Heh, reminds me of a family member that has his “normal” accent, and then a “stronger” accent for when he is with friends. I’m not sure he realises he is doing it xD.
I’m in Ottawa, the city, now but I was raised in the Ottawa Valley where there’s a distinct accent and I actually get your family member. 99% of the time I speak “normally” but if you get a few people from the valley together, the accent just sort of comes out. I don’t think it’s an intentional thing rather just a sort of natural human mimicking thing we do
fun fact! when you put a bunch of people from different nationalities in a room together, and lock them in for prolonged periods of time - their accents will eventually blend into one. linguists have noticed exactly that happening to scientists at polar research stations, where you get stationed usually for 6 months at a time. linguistic mimicry is a rather strong thing
