What accent will my child have?

[ThisGreenFinch]

Hi everyone. We're originally from Essex and moved up to Scotland last year. DS is now 5 and has autism. He is just starting to speak, yay! We were talking last night about what accent he will have? Essex, like DH and I, or Scottish, like the other children and his teachers? He has just started P1 (reception) in a mainstream school. Not bothered either way obviously as so happy to hear him talk, but fun to know the experience of others!

It really depends. I'm a southerner with a rather posh accent. My kids were born and raised in Yorkshire. They generally have a southern accent but there are certain words they say the Yorkshire way - grass, bath, fast etc. I think it's natural that they have a kind of blended southern/Yorkshire accent as that's what they're exposed to.

Absolutely not a guarantee, especially since her son is autistic. I knew someone growing up who was born and bred in the depths of Wales, parents from the North of England. They spoke in a completely neutral English accent. My own child are autistic, none have the local (very distinctive) accent nor either parent’s natural accent. Speaking ‘hyper correctly’ is a typical part of ASD if verbal. One of my children speaks mostly in echolalia, went through an American accent phase, a ‘talk like Bing Bunny’ phase, basically if the words interested him he’d repeat them in that exact voice and tone.

Ime dc will sometimes pick up from a parent giving them a bit of a mix.

We live in S Wales, I'm from here, dh is from London. He's been here over 20 years but his accent hasn't changed at all, it's still very strong.

The dc undoubtedly have mainly Welsh accents but all 3 also frequently have a bit of a London twang, especially noticible when speaking to dh or with certain phrases. 'Awwwrriiiiggghhh mate, ow ya doin?' is one of them 😂

And when we visit family or friends in London the twang is noticeably more pronounced. I've no doubt that if we ever moved there they'd all sound native within a few months.

Scottish. Lovely.

More than likely Scottish.

I am from the South (to Southern parents) and lived in Scotland until about 5. I had a Scottish accent then but lost it when we moved back down South. The Scottish filters back in sometimes if I'm speaking to someone Scottish, but in a "it sounds like you're taking the piss" way, rather than be a natural native speaker, which is embarrassing!

My SIL (also from down South) lives in Yorkshire with her American husband and all her kids speak with such broad Yorkshire accents that I have to get her to translate sometimes!

He'll end up with a hybrid accent. DH was born in the Glasgow area and has lived in the Bristol area since the age of 10. He's now 55 and it really depends on who he is speaking to and if they are local to Glasgow or Bristol, or indeed anywhere else.

Scottish eventually but might have a bit of an Essex accent to begin with

The child will sound Scottish to his parents but English to the local school kids

That’s lovely to hear. Mine is now 12yo and he talks non stop. He uses lots of echolalia too but he has great vocabulary, asks and answers questions and is more than able to communicate and have his needs met. Everyone can understand him. He still mixes up a lot and we well a lot in inference and conversational skills, but I never thought his language would develop as well as it has.

We used PECS prior to him having spoken language (I’d tried makaton but it had no impact) and that really helped bridge the gap and also made me realise how much his receptive language had come on.

Probably Scottish, but there will be the odd word that will still sound English.

I know a 10 year old girl who has lived her whole life in London, born and raised, goes to the local school full of other local London kids. Mum is American, Dad is Irish. She goes to Ireland every summer but hasn't been to the US since she was a baby. Inexplicably, she has a 100% American accent 😆

Depends. I spent longer in my home country than my brother did, but his Slavic accent is stronger than mine. My own gets stronger or weaker as I’m more influenced by my surroundings. I often get asked if I’m South African when speaking English, so I guess that’s what my hybrid accent generally sounds like.

Probably Scottish. My DH and I are both from Lancashire but now live just north of London. Both kids have neutral/slightly southern accents. It's so weird to hear my son pronouncing it barrrth rather than bath 🤣

It depends. I'm originally from Kent and live in the NW now. Husband has a local accent and LO has been in nursery since before he could talk so I'm his only exposure to a Southern accent. But even then he still says a lot of words in a very Southern accent and I do still notice when he says words in a very Northern way so generally I'd say his accent is very mild/neutral.

Scottish primarily. Peers are a much greater influence on speaking than parents (at this age anyway).

But possibly your accents will be an influence. I have a colleague who was brought up in the SE and went to quite a posh school but her parents are from Leeds. She’s definitely a Southerner in the way she speaks but has some on the flat Northern vowels.

I find this so interesting…

He’ll learn how to code switch like most kids with accents

Say hi to the hometown
My kids have an english accent despite me being a Bankie

My DS2, who has ASD, started talking around 4. He seems to have his own unique voice, tbh. Not an accent, just a rather high sing-song DS2 voice as a child, which has deepened now he's an adult.

My DS1 has a really posh voice and DS3 much less so. He can't pronounce his 'th' sounds even as an adult.

My parents were Welsh and my siblings and I always lived in the West Country. My siblings both have strong West Country accents whereas mine is much less broad. No idea why, I went to a very normal comp but just never picked up the accent strongly. I don't sound Welsh either, just generic south western.

Most of my friend group at school had parents who moved to our town for work. Most of us had the local accent but with a bit of a twang of our parents accents that came out stronger when we were highly emotional.

I ended up moving back to my parents hometown at 18 and while the twang got a bit stronger I still mostly sound like my original town.

For ours in the early days it depended on where they were picking words up from- "boys and gurrells" "sit doooon" and "legs in a basket" came out in broad weegie accents as they were learned at nursery but other things came out much more English where they'd learned the words home.

Now they're older it depends on who they're with- chatting with their friends and they can sound pretty broad with west of scotland accents. When my parents come up and stay they can suddenly start sounding much more like me when the accents around them are much more southern. At home it's probably somewhere in the middle.

Just to add to the fun, my DH is from the NE, so we also have a lot of inconsistency around bath/baaaaaath, grass/graaaaass etc as well as some Scottish pronunciations and Scots phrases/syntax chucked in for good measure 🤣

Mine (autistic adults) have what they like to call the autism accent, family all Scottish and English, born and raised in Scotland. Their accents are flat, no particular twang, they speak correctly, no slang, use quite a few “old fashioned” words, over the years the have been asked if the are American, Australian, South African, asked if they had lived abroad for extended periods and asked if one parent was from another country.
edited to add those that think they are Scottish assume posh area or boarding school.

I’m not from where I live, DH is. Our kids have a bit of a mix, until about 5 they spoke a lot more like me, once school hit it became more local but certain things they say are like me. They don’t have strong accents now but are clearly from where we live.

Most likely Scottish. My dc we're born in south east to two Irish parents. Dc had English accents. Moved back to Ireland when they were late primary. Within a year had full Irish accents. I think his strong an accent is both where you start and where you end up is a factor. I lived in England for 20 years and my accent stayed exactly the same.

I read somewhere that whatever accent a child has at age 9 will stay with them.
My niece - English father snd Scottish mother moved up to Scotland when she was 10 and retained her very posh accent

Probably Scots.

I know a couple from Belfast who live in South London. They both have strong Belfast accents. Their 3 kids speak good Sarf London.

DS1 is 4, moved to Scotland at 2 from the SE, DS2 is 2 and always lived in Scotland. Currently both have English accents, DS1 hasn’t even got a hint of a Scottish accent despite being in nursery 4 days a week and DH being Scottish. My friend moved at the same time with similarly aged kids and they both now have very strong Scottish accents - so there isn’t much rhyme or reason to it I don’t think!