I used to get being picked on for being quite smart at school (lol i know) so I used to pretend to sound dumb too.

[Calum0812]

If I'm saying anything to a large group of people then I tend to pronounce words a lot more and tone down on the accent, apart from that not really!

[Kimmy]

I alter my speech when I'm talking to people at college. When I moved from Scotland there was few people who understood my accent and so I sort of tried to put the same edge on it as they do?
Idk if that makes sense, but I've sort of developed a self-conscious method of speaking.

[welshcake]

I actually started to alter my voice when I started university because I have a strong Welsh Valley's accent. It was part embarrassment and part wanting people to actually understand me.

[buttons]

a lot of the time because same as that ^ embarrassment of the words i say/way i pronounce it but mostly so people can understand me.

[benzoberzerk]

Everyone does this, whether it's conscious or not. The social context is key to how we use languages, as our way of communication depends on what situation we're in (for example, see the ethnography of communication analysis and Dell Hymes with his SPEAKING model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnogr..._communication).

This is how our linguistic repertoires are created. By interacting with people from different social cultures and by experiencing different kinds of social interactions with different kinds of people, our default settings will include a little bit of everything. Therefore we're able to talk and write academically at school yet have really easygoing conversations with our friends. We're able to get drunk and hook up with someone one evening yet do fine at court or church a few hours later.

Basically, the definition of "social competence" (which is something you're expected to have) is being able to adjust to the situation you're in. If you can't do this you're pretty screwed.

[iBlueBox]

All the time in work, especially when selling, the fact its in the trafford centre means we get people from everywhere in the country

[Showder]

I have this "radio voice" and I tend to have this slight English accent when speaking to my old classmate because I came from a British school before. I also have my current "school voice" which comprises of a slightly odd American/Filipino slang cos' I'd normally get picked on for my real voice and the such.

[Sho]

I have my normal voice and then one that I use when I'm at work and stuff
didn't even notice that I spoke differently until someone pointed it out

[Matt]

I think most people do tbh. I know that I definitely do. At work I make sure I'm clearer when I talk and have to make sure I'm loud enough for them to hear me. With friends I'm too loud, swear way too much and probably talk really fast (but they can still understand me). With family I'm a lot more quieter and composed and make sure I behave myself (also not allowed to swear that much around mum+dad). I change a lot around people I don't know or if I'm talking to a group of people where I don't know everyone. I become quieter in those situations!