Accent acquisition in young children

[argyllherewecome]

I'm a teacher but have been off work sick so I've had loads of time to think (for a change!). Anyway, this is something that has fascinated me for ages and I'm sure there are posters here who know about this.
My school is fairly diverse. Most children with ESL parents come into school either with no English or basic words that have a distinct mother tongue accent. They lose this within several years usually, and by then they have a local accent.

I've noticed though some children do not adopt a local accent.
Irish Travellers: despite being born and raised here they nearly exclusively all have a very thick Irish accent, and this doesn't change over time. There are a few other children that have parents or a mother at least from different parts of the country, and they keep a very strong regional accent from them, which doesn't change much over time. This is an exception rather than a rule though.

Any language experts that can explain how this happens? I'm the embarrassing sort of person that goes somewhere for a few days and I pick up accents!

I completely understand this, but I suppose I would expect the accent to soften slightly over time as they progress through school, but it really doesn't.

Subjective is not synonymous with "judgemental" used in a derogatory sense.

For us we have noticed with our DS's that it depends on where they are learning words to how it sounds. Both DH and I have Southern English accents and both DS's mostly sound like us despite being born and bred in Scotland. But DS1 reads out loud with a Scottish accent as hes learning to read in School. As soon as he stops reading out loud his accent switches back to sounding English.

I have no idea what his eventual accent will be. DS2 also sounds completely English.

Theres A certain degree of how good the child is at “fitting in.” My observation is that the more socially agile the child, the more they can flip their accent/dialect.

One of my own does this - swaps to my and my parents’ dialect when he’s after something. The rest of the time he’s like Danny Dyer.

I knew a girl whose accent completely changed when she spoke to her mother (rather than speaking to me).

Also two brothers who lived in France for several years. The older one had a French accent when speaking English but the younger one didn't, because of their respective ages when they moved to the UK.

It’s funny and I am totally intrigued too. My son is in reception and learns the “a” phonic as “ah” sound (as in “c-a-t” ) but despite my northern accent (reading books to him every night and talking to him since birth etc) the local dialect is a lot posher and his accent has developed as per his peers and school teachers, so he pronounces words like “giraffe” with an “ar” not “ah” - I persistently correct that giraffe in phonics should be pronounced like an “ah” and that northern English is in fact phonetically correct but I am fighting a losing battle 😂

Language can also be used to signify identity or membership of a group.

If it's normal/typical for a child to acquire the local accent (which from what I've seen it is) then surely it must be hard to keep up an accent that 1) others you from your peers and 2) your peer majority don't have

I think you've interpreted the word 'thick' incorrectly. Generally when people refer to a thick accent they mean a very strong accent.

A thick Scottish brogue or accent means it's very strong

I think you made a mistake and thought OP meant thick as in stupid but you won't admit it.

Quite - I wonder if the PP found pancake day triggering - after all, American pancake batter is often described as thicker than European. Or should I say more viscous lest I offend our neighbours from across the pond. 😂

Do you mean Irish travellers with a first language other than English OP? Because if not, surely they don’t acquire an accented English in the same way that children who don’t have English in the home do…

My DH and I have neutral English accents. Our DC were born in Wales. Our DC (10 and 12) have our accents; they haven’t taken on the accent of their school friends/ teachers etc at all!

‘Thick Irish accent’? And you call yourself a teacher? Shame on you.

I think accents come down to three main things:

(1) Emersion - who you do the majority of talking with. It stands to reason that you will echo a lot of what you hear
(2) Musical Ear - sone people pick up accents easier than others
(3) Choice- some people deliberately alter their accent for a variety of reasons.

It really isn't that complex.

No such thing as a neutral accent 😍

Interesting, OP. I'm from Malaysia, where in addition to various native languages, we have our own (thickly accented ) form of spoken English, a sort of creole. I moved to the UK at age 20 and quickly realised I had to "standardise" my English speech in order to be understood.

Several decades on, I am told that I sound almost fully RP but with a slight American twang and/or a tiny bit Scottish I can sort of understand the American thing because we watched plenty of US TV as kids. The Scottish thing I have no idea.

When I speak to people from SE Asia, I fully revert to my original accent as if I'd never moved away.

Well, not quite RP but ‘well spoken’, and people can’t place where we’re from.

Except it’s only used in connection to Irish accents and, considering that Ireland still has a smaller population than in Victorian times due to the English genocide, I would think that it requires a bit of sensitivity.

OP, there is an interesting conversation going about Asian American accents. Many Asian Americans, and I'm referring to the American usage of 'Asian', have a distinct American accent. Korean, Chinese and Japanese in particular. Not talking about immigrants. We are talking about first and second generation Americans. Studies have shown that people can usually identify Asian Americans by voice alone in the same way people can often identify black Americans by accent alone even if they are born and bred in the US

Except we never hear of people saying ‘a thick RP accent’ or ‘a thick Surrey accent ‘, do we? Words come with baggage.

Oh cop on. That’s simply not true. I have a) an Irish accent, and b) a first degree in language and linguistics. (TCD, as it happens.) And you’re talking out yer hole.

ETA for some reason, only the first page of comments was showing and I can see the discussion has moved on! 🤣 so I've not added anything worthwhile here.

In this context "thick" doesn't mean stupid. It means strong.
So OP is saying that they have a strong Irish accent.
It's a fairly common description of an accent and I'm sure no offence was meant.

Oh? Actually I’m an English teacher, N.Irish, living in England, and with an MA in linguistics… Tell me the last time you heard someone refer to Camilla’s ‘thick’ RP accent. Or do you want to deny the Irish genocide?

No it is not.
'Thick' is used of many accents.