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 ?

I am from birmingham and have a brummie accent. I love my voice and I love the range of regional accents in the midlands. I might have short vowels and a tendency to sound like ozzy osborne/noddy holder at times but my voice is bostin'

I'm sure that my kids (when they aren't blarting like titty babies) sound like proper little brummies too. We all speak beautifully

I know I come from the perspective of someone with quite a posh RP accent, but I think in many fields of work it does create a better impression.

Ninky, I think that what creates the BEST impression is people being confident in who they are rather than trying to pretend/conform to a perceived ideal. I worked at management level in a role where the tool of my trade was my voice - it was the words that I put together rather than my pronunciation/accent that enabled me to progress.

We live in London. DH has no accent at all. I have a slight Sussex burr (and speak v slowly.) DS1 sounds like a little cockerney sparra and DS2's speech is so unclear because of his deafness I have no idea what he'll sound like.

I see the OP still hasn't been back...

ComposHat, when I first moved away from my childhood home, my Black Country accent actually got thicker so I could prove that I wasn't from my new home. It has softened over the many years, so my DH doesn't hear it anymore, but my new (mommy) friends all heard it straightaway. I suppose it's what your ear tunes to.

DH incidentally has lived all over the UK and has a Scottish mother, he has no Scottish in his accent, just a generic, hard-to-place, 'Southern' accent.

I can't make oar/or/awe sound different either. Bore sounds like paw too. Oh well, must be my ugly BC accent

I think you are right, alistron1. I knew someone once who changed their accent to match whoever they were with and it was pretty awful. My cousin's wife is from Yorkshire and she definitely cranks up the accent when she's down here. I worry that it's because she feels she has to assert herself in some way, which isn't the case at all as we all love her how she is.

To be confident in how you sound (without having to rub it in by speaking very loudly) is the best of all.

OAR
OR
AWE

These words certainly shouldn't be pronounced the same! They are 'ore, orr and aw'

And I've never heard of an RP accent - where's that from then?

Extra R's in words?? I loved it when someone was talking about Princess Diana's home (Althorp) and no-one could pronounce it 'properly' (Altrup or summat). Anyway, they said "Althorp, pronounced 'prawn sandwich'" - That's how silly it is.

I think I sound posh sometimes even though I'm from rural East Anglia! I like to pronounce t's and th properly.

I was teased mercilessly for my accent (the "graars" etc of OP fame) from primary and I roughened it up until I left secondary school...I'm still wary about speaking how I naturally speak around people from my old school! It's pathetic!

Most people have the ability to alter their speech to suit the occasion.

I have a fairly geographically undefined Scottish accent. If I'm talking to Scottish clients I can alter my accent to sound a bit broader to make them more at ease. If I'm talking to Southern English colleagues I tend to clean it up even more.

Most people identify that I'm not English but a lot struggle with where I'm from - fellow Scots because my accent is too soft. The English because, apparently, it is too difficult!

OAR
OR
AWE

I'm still sitting her practicing each one - im conciously checking tongue and lip movement ..... sorry giggles it's all the same. Im even trying to do it differently but its still the damned same.

Do you think I could be a bit deaf?

*consciously

Good grief .... now Im trying saw/sore .....poor/paw... boar/bore.

Nope its all the bloody same

Stuggling a bit there are you trois .

Try saying saw without an r. Go on, you can do it. Have half a w sound a the end.

It does give a whole new meaning to the US campaign "shock and awe" though -

Struggling? sinking!

A saw with out the w .. is a saa-h

cries copiously

No, no, without the r.

Sore has an r in it. Saw doesn't [obvious].

Just pronounce the r in sore, but leave it out in saw [helpful]

cries

Sore..... saw ....... r r r r ......sore ....soe????

feck this for a game of soldiers

Um, you've confused me now.

It really is very easy.

Or is pronounced Or

Oar is pronounced Oar

Awe is pronounced Awe

[gavel]

I forgot to add:

HTH

Christ, they are all so DIFFERENT people, but i am irish so thta prob explains it! actually, OAR and OR are pretty similar but AWE is completely differnet.

Although HOW KNOW, BROWN COW is apparently hysterical in my accent. I say it as my party piece.

It's taken me 10 years to get over my accent, i hated it most if my life and now i miss as it's gone!

^that should be "now" not "know", you'll confuse people .

I'm Irish too, and my French teacher at school used to make us all do faux English accents to show how not to pronounce French vowels . Apparently my "how, now, brown, cow" was rather good. We had a Scottish girl in our class who had a bit of difficulty, though. Coooooo anyone?

i'm from the north, but moved down south when dd was 18 months old . shes now 8.. she came in the other day and said 'can i go and play next door please? we are going to do crarfts!'

we agreed, but DH and i smiled when she had left because she sounds so posh. having said that we went 'home' for new year and overheard a granny saying...

'ffs its effin raining. look at the effin rain. thats sh$$e that effin rain. put your effin ud up.' to her small child.

for info, my dd would have said ' oh dear, its raining. please put your hood up'

My pals down south can also tell when i have been on the phone home because i become more northern!

how now brown cow is

haar naar braahn caa

unless you come from the east end and it ....aah nah brahn cah

Shit, soz mary, i am abit drunk so that's my excuse

i must not Mumsnet when drunk!