Which accent is my baby likely to have?

[QueenNeurosis]

Hope I don't go down in MN history for starting the most inane thread on record...

DP and I are both English with non-specific accents. Baby is about to be born in Wales. When my baby starts to speak, is s/he likely to have our accent or a Welsh one? Does anyone have any experience of this?

Sorry... isn't late pregnancy dull?

[hambo]

welsh

[Megglevache]

Welsh... Unless you send him/her away Luckily your child will not have a non specific accent

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

My eldest 2 sound like DH and my youngest talks like me

[QueenNeurosis]

Lol. You know what I mean...

[Biglips]

welsh...as your baby will also pick up the accent around him/her too.

[purepurple]

Your baby is likely to have your accent until they go to school, where they will start speaking like locals.
I am from East Anglia, DH is from the north east.
DS was born in Yorkshire and started school in the north east. He has a mild northeast accent.
DD was born in the north east and started school in the north west. She has a mild north west accent that kicked in when she started school.
They all sound northern, I still sound southern.

[TaxiLady]

my three were all born in Scotland and have the accent, mainly picked up from when they started nursery.

dh can be quite west country, and i apparently sound posh

[lynniep]

yeah I agree, probably welsh, perhaps with a touch of the non-specific?

DS (2.5) speaks kind of non-specifically at the mo, with some of his words leaning towards a northern pronunciation like me and DH (like bath not barth etc) but no doubt he will shift towards a more southern (cambridgeshire) accent as the years go by...

[YanknCock]

agree late pregnancy is dull, I've been wondering the same thing though....

Me=American (Great Lakes regional accent)
DH=English (varies between East End lout and generic Home Counties/Public School wannabe)

And we now live in Warrington, where you hear a mixture of Scouse, Mancunian, and Lancastrian accents.

This poor kid.

[QueenNeurosis]

Ho hum. Love the Welsh accent to bits but will have to grit my teeth a bit during the By Here's and the Where to's.

[Picante]

They will probably have a Welsh accent out of the home, at school etc, and have a more English accent when talking to you at home. They'll switch without noticing.

[lazylion]

Welsh, that will be nice.
I was having this discussion with a friend this week - is it worth moving to prevent your child from picking up a horrible accent?
Too late for mine as my dh speaks like a midlands bumpkin (no 't's no 'h's)& we live in the midlands. Unless I send them to boarding school.

[Ineedsomesleep]

I agree with pure, your baby will sound like its main carer until it starts school and then will pick up the local accent.

DS has been spending far too much time with me and my side of the family over the sommer holidays and is rapidly loosing his posh school accent.

[QueenNeurosis]

Do little ones notice each other's accents?

[kathyis6incheshigh]

It does vary though.
I had a friend at school (in Essex) who had a strong Lancashire accent inherited from her parents despite having been born in Chelmsford.

We are in Yorkshire and my dd (aged 4) switches from southern to Yorkshire very consciously and often for comic effect - however I suspect this is partly as she has a good ear for language, inherited from her translator grandmother.

[teamcullen]

I know 2 boys living in Liverpool

One has irish mum and scouse dad the little boy speaks with irish accent.

The other boy has irish mum and dad and grandparents and he speaks with a scouse accent.

[Swedes]

Brum.

[lassmichdochinruhe]

QueenNeurosis my dd has a non-specific accent most of the time - both parents from the North, she has lived in the South all her life. Some words come out Northern, others have a definite local twang to them. That's when she's not mimicking the American accents she hears on TV.

Yankncock don't envy you the Warrington accent... taken me 25 years living Down South to get the rougher edges taken off my Warrington accent!

[Insanity]

We move around alot due to dh's job and my kids pick up accents easily. At the moment my ds has a slight scottish twang but before that he had a scouse accent. It really depends who they are talking too (think its more of trying to fit in)

I agree that the child will have the main carers accent untill they start school and then they will pick up accents from their friends, and all the other unfortunate shortened versions of language lol!

[seeker]

My brother is posh English, my sil Spanish, the children lived in Spain until they were 9 and 4. They are now 13 and 9 and still speak English with Spanish accents.

I am Posh English, dp is Yorkshire and we live in Kent. My children speak Posh English, but slip into Kentish at school and Yorkshire when we're with the Northern bit of family.

So, based on this very very narrow sample, children are inclined to talk like their mothers. I suppose they don't call it the mother tongue for nothing.

[madameDefarge]

my ds has a mixture of East End and North American (from his dad).

So he is all "Anyways, I done this with my dad..."

[hambo]

I bet if I heard your 'non specific' accent I would think you had an English accent.

My accent is pretty 'non specific' up here...

[strig]

My 22 month old has only really starting speaking and has quite an Australian accent - ie goes up the end. I never thought my accent was that strong but I am sure he is going to come out with "you flaming galah" next. We also like watching the Wiggles so I am sure that helps. I am secretly quite pleased really as it annoys my English DH no end! I am sure by the time he starts school he will have a lovely home counties or mockney accent! Two weeks until DD is born so it will be interesting to see if she will be the same.

[tostaky]

ive got a friend whos french, his wife is czech and they live in sheffield... their 3 years old speaks with sheffield accent!