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Original poster

Do you correct your DC's accent?

172 replies

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 30/03/2019 09:58

We live in East London, and DS (4) goes to nursery for 10 hours a day, 3 days a week. He hasn't picked up a massive accent, but he is dropping his Ts pretty consistently (or pre'ey consis'en'ly as he would say).

He has just asked to watch the Go Je''ers, and shown me wha' a lo' of grapes he's go'. Am I wrong to keep correcting him? No' tha' it's working anyway Sad.

I came from Dublin, so it's not that I speak like the queen anyway, but...what is wrong with the letter T?!

OP posts:
Original poster
Tawdrylocalbrouhaha · 30/03/2019 13:54

All together, Glaswegians:

Betty bought a bit of butter, but she found the butter bitter.
So she bought a bit of better butter, to make the bitter butter better.

OP posts:
kaytee87 · 30/03/2019 13:54

I'm Glaswegian and definitely pronounce my T's.

Chewbecca · 30/03/2019 13:56

We’re in Essex & I correct just a little bit of pronunciation, but my main correction is to remove the excess of ‘likes’ in any sentence. We are doomed though I think as it has become so common. Yesterday morning on R2, Fearne Cotton and most of her guests just said like 100s of times, it was hard to hear what they meant.

Made me feel really old and retune the radio to R4.

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Childcare & nursery
nevernotstruggling · 30/03/2019 14:00

@Chewbecca I feel your pain with the like, like....

chocatoo · 30/03/2019 14:00

Yes I did when she was at an age where it was correctable. I also found it annoying that her primary teacher didn't speak grammatically correctly!

SileneOliveira · 30/03/2019 14:01

I'm not born and bred Glaswegian but am Scottish. Live in Glasgow now, I pronounce the letter "t" as do the kids.

Chewbecca · 30/03/2019 14:02

Like, it’s just, like so, like annoying?

nometal · 30/03/2019 14:08

When DH and I grew up everybody around us had a very Australian accent. The composition of Australia today in metro areas is completely different.

We spend a fair bit of time in Western Australia and the local accent there isn't very strong at all.

amusedbush · 30/03/2019 14:11

I'm in Glasgow and I pronounce my Ts. Everyone that I know does

Well, I obviously don't know you or your friends. I work in a University and it's really noticeable when my colleagues pronounce their Ts when speaking to someone from overseas, for example. In normal speech we all drop them, e.g. "bo'll ah wa'er" instead of "bottle of water". There is a sound where the T would be but it's not a clipped T sound.

Justawaterformeplease · 30/03/2019 14:39

They are not though. Example given of saying 'teef' instead of 'teeth' - that's not speaking properly by any stretch of the imagination. The word is teeTH, with a TH sound, not an F. To say teef is incorrect.

Linguists use the term non-standard rather than incorrect. To say teef is incorrect is - ironically - incorrect.

SrSteveOskowski · 30/03/2019 14:39

I'm Irish. Most of you would hate me Grin

He's speaking English by the way!

SrSteveOskowski · 30/03/2019 14:46

Sean Mac an tSithigh translates to John Sheehy in case anyone is wondering.

SileneOliveira · 30/03/2019 15:24

In normal speech we all drop them, e.g. "bo'll ah wa'er" instead of "bottle of water"

That's not "normal speech" though. It's sloppy and you can't get away with saying it's your accent because there are thousands of people living in Glasgow who are more than capable of saying "a bottle of water".

The fact you switch it on and off when dealing with overseas visitors speaks volumes. Please don't peddle the myth that all Glaswegians speak like Rab C Nesbitt. We don't.

TheFuckfaceWhisperer · 30/03/2019 15:29

I'm from the North East and talk like a pit yacker, DS was a very late talker due to autism and owing to him having speech therapy every day for two years, he speaks beautifully and correctly. Unlike me

greenpop21 · 30/03/2019 15:29

Of course you should.

bigTillyMint · 30/03/2019 15:33

No. I love their SE London accent and even the teen street language Smile

My mum used to constantly correct me and moan about pronunciation. My DC are gutted that I haven't got much of an accent from where I grew up because it's a great accent!

greenpop21 · 30/03/2019 15:35

I love accents but would always correct mispronunciation.

bellinisurge · 30/03/2019 15:41

My dd says scone like stone rather than the correct way Grin like gone. But we discovered that round here is some sort of enclave where people like my dh and his family do it and it doesn't mean you are posh and entitled which I did where I grew up. Heh heh.

PinkSquidgyPig · 30/03/2019 15:41

Easy London too. Year 5 daughter. Have made ironic remarks about 'lost' t sounds. She's a bit better now. However she doesn't pronounce the 'th'. Using 'v' instead !!
Had driven me mad. Her response has always been an adamant 'but that's the way I say it mummy'.
She recently joined the school choir, and because the music teacher says she needs to pronounce her 'th' she's taking it seriously! At last ...

Dramatical · 30/03/2019 15:49

Linguists use the term non-standard rather than incorrect. To say teef is incorrect is - ironically - incorrect.

They can term it however they like. TeeF is absolutely incorrect. The word is TeeTH.

Dramatical · 30/03/2019 15:50

In normal speech we all drop them, e.g. "bo'll ah wa'er" instead of "bottle of water".

There is nothing even remotely normal about that.

snoringdoggo · 30/03/2019 16:03

My toddler has speech delay, which means he drops the end off words. Reading this has made me consider that this actually might be caused by speaking to him in my Sauf Landon accent Confused

I met up with an old school friend recently. He spoke really well, as been spending time on LA, so I expect he has been playing up his perfect English. He said I don't remember you speaking so common. Nice. Not the best English there either. I didn't think I was that bad, but maybe I am Grin

My parents did correct me, but I was at a rough school. I actually think going down into Kent or Essex the accent sounds even more S.London.

SurgeHopper · 30/03/2019 16:06

Not his accent, but his English, yes all the time. We do live abroad though, English is his second language. I'm relentless, for example if he says 'I done that' I would always correct him.

Greyhound22 · 30/03/2019 16:21

Yes I do.

We are Black Country - I don't mind him having the accent but I correct pronunciation. Nursery did cause a lot of it to be honest. I call myself 'Mummy' and when I got there they would always shout 'Ya Mom's 'ere' 🙄

The one at the moment is 'Moo-ern'. Me and DMIL always wail 'Mooooon' when he says it.

I'm not a snob but there are times I've had to translate my proper BC friends for people - it's a wonderful accent/language but will hold DS back I feel if he doesn't curb it. Outsiders don't appreciate it and think we are all thick.

sparkling123 · 30/03/2019 18:32

I think it's ok to soften it, he can still have the accent/twang without the dialect. Where I am from H's are dropped, A's are hard, I's are drawn out, Th's can be F's...
I think I will be encouraging the use of H's and Th's will have to be Th's but leave the rest be, they will work out how they want to sound after that.
I grew up doing all of the above and noticed after uni and moving to London that the use of F instead of Th did stand out in my speech so I trained myself out of that.
On the other hand I worked with very intelligent and capable 'Landanaas' who drank 'wa ah' and that never sounded bad to me, what they were saying was intelligent and coherent so that was more important, but they would also have a 'proper' accent when we were talking to clients with naturally 'proper' accents.
Just explain to them it's all a bit of a game really, teach them a 'proper' accent and when they might want to use it in the future, they will work it out.