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 ?

Step away from the thread deah dear...

I can enunciate as much as you like, but saw does rhyme with door!

Complicated! I love this, haven't looked at words this way before.

It would seem all my words have r's in them lol.

Bath Barth
Laugh Larf
Etc

Also no difference between paw, pour and poor where I'm from! Never thought I had much of an accent though lol. Having said that, I do become more Suffolk (sarf'k) whilst drunk. Or at least used to, haven't been drunk for a long time!

How can saw not rhyme with door?

Vickity - saw doesn't rhyme with door in Scotland.

Where and how the fuck would saw rhyme with door? BTW, have lived all over the world with Ex RN father, Over much of UK and world with ex Army exDH and have brothers and sisters living all over. Surely saw/door rhyme must be a piss take?

Nope, here saw and door both rhyme with sore.

In Scotland it would be sarr and doo-er. Round Elgin way which is where I grew up.

I'm going to practice with this

Lisaro - did you live in Suffolk? Saw and door rhyme - clearly it's not just here of course!

I find this fascinating

I have a non-accent now, but with a marked tendency to pick up the accent of the area I'm in.

I moved north (Derby) from Essex aged 11. I had the piss ripped mercilessly from me at school because if the way I spoke. Mind you, I suspect they'd be the same if I spoke 'properly' too.

Ds1 has a proper Wiltshire twang and I love it. Suits him and identifies where he comes from, which is good because that's home.

If you are a native English speaker then your English is as valid as any others.

This is our language, it will devolop and change in accordance with its speakers. It has changed a lot over the last four centuries. There is no right and no wrong. And its nothing to worry about. It evolves.

I don't get the phonetic difference between oar and awe! But who gives a shit?

Hey Vicky no, but have lived in lots of places, also work with people from all over and have never heard this. If 'saw rhymes with 'door' then how do you differentiate with 'I need to rub down my door'?

Goodasgold - I don't think people really are bothered in a way that they dislike the pronunciation. It's just really interesting. Is to me anyway!

Sorry lisaro, could be because it's late but I don't understand what you're asking me!

Thanks for all the input and opinions.
I feel vindicated overall having read all and everything thats been said.

The Brum accent isn't so bad really but the Sheffield thing is (to my ears) truly AWFUL !!!
"I'm goint down caf for uz tea". Dad is "mi Dad" (always) and the classic Northern " t' " instead of "the" which is just verbal laziness.
i.e. "I'm off downt' shops" or "gwan t' bookies"

Eeek. Horrid.

I'm sold on RP (sorry but...) call it London well bred or Southern Posh if you like but I can't help but feel it's a genuine advantage in life to be more Joanna Lumley than Claire Short.

Regional accents are honest, real and great but limiting, I think, when you need to live in the big wide world.

Compos Hat says Brummie not Plummy!

Regional accents are honest, real and great but limiting. How patronising!That screams, 'All very well for you plebs to have your funny little accents and to add a bit of background colour, but woe betide that my child should speak in their native accent.'

The very fact that you pick Clare Short as an example undermines your case, as she held high political office, so her accent hardly limited her.

If you think that you can prevent your children from picking up a Midlands accent, short of locking them in the basement Josef Fritzel style, then I'm afraid you are kidding yourself. As soon as they hit school age, they will be interacting with their peer group more than their parents and their accents will mirror this.

Why not devote the pointless hours you would otherwise spend correcting phonetically correct pronunciations of words like 'bath' or 'grass' encouraging a love of books, painting or the natural world? Y'know stuff that will actually prepare them for life and turn them into well rounded and capable people rather than dullards with faux RP accents.

Mini - just wait, they'll say barf if you're not careful!

I love the Brummie accent, the real one not the Black Country rip off you hear on TV that everyone hates. I've been teaching my girls to talk properly I somehow grew up speaking a little posher and it got me into trouble at school. Not just with my peers - in secondary school I was hauled into the HOY's office and given a lecture about taking the mickey out of Brummies when my accent slipped. I kept silent until she'd finished when she said "Where are you from anyway?" "Here" "Excuse me?" "Well, I was born in Solihull hospital, but grew up in Small Heath" (for those that don't know it's about the furthest you can get from posh) "Well! You don't sound very Brummie!"

About the third time they hauled Mum in!!! Same conversation at the end of the very offended Brummies lecture lol

I don't think round vowels are "nice". It sounds forced to me. Give me a Brummie or a Sheffield accent over your RP any day

Right, Im putting my foot down now. This has been all round the staff room this morning, now I'm leaping out at 6th formers and making them have a go

paw/poor/pour/pore - saw and bloody door all sound the same! And I've covered mid Kent, Essex, Wigan, somewhere in Ireland and posh including two with literature degrees.

So I've come to the conclusion that you lot all speak funny peculiar and I'm normal

troisgarcons is correct

"I'm sold on RP (sorry but...) call it London well bred or Southern Posh if you like but I can't help but feel it's a genuine advantage in life to be more Joanna Lumley than Claire Short.

Regional accents are honest, real and great but limiting, I think, when you need to live in the big wide world."

Bloody hell, do people really still think like that?? What, limited like, oh, Brian Cox, James Naughtie, Michael Sheen......

And given the choice between Claire Short's contribution to the world and Joanna Lumley's I know which I'd pick!

I sound exactly like , only a woman of course. And it is beautiful. I love my state, I love my people, I love sounding the way that I do. :)

And saw rhymes with jaw and pah, door rhymes with poor and sore. :o

I think yabu To expect them to speak like you when they dont live in an area that has that accent , I am scottish and i do like my children to speak proper but they do speak differently outside with their friends i die a little when i hear them , ayeing and nawing but i do know they can turn it on and off , so maybe you could have them speaking liek you at home but let them away with their flat vowels outside , why would you want them to speak like a 1950s radio presenter anyway