If you have a different accent to your children

[doadeer]

My son is a toddler so just starting to build words. I'm from NE but live in an area of London with a "neutral accent" - DH has more of a London accent (not neutral)

I say BOOK rather than BUCK, GRASS rather than GRARSE etc.

His nursery when he goes back has lots of different accents including nationalities and regional accents.

Just curious how your children's accents developed if you live somewhere different to where you grew up.

@doadeer this is just a lost in translation situation 🤣
'Bach' to me sound like 'Baaar-chhh'
Kind of like Baa (for lamb) and the ch like Scottish 'loch'.

We all have different accents in our family - all the more exotic because the kids were taught for years by teachers who were speaking English as a second language rather than natively, or who spoke English natively, but as a companion language along with the one local to the country - to the extent that I can't tell if DS2 has a speech impediment, or if he's pronouncing some things the way he does just because that's how he heard so many around him pronounce it as he was growing up (not that it matters either way).

We have a mix of surnames, and we all look very different from each other too (skintone and build). I'd never pick my kids as brothers out of a crowd if they weren't my kids!

I have a nothing accent. It is bits and pieces that I’ve picked up over the years and stuck together I think! I was brought up in Wiltshire to parents with very strong Welsh accents and grandparents with Irish accents. I later lived in South Wales and then north wales (very very different accents!) so now I am a complete mixture! My DH thinks it’s funny, being from Oxfordshire (old fashioned, countryside accent rather than the city) as he is a weird mix of farmer and mockney! 😂

I think growing up being surrounded by different voices has led to me being fascinated with them though and has meant that I can adapt to understand most accents pretty quickly . And also given me a great ear for impressions!! 😂

I have something of the same with my Lancs DH, but the other way round. He can’t do southern at all - his attempt at bus rhymes with ass.

moor, and more, sound like mower; soap sounds like soup; there are still times (after 45 years together!) when he has to explain what he’s trying to say

Miaow

I understand how you pronounce it, as I said I've lived in London all my adult years and I don't hear many northern accents day to day but I still have my natural instinct for how words sound to me. I use a short A so it wouldn't be natural for me to say Baaaarch unless I was imitating someone.

When I first moved here I had to concentrate quite hard to reintroduce d's and t's as they don't have strong emphasis in words, alongside things like Paper Plate would be said PaaaayPa - I know day these words without thinking but to suddenly use a long A would be a step too far for me!

www.thoughtco.com/idiolect-language-term-1691143
I don't anyone will read this. People will boast about 'neutral' and 'posh' accents ad infinitum.

I'm Australian, DH is Irish and DC were born in SW London.

I genuinely never heard DC accents until I spoke to them on the phone when I travelled for work and they'd say in posh bloody accents " mommy, when are you coming home".

I couldn't reconcile the voices on the phone to my DC as when I heard them speak face to face or thought about them talking they sounded like me 🤷

We moved to Australia 18 months ago and their accents are improving 🤐

I read it, @derxa, but I'm not sure of your point?

People who refer to a 'neutral' accent are, I think, thinking geographically in attempting to describe an accent which isn't specific to any one region. Of course, RP in particular is anything but neutral as a signifier of social class.

DH is from the north east and I'm from east Midlands and that's where we live. DD is 2 and mostly talks like me but sometimes will say words like 'face' in a northern accent and it just sounds like she's mocking DH!

I'm from the NE, XH has a fairly posh Oxford accent, we live in the Midlands. One child has a very local accent, the younger sounds more like XH.

OH is from Scotland but moved to Cardiff when his children were pre-school age. Both have very strong Cardiff accents with the odd scottish words thrown in.

People who refer to a 'neutral' accent are, I think, thinking geographically in attempting to describe an accent which isn't specific to any one region. Of course, RP in particular is anything but neutral as a signifier of social class.
My point is that everyone has their own accent. No such thing as a neutral accent and there are many versions of RP.

It’s not boasting to admit to having a more ‘neutral’ version of an accent. The fact is that some people’s accents are more neutral than others. They still have accents and they aren’t necessarily ‘better’ than the stronger, more obviously local, accents others have. They may be easier for a wider range of people to understand though (especially if the actual speech is more ‘standard’ English than any particular dialect), so are often more common among people who’ve moved away from ‘home’ or who need to communicate effectively with people whose native language is not English regularly, etc.

There are also accents that are much more associated with ‘posh’ than others. It’s just the way things are. Having one of them doesn’t make you a better person though. Nor does it mean that people from outside your local area will agree that your ‘posh’ local accent is in fact ‘posh’.

I once heard someone describe their accent as ‘posh geordie’ to receive the reply: ‘what’s a posh Geordie? Does that mean you wash your hands after going to the toilet?’.

And people do switch about between variants of their accent. It’s clearly not a fixed thing.

The problem is those fools who think they just don’t have an accent. Or that ‘neutral’ means their accent they don’t think is an accent, rather than a particular manifestation of an accent.

It is like looking at paint charts. You get a range of colours that are more or less ‘neutral’. Most people think of the paler grey, beigey and ‘off-white’-ish shades as the ‘neutral’ colours. They’re still colours though. Just as much as the bolder, brighter colours are.

Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that the non-neutral ones area bit more interesting really. And that might be true of accents too.

Who in public life has a 'neutral' accent?

My point is that everyone has their own accent. No such thing as a neutral accent and there are many versions of RP.

OK - but by that logic there is no use in discussing regional accents at all!

My DH has a neutral (London accent) apart from literally only 4 words which he says with an incredibly strong Leeds accent (MIL) lol

Posh Geordie is surely the countryside bit outside of Newcastle? I know someone who comes from somewhere beginning with A And that's how he describes himself

Armilingham/anderley? Can't remember

OK - but by that logic there is no use in discussing regional accents at all! All accents are regional to some extent but are strongly influenced by school setting and parental accents. Would you say Tony Blair has a neutral accent?

I'm Irish, husband is northern, daughter is mildly west country with some very Irish words and sayings.

I think Michael McIntyre has a neutral accent (I can hear my own accent strongly haha)

All accents are regional to some extent but are strongly influenced by school setting and parental accents. Would you say Tony Blair has a neutral accent?

No, and I literally said as much upthread when I said that RP is anything but neutral in terms of class...

I speak with a Welsh accent. My DDs were born and brought up in England and have (what sounds to me like) quite posh English accents.

Tony has some Scottish vowels in there due to the fact that he went to Fettes.

I was born in a West Mids town with a strong, quite ‘yokel’ twang to it. Lived there for 30+ years. I’ve lived in North Wales for 20 years now so my hometown accent has softened... odd words and expressions still give me away, tho!
Since lockdown, I’ve not really been out and not chatted and mixed with anyone local, and my DP (born in Wales) says my hometown accent has come back very strong! I checked with a couple of friends and they agree.
Perhaps we all pick up speech patterns of where we currently live, but slide back to our original accents if things change?
I love hearing different accents!

I am originally from london, and both me and my son (6 years old) have london accents. We moved to North Wales two years ago, and now, although my son has an london accent, he sometimes says words in the way of a welsh accent. It's really mixed at times, and some people call it 'Wenglish' up here lol. In years to come, I'm not sure if he will have more of a welsh accent, or english, or still have a mix, as the teachers here are welsh and that's where he has picked up his 'welsh' accent.

I was born in Scotland, to a Edinburgh mother and a Hampshire Father, but raised within the Miltary, so no real accent. Had Ds in Dorset as single parent . He has no accent. He us married to South African, who has a perfect RP British accent. DGD has a Dorset accent.
DH is from Stirling, and apparently after it being just ge and I during lockdown, my son says my Ccent is getting more and more Scots ( it always has been if angered or drunk😁)