Moving to Scotland in a few months - will my children lose their accent

[HumanDemands]

As the title says - moving to Scotland (Glasgow) in a few months from South West England with my 2 children age 8 and 3. I know my 3 year old will end up speaking with a Glaswegian accent but my 8 year old? Not bothered either way but curious to know :-)

Possibly! I moved to Scotland age 11 and picked up a Scottish accent quite quickly (my mum is also Scottish so that probably contributed) but then mostly lost it after a couple of years when we moved back to England when I was 16- although DH says I still pronounce my Rs more than most English people do. My accent is pretty hard to place these days from moving so much.

My 4 year old didn't speak Yorkshire after moving here as the household influence is stronger. DS switches between north and south very easily

Mine moved to Edinburgh 10 years ago, similar age as yours.
The older one still sounds very English but the younger one is a wee lassie 🤣

My bother moved to the USA 30 years ago, still speaks with a North London accent. His kids were born and raised in the USA and both have a North London accent !

They might not. My daughter was 2.5 when she moved from Liverpool to Glasgow and she doesn't have either accent 😂
She has her own accent with some Scottish and scouse words thrown in. (Her dad and all his family are scouse)

My husband didn’t! Moved to Scotland when he was 9 and he doesn’t have a Scottish accent at all - neither do his siblings. I always think it’s strange!

We moved to scotland when the children were 4-8. Five years on they maybe sound a bit of something, but barely. Still def long aaaa in grass, castle etc.

Depends, they may pick up a Scottish twang but depends where in Glasgow you’re moving to. My mum is English and I have this weird Scottish accent but say things in an English way - 3 of 4 grandparents English too and we had to speak nicely. Anyway good luck with the move enjoy Scotland

I’m in Australia and have a few friends, born here or that moved quite young who speak with the accent of their parents at home or with family and have an Aussie accent they use as well. It’s interesting to hear

Impossible to say, we did the opposite, Scotland to Yorkshire when they were 10 and 2.

10 is now 27 and still has the Scottish accent, the 2 year olds are now 19 and have a half and half, Yorkshire people think they sound Scots and Scots think they sound yorkshire!

3 year old I imagine will lose it. 8 year old perhaps a mix. I moved to England from Scotland when I was 11 and I have a mixed accent. Sounds like a very very soft Scottish accent.

Possibly not, I moved here nearly 40 years ago and still have an English accent.

I'd say it varies.

My children speak English with a Northern accent like me, even though they have never actually lived in the UK and are taught standard English at school. However, they speak German with a German accent despite having lived in Austria all their lives.

I, on the other hand, speak German with quite a pronounced Austrian accent.

I've lived in Scotland over 20 years after moving here as a child and have annoyingly never lost my English accent 😒

I moved from home counties to North of England aged 8 and gained a Yorkshire accent within a year. My sister is a couple of years older and had a strange mix of inflections.

You just never know. When I met my best friend aged 11 she had a proper Belfast accent, when she told me she'd moved from Canada where she grew up six months before I didn't believe her! Almost 30 years on her older brother by three years still speaks with a Canadian twang but her accent was lost almost before they unpacked!

Then on the other hand my cousins grandmother moved to Belfast from the South of England aged 9. Even aged 95 she still hasn't lost her accent.

Everyone is different but younger children of course are more likely to lose their accent but you never know, you might even lose yours! 😆

I’m English, moved up here to Perthshire nearly 50 years ago. My children were born and raised in Perthshire, but have always spoken with English accents - they are now in their 30s. They can successfully mimic the local accent, though.

I would say so. I left Scotland aged 5 to live in Cheshire. Quickly lost the Scottish accent and gained a Cheshire one. Moved to SE aged about 7 or 8 and lost the last accent to be fully SE accent.

We moved a couple of years ago with a then 9 year old. No change in accent, it’s still very obvious where we lived before - but school is quite mixed with several other kids from England and other places in the class.

I left Wales at 7. No trace of my Welsh accent now, though the odd word does go that way occasionally. We moved around a lot so I have a very neutral accent. We settled in London when I was 11 and my neutral accent was one of many accents in the area. My brother is an 'innit-bruv' Londoner through and through (8 when we settled in London).

I live in the South West now and my children go to school with some very broad Somerset/Wiltshire accents. They've maintained my neutral accent so far (11 and 9) as that, along with DHs neutral with the odd Midlands twang is what they hear at home.

You'll probably find that they develop their own hybrid accents and that they'll all be different.

I’m from the Midlands and DH is from the south east. We live in the north east, our teenage DDs who were born here, been to school here etc, have a similar accent to DH. I think it varies from child to child, I know plenty of families in a similar situation, some of whom the children speak with a local accent and others they speak like their parents.

My mother has a theory that if you are a good singer you will pick up new accents and if you can't sing, you won't.

We moved from SE to NW England when my ds was 6. He's now 14 and still has an unchanged southern accent. So does dd who is a couple of years older.

It absolutely depends on the person. I've always picked up the accent around me, wherever I've lived. However I've known people who still speak with the accent they learned in childhood although they moved away decades ago.

I can't sing a note but I pick up accents like you wouldn't believe. I'm good at languages though.