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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think you shouldn't correct an accent?

139 replies

Catsu · 14/06/2011 21:20

Am disagreeing with dh over this.
We moved just before ds2 was born. Where we now live there is a regional accent different to how dh and I speak.
Ds2 is 3.5 yrs and is starting to pronounce words the local way. Dh keeps correcting him. I keep telling dh not to correct him.
Ds2 was born here, will grow up here and why wouldn't he speak with the local accent??

What do you think? Aibu or is dh?

OP posts:
redwineformethanks · 14/06/2011 22:14

curryspice - I don't know how I would define "reasonably well spoken" - I suppose it's speaking without a strong accent. Needn't be particularly posh

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:16

Thanks for that Emma! Shock

TBH you would have trouble placing me know :(

But all this "I hate this accent, I hate that accent" gets right on my last one. It's a kind of snobbery imho

Everyone has an accent as I point out to those Essex people with their estuary drawl who consider me to be a pleb because I pronounce my words differently

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:17

But redwineformethanks a south east accent is an accent just like scouse or Brummie - as anyone in a pub in Liverpool or Birmingham would tell you!

ScarletOHaHa · 14/06/2011 22:22

Go Curryspice .

There nothing wrong with different accents or dialects.

emmanumber3 · 14/06/2011 22:23

I know CurrySpice - I hate all the accent snobbery myself usually and would never try to "correct" anyone else but I just can't stand hearing my DC's with the accent - which, by the way, I know is wrong and me being over-precious Blush.

My DH however will happily mock other "strong" accents, scouse, essex, welsh etc without even realising that he has one himself Hmm.

TheHumanCatapult · 14/06/2011 22:26

I correct my dc when they use words like aint and init .

But accent no not really worried .Mine is a heinz 57 as move up and down country .But I can change it when i need to .

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:28

Well stop "correcting" him then Emma!! Who says you're right and he's wrong anyway! Shock

He will speak like that when it suits, and as you want him to when at home ime

I was asked at a meeting last week, why I support Wolves. I answered because I was brought up in Wolverhampton (well close enough!). They were amazed! They knew I wasn't from Essex but couldn't place me and thought I was "nicely spoken" :o

Put me on the phone to my mom or at the footie with a few pints and you will be in no doubt where I'm from.

Leave him be. Not only are you fighting a losing battle but t will al even out in the end! :)

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:29

"it will all even out in the end!

pumpernickel10 · 14/06/2011 22:30

I don't anymore worzel but used to. Left Dudley when I was 18 so it's only slight but when I go back I easily slip back into it and DH says I start sounding like Noddy Holder.

pumpernickel10 · 14/06/2011 22:31

Oh curry your a black country lass too :)

emmanumber3 · 14/06/2011 22:33

I know - you're right CurrySpice. For all the correcting I may do at home, they still adopt the accent at nannie's house anyway. And, FWIW, I wouldn't dare "correct" them in front of MIL Grin.

Icoulddoitbetter · 14/06/2011 22:34

It's a bit wierd that I'm going to have DC's with an Essex accent but I'll have to accept it! I'm a northerner though my accent is fairly diluted, and DH doesn't have a very strong (essex) accent either. At the moment we live in London and all the teens round here have that awful pidgin West Indies accent / dialect (I'm talking about the white kids, not those with african-carribean parents / heritage!) that the accent snob in me hates. We're likely to move away when the DC's are quite young, but I'm still going to have children who'll say "bahth". Odd!

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:35

I bet you wouldn't emma :o

I am pumpernickel - and very proud of it too. Where are you from? I'm from Sedgley but haven't lived there for 25 years :o

Deesus · 14/06/2011 22:38

TrilLs FYI....Pronouncing tongue the same way as 'tong' is generally north west and is of course the correct way to say it Wink

SarahBumBarer · 14/06/2011 22:41

Really - so you'd all be happy with your dc's saying

I fink so

Somefink

Fick and fin

Really?

I'm with DH

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:43

NO Sarah, I said I wasn't much earlier on. HTH

BeehiveBaby · 14/06/2011 22:46

Wouldn't have thought to try! I'm RPish and bringing up my DCs in Manchester. I love ryhming games with DD1 - what rhymes with book? truck of course Grin. TBH DD1 who has been at school for 2 years has a gentle lilt, whereas DD2 sounds like she's from Ramsbottom or similar, even the CM is confused!?

MavisEnderby · 14/06/2011 22:49

Despite my better efforts,ds speaks with a broad regional accent as he was brought up here.:),tis normal!!

I do try to correct his grammar at times though.

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:49

I thought in Manchester book would rhyme with spook

emmanumber3 · 14/06/2011 22:50

I'm from Lichfield myself, which is where we live now. DH & family are brummies through & through Grin.

Just out of interest, do you have bread rolls or cobs?

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:51

Depends Emma :o

A cob is a crusty roll, a bap is a soft one. "Roll" is a generic term to cover them all!

CurrySpice · 14/06/2011 22:52

BTW I had a big night out in Lichfield a few months bck - what a lovely town centre it has from what I remember

MavisEnderby · 14/06/2011 22:52

Sarah,try "I durn't nerr" "I need to cross the rerd" and "Can I borrow yer fern" and you will find "somefink" and "fick n fin" delightful Grin

PotPourri · 14/06/2011 22:56

Personally I think it is uppity to correct your child from speaking in the local accent of the place that is their home and they are being brought up. How strange to expect them to talk like you. Tell DH he is a snob and you should move back to where his superior accent hails if he is so bothered.

LRDTheFeministDragon · 14/06/2011 22:57

My mum spent years trying to correct us from first rural Hampshire accent then nasal Nott'nam (a real ugly bugger of an accept imo! Grin). It was utterly pointless ... as soon as my little brother went to secondary school she had to contend with the 'Universal Teenage' consonantless wonder, which he still uses ... and I can speak pure posh if I want to (much posher than her), but still will produce a cringeworthy parody of any strong accent I hear for more than five minutes, I can't help myself.

I think I would find myself 'correcting' to an accent out of irritation, but it's probably about as useful as trying to make the tide turn back ...