Will my children lose their accent

[PeaceInThis]

Moving to Glasgow with my 2 children who are 8 and 4. They currently speak with southern English accents. Will their accents stay the same or change? I'm not bothered either way really but fun to know other people's thoughts/experiences :-)

We moved to Scotland with 4 children between 4 and 8.

The eldest still has an English accent, second almost English, third and fourth posh Scots. They can all do an awesome Glaswegian accent. 😂

My ex did the opposite move aged 8 and lost his Glasgow accent, now speaking RP. His brother is 2 years older and speaks with a Scottish (accent).

My DD relocated with me from home counties to northern Ireland aged 13 and has kept her accent. So from my very slim anecdata I'd guess they'll get mild Glasgow accents.

As a side note my toddler speaks with an English accent but northern Irish inflection (goes up at the end of each sentence). It sounds so bizarre but I've no doubt that school will knock any English out of him!

I moved away from Yorkshire aged 9 and completely lost my accent.

I don't know why I put accent in brackets 🤣

I'd expect them to be able to code switch. Mine were 2 and 5 when we moved up, 2 years later the older one is still very English unless reciting or singing something learned from school. If she's learned from us (posh southern English) it has our accent. I've picked up more dialect and accented words than she has. The then 2 year old basically speaks toddler, but with a Glasgow accent.

My mother is Scottish by birth but lived in England for 40 years now. She sounds Scottish to English people and English to Scottish people.

I moved around a lot when I was a child to areas with distinct accents. I have a homogeneous accent now.

They'll be excellent at code switching and modify their accent depending on who they're speaking to.

Having said that, my friend (South London accent) has 2 children with South London accents who have lived their whole lives in Scotland. So you never know.

I moved south aged 4.5 and lost most of my northern English accent during primary school, with the exception of a few "home" words like bath and aunty which I still say with a hard a.

Linguistically speaking, yes, as their language skills are still so malleable. They are very unlikely to retain their accents (especially the younger one).

My children lost their south of England accents within about a week of moving to Wales !
They were aged 3 and 6 , and are in their 20s now , still have Welsh accents even though they are back working in London

We moved up north from Hertfordshire when DD was 4 and 5 years later she sounds like a local (and more northern than her dad who grew up here). Zero southern accent left.

I returned to the U.K. from the USA when mine were 5&3, both lost their American accents quickly. Moved again at 8&6, eldest retained her southern accent (mine) dd2 has the local accent to where we moved too

Even my youngest who was 4 has still kept his accent (now 13). Moved from South east to North East. He has a slight northern twang, more than his older siblings.

We moved from London to Birmingham when DD was 3 and then Solihull when she was six. DH and I are from derby. She has a kind of generic accent with tinges of brum and london.

I grew up down south/on military bases around the world with other posh sounding southerners. I live near Liverpool now and have done since I was 13. Liverpudlians can tell I’m not originally from here, southerners can tell I’m northern but can’t quite place it.

As a PP said, I can switch and lay either on thickly when needed to fit in certain groups. My sister is 7 years younger than me and has no southern twang at all and sounds scouse (well, technically, like a “Wool“ as we’re not in Liverpool proper. If you know you know haha)

We moved from Liverpool to Glasgow just before my daughter turned 3, she's 5 now and has the weirdest little accent, doesn't sound like either!

I'm Glaswegian and her dad is scouse (still together) so that's probably why 😂

It could(or not) be a big shift. I don’t know just wondering.. have 2 kids, 10 and 6. Shifting to glasgow. Both have the Brum accent while we are not from England. May not be an issue for us because work brings different dialects and accents together. Just worried if the kids can cope with Glaswegian at School? I know it’ll be difficult initially but will they be ok to pick up lessons at school? Too specific a question but just the mum’s heart is going round and round 🫣

Glaswegian isn't really one accent, it varies across the city and then is also different not far outside the city. It is overall quite a strong accent so it's possible that your children will pick up a slight lilt, and they may well pick up a few new phrases too. Good luck in Glasgow, it's a friendly city, with good shops, lots of culture, good education establishments, green areas, and is a great central location for getting out and exploring Scotland.

Definitely!

I imagine at those ages they will definitely end up with a glaswegian accent. My friend moved from the south east to the north west a few years ago when her kids were around 5 and 8, the youngest especially now has a proper north west accent. Also kids want the fit in so they are likely to want to start speaking like the other kids.

Kids will learn very quickly to “fit in” and will start to force themselves to adopt the accent their school environment has.
I moved from south to Yorkshire at age 9. Started softening vowels etc within days to fit in
BUT, a bit like being bilingual I spoke with southern accent at home - that remained my natural accent
im 60 now. I’ve lived all over the country from south, to London, to Newcastle , Cheshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire. I speak a slightly softer version of south perm accent thst fols would be hard pushed to say what accent is precisely other than southern. But, if I’m talking to old school friends or friends in north I do adopt that old Yorkshire vowel softening - it just sort of slips in

so they won’t “loose” their current accent. It’ll lay dormant a bit and if they move away back south it’ll come out agian. But for time being, whilst at school, they’ll start adopting the local accent fairly quickly, normally.

Ohhh interesting. My kids don't really have accents which I find fascinating. I live in the SW, was born and raised here but by parents who weren't local. I have a tiny rural twang. Moved to London for 15 years and married a Londoner who does have a proper norf lundan accent. Kids born in London but moved back to SW at 3.

Dd1 sounds mostly neutral, sometimes a bit like her dad (nuffin, innit) and the occasional very mild rural burr.

Dd2 sounds like the queen. No idea where that's from!

Their friends are also fairly neutral although I love the one who sounds like worzel gummage with parents from Derry. Her mother is mortified when they go home for Christmas!

With all due respect, pretty much everyone has an accent. The way your kids speak would definitely sound like an accent to someone from Scotland, like me. I might not be able to place exactly where they are from, but it would definitely be an (English sounding) accent. Based on the description of sounds you've given I'd think somewhere south of Watford but not 'the very south'. This isn't a criticism, just a different perspective. Of course some accents are stronger than others.

My kids moved from North to south when 10 & 8. Youngest had strongest accent - lost it completely. Eldest whose accent wasnt as strong (we are a family of widely mixed accents) has mostly lost it but odd words including Mum still have a touch of the north. Youngest generally better at accents so his french accent is better than the eldests. I think the youngest has a more attuned ear, and is more concerned about fitting in too.