To want my children to speak beautifully

[MiniMonty]

I'm a Londoner, we use "nice round vowels" so bath is "baarth" and grass is "graars" but I live in Birmingham with a partner from Sheffield and my kids use flat vowels which, I confess, are simply ugly on my ears.
Am I being unreasonable to want (and to encourage) my kids to use "round vowels" and to have a Southern (BBC or RP) accent ?

If you stay in the Midlands your children will have Midlands accents

That's not true though, Compos. They may do if they only interact with others with regional accents. But just because you live somewhere, doesn't mean you speak with the regional accent - Particularly noticeable in Scotland.

I never said anything about "nicely", bejeezus: I rather like the sound of Estuary myself. But I still think it is undeniable that in many places there are accents which are socially stratified. It is not a value judgment, just a fact. I am not saying that the way my bank manager speaks is "better" than the way the local dinner ladies speak. Just that it is different. And that a bank manager who spoke with a strong local accent (or if a Londoner spoke like they do on Eastenders) would raise a few eyebrows.

In some countries (e.g. Greece and Norway) this even applies to languages, so that you would use one language for "high" or formal occasions and another for less formal.

In other places there may not be the same social stratification: I suspect this may go for parts of Northern England and Scotland.

My 'nicely' post was at linerunner 'gory'

Sorry cory not gory!

bejeezus Sun 08-Jan-12 01:10:11

"You changed your accent so you felt you fitted in better. That doesn't mean they couldn't understand you before.

My accent is very much part of who I am. I would never adjust it to fit in.
And I will certainly be teaching my kids to be true to themselvees"

Well, I am not a native speaker of English in the first place, so I've already had to make that leap. Does that mean I am not being true to myself? I don't think so. To me being true to myself is about big things like morals and values, not about whether I happen to be speaking English or Swedish or French at any particular moment in time. To me, an accent is like a language; it's a tool, and you use whichever is going to do the job.

Ooh, me!

The local accent my children have learned is very 'This Generation' with grammatical errors and missing consonants.

'Speaking nicely' to me is late-night shorthand for being able to pass a job interview.

I think you're right about the acutal accent part of it. Mea culpa. Was just trying to make the point that you can bring DCs up without banishing the local.

WHERE do you live cory???

There just isn't that distinction here at all. Bank managers as likely to speak with local accent as dinner lady!

In fact that applies to most places I have lived

I love escaped from a Noel Coward play.

ComposHat

Accents are have very different meanings/ importance for native speakers don't you think?

Love the way that defending any accent north of Watford takes the form of insulting the South east accent. Pot/kettle anyone?

bejeezus, I live in Southampton and I have heard very few academics or bank managers or hospital consultants speak with a broad Southampton accent; they tend to say "water" not "wa'er".

That researcher did well then.

Indeed. I am off to help a journalist on another thread.

bejeezus Sun 08-Jan-12 01:26:41
"Accents are have very different meanings/ importance for native speakers don't you think?"

Not sure about that: my brother who has stayed in his own country uses a different accent when speaking to his workmates and when he speaks to family; basically he is much more regional when speaking to workmates.

Have also noticed that dh's accent changes slightly depending on the other party; in fact, I don't think it's all that unusual.

Vivi

If the OP's children are kept inside and forbidden to interact with the heathen West Midland masses, they may preserve the London/RP accent the OP so craves.

However, the majority of her interactions will be with their peer group, neighbours and other adults who will have the local accent.

My closest friends at school have the same Midlands accent as me, despite having parents who hailed from Huddersfield, Ashington (in the N. East) and Surbiton) and you don't get any more home counties/RP than Surbiton.

Cory I now live in Scotland and that there are a myriad of class connotations attached to the various accents spoken up here, probably the same in the North of England too. You are probably not accustomed to picking up the differences as you can with Southern English.

DH has a soft Glasgow accent
Everyone who hears me speak thinks I'm Irish (or very North Scotland)
My DCs especially DS have very Essex accents.

I love my DCs accents, though I do correct DS with regard to grammer but not his accent. (He says 'brung' not 'brought' for example. Or 'How are we spelling bu'er then?)

I haven't heard the TOWIE blokes speak.I might have to send him for elocution lessons if I do

Compos, I was only going by various northern posters who seem to deny that there are class differences. Though it would surprise me if there were not: even in Socialist Sweden (where I grew up) there were definite class connotations around accent however hard people tried to deny it.

I love escaped from a Noel Coward play.

It was a wonder to be hold, you would swear you were talking to a batty dowager Duchess in her 70s, rather than a 19 year old from Katowice. A further layer of incongruity was added in that she could and regularly did swear like a trooper. Don't think she picked that up from the World Service.

Kids will pick up whatever is being heard around them.
My DD is now in a school where there are such a wide range nationalities and regional accents from all over the country that she is starting to lose her local accent. I think there are only 2 children in her class of 30 that have been brought up in our town with our accent

Our local accent, means We drop our t's as in water, and say Laugh, bath, dance and path with a strong Ah sound.

she now pronounces her T's and says larf, barth, parth darnce...she sound's like a plonker!! Yes it sounds odd to me, but do you know what??

It doesn't matter.

I'll let her be, no point in correcting her back into our accent when she spends so much time with her friends who dont have our accent.

In fact i can see the school developing thier own unique accent eventually as it is so mixed.

Most children have two accents and vocabularies anyway (or mind do) - one for school and peers, one for home.

Provided they can acquit themselves in an interview and be verbally dexterous, I don't see the problem.

Mind you, I do miss the days when you had a dinner-suited presenter on daytime TV linking programmes with perfect RP "sigh"; I do like to listen to people with clarity of voice.

An educated accent- what, like Professor Brian Cox?

I thought as I started reading it that you didn't want them to have a London accent.( I wouldn't-I like my flat vowels)
I wouldn't worry with a northern father, southern mother and living in the Midlands they will have a mix I would have thought.

Personally I think what you refer to as "nice round vowels" is an unattractive accent, especially the "round" o. And the pronounciation of 'wh' as 'w' irritates me. Clear articulation and not talking too quickly is much more appealing surely.

Southern accents sound bleeeh to my ears. Everyone sounds the same and half the words are pronounced the same as each other:

OAR
OR
AWE

these have distinct pronunciations, southerners! Learn them!