What accent will my child have?

Say hi to the hometown
My kids have an english accent despite me being a Bankie

He’ll learn how to code switch like most kids with accents

Scottish primarily. Peers are a much greater influence on speaking than parents (at this age anyway).

But possibly your accents will be an influence. I have a colleague who was brought up in the SE and went to quite a posh school but her parents are from Leeds. She’s definitely a Southerner in the way she speaks but has some on the flat Northern vowels.

I find this so interesting…

It depends. I'm originally from Kent and live in the NW now. Husband has a local accent and LO has been in nursery since before he could talk so I'm his only exposure to a Southern accent. But even then he still says a lot of words in a very Southern accent and I do still notice when he says words in a very Northern way so generally I'd say his accent is very mild/neutral.

Probably Scottish. My DH and I are both from Lancashire but now live just north of London. Both kids have neutral/slightly southern accents. It's so weird to hear my son pronouncing it barrrth rather than bath 🤣

Depends. I spent longer in my home country than my brother did, but his Slavic accent is stronger than mine. My own gets stronger or weaker as I’m more influenced by my surroundings. I often get asked if I’m South African when speaking English, so I guess that’s what my hybrid accent generally sounds like.

Probably Scottish, but there will be the odd word that will still sound English.

I know a 10 year old girl who has lived her whole life in London, born and raised, goes to the local school full of other local London kids. Mum is American, Dad is Irish. She goes to Ireland every summer but hasn't been to the US since she was a baby. Inexplicably, she has a 100% American accent 😆

That’s lovely to hear. Mine is now 12yo and he talks non stop. He uses lots of echolalia too but he has great vocabulary, asks and answers questions and is more than able to communicate and have his needs met. Everyone can understand him. He still mixes up a lot and we well a lot in inference and conversational skills, but I never thought his language would develop as well as it has.

We used PECS prior to him having spoken language (I’d tried makaton but it had no impact) and that really helped bridge the gap and also made me realise how much his receptive language had come on.

The child will sound Scottish to his parents but English to the local school kids

Scottish eventually but might have a bit of an Essex accent to begin with

He'll end up with a hybrid accent. DH was born in the Glasgow area and has lived in the Bristol area since the age of 10. He's now 55 and it really depends on who he is speaking to and if they are local to Glasgow or Bristol, or indeed anywhere else.

More than likely Scottish.

I am from the South (to Southern parents) and lived in Scotland until about 5. I had a Scottish accent then but lost it when we moved back down South. The Scottish filters back in sometimes if I'm speaking to someone Scottish, but in a "it sounds like you're taking the piss" way, rather than be a natural native speaker, which is embarrassing!

My SIL (also from down South) lives in Yorkshire with her American husband and all her kids speak with such broad Yorkshire accents that I have to get her to translate sometimes!

Scottish. Lovely.

Ime dc will sometimes pick up from a parent giving them a bit of a mix.

We live in S Wales, I'm from here, dh is from London. He's been here over 20 years but his accent hasn't changed at all, it's still very strong.

The dc undoubtedly have mainly Welsh accents but all 3 also frequently have a bit of a London twang, especially noticible when speaking to dh or with certain phrases. 'Awwwrriiiiggghhh mate, ow ya doin?' is one of them 😂

And when we visit family or friends in London the twang is noticeably more pronounced. I've no doubt that if we ever moved there they'd all sound native within a few months.

Absolutely not a guarantee, especially since her son is autistic. I knew someone growing up who was born and bred in the depths of Wales, parents from the North of England. They spoke in a completely neutral English accent. My own child are autistic, none have the local (very distinctive) accent nor either parent’s natural accent. Speaking ‘hyper correctly’ is a typical part of ASD if verbal. One of my children speaks mostly in echolalia, went through an American accent phase, a ‘talk like Bing Bunny’ phase, basically if the words interested him he’d repeat them in that exact voice and tone.

It really depends. I'm a southerner with a rather posh accent. My kids were born and raised in Yorkshire. They generally have a southern accent but there are certain words they say the Yorkshire way - grass, bath, fast etc. I think it's natural that they have a kind of blended southern/Yorkshire accent as that's what they're exposed to.

i was born in the uk- moved to the states before I was a year old so was largely preverbal. Both parents from South England - I have a similar accent (with the odd bit of Australian from living there when I was older)

my brother was born two years later in the states - same parents, same house . Full blown American accent.

I have a mild London accent. I grew up in London with one DP from northern England and one from Scotland.

He might end up with two - at home accent and with friends accent. Or an amalgam.

My daughter spent 6 weeks at nursery when we moved to Scotland and totally lost her English accent.

However I have English friends whose children were born here and speak with their parents' English accent despite never having lived there.

Everybody's different

Probably a combination depending on what words are easiest to say in whichever accent.

That's great that he's starting to speak :-)

Depends on the child. We moved when my youngest was four and he’s not particularly Scottish sounding.

It may change. DH and I are English, we've lived in Scotland for 16 years, our girls were born and go to school here. They sound like us (English but no strong regional accent) but when they come home from school they sound a bit Scottish for half an hour and then sound English again.