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Original poster

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

104 replies

HumanDemands · 01/08/2022 21:06

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 :-)

OP posts:
Suetwo · 01/08/2022 22:46

Hard to say. My dad is Scottish and has lived in Essex for 30 years, but he still has a Scottish accent.

Wasn't the refined Edinburgh accent voted the most trustworthy? I vaguely remember some survey in which people were played various British accents (London, Birmingham, Geordie, and so on) announcing that an imaginary plane was in trouble. I believe the Edinburgh accent was voted the most reassuring.

Fortunefavoursthebrave · 01/08/2022 22:49

We moved back from London to Renfrewshire when my eldest was 4. She didn't have a broad cockney accent to start with (we're both Scottish) but it surprised me how quick she went full Scottish!

Callingallbutterflies · 01/08/2022 22:55

We moved to Scotland from West Yorkshire when one child was 3 years old and the other a baby of 4 months. Both have English accents with occasional Scottish sounding words.

schnubbins · 01/08/2022 23:00

I moved from Zimbabwe ( Rhodesia) with a very strong Rhodesian accent back to my parents birthplace in Ireland when I was 12 years old. I lost my accent within a year or two but have a very soft , very much admired Irish accent.my kids grew up in the US went back to Germany (husbands birthplace) and one still speaks English with a very American accent and the other a mixture of German , Irish and American .They speak German accent free thank God

NotQuiteUsual · 01/08/2022 23:04

What we found moving to Northumberland is that when they learn phonics at school it all goes a bit confusing. So my six year old will sound out book as b-oo-k but say the word as b-uh-k. Or bath is read as b-ah-th, but in conversation is a b-ar-th. The 9 year old calls me Mam right after school, but at home I'm Mum. The 3 year old is totally southern sounding still.

DeadButDelicious · 01/08/2022 23:15

My in laws are Scottish and have Scottish accents, all of DH's extended family are Scottish and live in scotland. He and his sister were born and educated in England and neither have a Scottish accent. Not even a hint of one. They might use Scottish phrasing but it's with a very northern English accent.

His parents accents have softened somewhat as well, especially when compared with the relatives who still live in Scotland. They get distinctly more Scottish when visiting family.

Dyra · 01/08/2022 23:25

Hard to say. Mum and Dad have lived in Birmingham for 30+ years and still have their Bristolian accents. Not as strong though. I can tell if my Mum has talked to her Mum recently as her accent dials right up. As for me and my siblings, the 3 of us that weren't born there don't have accents either Bristolian or Brummy (ages 4, 2 and 4 months). Then again we two oldest no longer live in Birmingham. Of the 2 that were, one has a true Brum accent, and the other a very mild one.

Coka · 01/08/2022 23:28

I was 6 when I moved to Scotland with two English parents. I don't sound fully Scottish...or fully English, something in-between.

Change123today · 01/08/2022 23:29

I have two friends (brothers) who moved down from Glasgow to south of England - some 30 years later the older of the two has hardly a trace of an accent but the younger one still sounds like he’s lives in Glasgow! Their Dad is English but moved to Scotland when he was 15, stayed for around 15 years before moving back south with his family - he still has a lovely Scottish accent having only ever lived there for 15 years!

I do think it all depends!!

Rainingagaininseattle · 01/08/2022 23:30

It depends on their musical and auditory ability. I'm very tone deaf and did not pick up a different accent after moving at 10. Maybe I would've at 8 but I doubt it. I can't imitate accents and can hardly hear the difference between most accents.

randomsabreuse · 01/08/2022 23:50

Depends. My older one moved at 4 but thanks to lockdowns has a mostly English accent unless she's reading, reciting or singing, in which case it's Glaswegian (ish, we're not central). 3 year old moved at 1, started nursery at 3 mostly speaks toddler but local friends suggest he's probably heading towards a local accent.

My own (posh southern) accent is moving northwards especially my as and rs.

purpletrees16 · 01/08/2022 23:58

Accents are strange. I know someone who has sounded like a Brummie since 15… now in his 30s he is moving there for the first time.

no connection to the city, lived Scotland, London, Yorkshire. Parents: Welsh / London.

Scottishskifun · 02/08/2022 00:00

My 3.5 year old has a English accent and has always lived in Scotland as we are both English and he simply hasn't picked one up! Only a few words he says does he have a slight accent so I think it's depends on the child.

I had a friend with a South African accent despite leaving there when she was 7 but her sister who was older has a English one.

Markedforsl · 02/08/2022 00:03

I did an accent test recently. I was born in the southeast of England but moved a long way away aged 7, various moves since but never anywhere near my birthplace. The accent test said I was from a place 8 miles from my birth town.

SirChenjins · 02/08/2022 00:04

Not necessarily - DS’s friends moved here 7 years ago from the south Midlands when they were 8, English accents still as strong as ever. I know plenty of adults who moved here as children and have still got bits of their original accents to a greater or lesser degree (myself included). It’s impossible to predict - although more likely perhaps if their friends here have strong weegie accents.

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 02/08/2022 00:08

If you stay there, they will 100% lose their accent.

WhileMyGuitarGentlyWeeps · 02/08/2022 00:10

If someone moves to another place at say 16-18 plus, then they often keep their old original accent, but I have never known children under 13/14 move and retain their old accent.

scissorsandsellotape · 02/08/2022 00:11

I spoke with a Scottish accent when I moved there age 7

RhubarbFairy · 02/08/2022 00:20

Just to add. DH is born and bred Wolverhampton. Lived there until be went to uni (still in the Midlands) then moved to the South West after graduation.

His parents, older sibling and all of his friends have very broad accents. Yet DH is more neutral with the occasional phrasing or word thrown in.

Just goes to show that even when you're immersed in it, you might not pick it up in the same way.

I can pick out a Wolves accent at 20 paces. Not because it sounds like DH, but because it sounds like my MIL.

Snugglemonkey · 02/08/2022 00:20

Hard to say. I live near Glasgow, but am Irish. I speak more slowly here than I do in Ireland, but my accent has not changed at all. My son (born here) does not have a Scottish accent. It isn't Irish either, it sounds quite nuetral to me, but others remark on his lack of Scottish accent, so it isn't just me who notices. I think going between both places and living with me has been very influential.

mrsfollowill · 02/08/2022 00:33

I moved around the UK as a child a lot- always adopted the local accent wherever I went- probably just trying to fit in! My Dad had a strong Geordie accent and didn't really ever lose it- my mum loved it when we lived 'down south' for a period and I was 'posh' and said 'barth' and 'grarse'.
Lived in Yorkshire for 30yrs now and have a Yorkshire accent (not strong- I've been described as posh Yorkshire) I'm not posh at in the slightest by the way just not quite as broad as some- I still have flashes of a Lancs accent at times as lived there as a teen so proper Yorkshire folk know I'm not quite one of them!

CombatBarbie · 02/08/2022 00:42

My youngest was 8 when we moved back, up until then she had a regional pad brat accent. At home she talks normal, with her friends she switches to the local West Coast accent

Eldest was 10, could switch like youngest but now just goes by her normal non accent.

HaveringWavering · 02/08/2022 00:59

NelStevHan · 01/08/2022 21:18

Have you heard Gillian Anderson’s bidialectual accent? In RhwnUS she speaks like an American and over here with an English accent.
it’s not an affectation - it’s genuine. She was born in US, moved to London then back to US as a teen so depending on which country she’s in that’s how she speaks…

John Barrowman is the same - Glaswegian and American (or Canadian?).

GrimDamnFanjo · 02/08/2022 01:13

My eldest didn't and we lived in Glasgow from when they were 4 to 8 yrs old.

HaveringWavering · 02/08/2022 01:13

The interesting thing is the extent to which it does and doesn't matter. I always knew that my son would have a different accent to me because I am Scottish but we live in England. DH is English. I moved as an adult and my accent was already "set"; it hasn't altered much at all.

DS (6) and I have the odd good-natured tussle over how to say things - "Why are you saying drawurr Mummy, it's "drawh"! but mostly I don't really think about how our accents differ. DS still can't pick out a Scottish accent in a stranger. Interestingly my FIL is from another country and speaks grammatically perfect but heavily-accented English. My DH always says he forgets his Dad has "an accent" - it's just "Dad's voice".

All this is a long winded way of saying that IME within the family accents seem to sort of lose their significance, even if (like I am) you are very attuned to them in others.