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!

You can think and dream in more than one. I think and dream in whatever language I’m predominantly speaking.

Funnily enough I have a similar issue with French. I can read it and understand it when spoken, but I’ve never not mangled it when attempting to speak it
myself. It comes out very, very South Slavic.

In this case the op means strong accent, dense, heavy or impenetrable, not stupid and she's not being judgemental. Are you?

I heard a very interesting segment on a podcast recently about this. A language expert was talking about how accents converge - tests have shown that even within 6 months researchers in the Antarctic Survey begin to pick up each other’s accents. But he also said some accents are particularly resistant to this, and don’t change at all. He mentioned Glaswegian as being the most fixed!

You're joking right..... OP means strong accent🙄

I think it's a mixture of things
Individual susceptibility
Family & Friends
TV & Online (obviously some accents are more representative than others).

Incidentally I've noticed it doesn't seem related to learning languages imo.

Sounds unfair. One child at private school, the other at state school. Any reason? Do tell 😊

Yes, ‘thick’ accent means strong accent.

I’m from the North, my husband the south and we live midlands. My eldest sounds more like me and pronounces worlds like me. My youngest says things like his Dad.
think the word water… one would sounds it warter, the other wawta 🤷‍♀️
no idea how this has happened.

I just read thick accent as just that, it's a saying, hence meaning strong in terms of pronunciation and colloquialism?

I think perhaps you need to brush the chip off your shoulder and grab a thesaurus… Thick in this context doesn’t mean “stupid” it means very clearly heavy, full, unchanged. You can equally have a thick Home Counties accent, a thick Yorkshire accent a thick Irish accent or a thick Oxford English accent. It’s not a judgement it’s an observation.

This is a really interesting thread and something I’ve wondered about.
I am Israeli, English is my third language, English is also my children’s third language. The oldest children were born in Israel, the youngest two were born here (UK). We are orthodox but well integrated into the non Jewish community. They ALL speak English with an American twang that’s been commented on in their diagnostic reports (ASD). I don’t get it. Most of the English language media they watch is British English, they learned to speak English by immersing in the (non American) community, I certainly don’t have an American accent and neither does their dad, but even the two year old has started with it recently. Where on earth has it come from?!

"Thick" means "strong" in this context, not "stupid". Surely you must know that.

My children haven't picked up the local accent where we live, it's mine and dh university town. We both have different accents, although all 3 are Northern. My eldest has actually been called posh at school! I assumed they would develop the accent but home seems to have influenced them more.

I know people keep saying thick in this context means strong, and it more or less does.
More or less.

There is a slight difference in meaning to me, a different nuance.

And I have never heard a Home Counties accent described as thick? That just doesn’t happen. Like it or not, only certain accents are typically described as thick.

I'm not sure to be honest, I think it was the choice of the younger sister to go to state school but don't know the ins and outs of the decision. I wasn't aware of any animosity between them because of it, but I wasn't hugely close to the situation either.

Many thanks for replying to me on a thread I derailed slightly! 😀 I’m glad it’s possible that the younger sister possibly chose a state school because I was thinking of Chandler Bing saying to Monica “We’ll choose our favourite child and send that one to college!” 🌺

I don’t think she means “thick” as in stupid , I think OP means a very heavy, sometimes almost incomprehensible accent, quite hard to decipher….. I don’t think she was being judgemental

Saying someone speaks English (their first language) in an almost incomprehensible manner isn’t exactly flattering though is it? 😅

There is definitely a thick south coast (Sussex) accent. I’ve been told that there are strong Kent and Buckinghamshire accents as well but I’ve never lived there so I haven’t heard them.

Thick is meaning strong in this instance as an adjective.

Ah okay, I wasn’t including Sussex. Depends on the definition of home county I suppose, it’s not a definitive list ☺️

@Sweepandmop , there are thick accents in the home counties. An Essex accent can be thick, but there are accents like a Berkshire one.

I'd love to listen to this, can you remember what it was?

Probably because home counties accents and RP aren't that regional and are more generic? Someone with a thick regional accent you can probably narrow down to a city that they come from, sometimes a town or village. I wouldn't hear a home counties accent and think yep they're definitely from Hertford.

RP isn’t regional but a strong Sussex accent is quite distinct from a strong Essex accent.