To ask what accent your kids have?

[BackDownSouth]

Just curious to hear from other families where the children are exposed to a range of different accents from birth. I’m from Manchester (have a very strong Manchester accent, like a female Liam Gallagher), my partner is from Eastern Europe, and we’ll be raising our baby in Liverpool.

Is the baby likely to pick up a mixture of me and my partner’s accent, or will they pick up the Scouse accent from nursery/school and their friends? I’d rather they picked up the local accent just for the sake of fitting in. Me and my partner both find the “Oooh, you’re not from ‘round ‘ere, are ya?” exhausting 😂

Maternity leave has me bored so I’m thinking about this a lot!

@10speckledfrogs we are both English and living in NI, when did you find your the accent of your eldest started to change? My eldest is in pre-school and has recently been dropping his t’s and I’m hoping it’s the start of a little accent creeping in!

If you can't hear an accent, i'd imagine that it's because your children speak in the same way you do and the people around you do.

I said 'neutral southern' to describe mine and DD1's accent because we're clearly from the south of England, but without any of the obvious markers of which part of it. Having listened to a couple of clips, I think it's probably closest to SSBE.

Nobody has said that @Bankin People are merely pointing out there is no such thing as no accent or a neutral accent.

In my partner's culture, everyone speaks with a certain accent regardless of where they are raised. The younger generations put on a local accent sometimes when speaking to their peers but their natural accent is the same as their parents.

Why would I think I dont have an accent? Or why would mumsnetters think every South eastern accent is posh?

I think I don't have an accent because I am used to how I speak and don't get around much tbh, I imagine a lot of people think they don't have an accent I've certainly seen Americans claim they don't have accents.

Not sure why so many people on here think every southern accent is posh. There's a clear difference between a posh accent and a general southern one and I've lived on the south coast for twenty years so I'd know.

I'm broad as buggery Kiwi, DH is a private school combo of Kiwi and English, with no hint of the Manchester he originated from.

The girls are a hybrid of Kiwi and South East England, which is understandably getting stronger, the longer we live here. One of them also had a 'down South NZ) bur' that she got from her favourite day care worker.

At about age 4 we noticed the beginnings of the accent appearing and then by the time she turned 5 she was starting to sound decidedly Northern Irish when speaking English to the point that my family were commenting on her cute accent

She turns six in March and now she sounds almost like her peers

Apologies haven't read this full thread but I've seen it said on a lot of other threads that everyone in the south east has a posh accent.

There's a clear difference between a regular southern accent and a posh one. Real southerns know this.

I thought most drill artists live in the south east. I'm only aware of one posh one.

By the time they go to school most children speak with the local accent. I’ve many friends from abroad, mainly South Africa or the US and the kids all have the accent of their peers.

I find it strange that you can be so attuned to local differences in accent, but still believe you or your children don’t have accents at all @Bankin. I don’t get it 🤔

Well yeah like I said pretty sure most people think they don't have an accent I've even seen Americans claim they don't have accents. Everyone thinks they are the default.

And really if you have an opinion that every southern sounds like the queen then you probably wouldn't be able to place my accent 😉

I grew up in wigan and have a strong accent DH is from the West Midlands and we live in rural Staffordshire and our children speak posh to us😂although my DD2 says a couple of things very northen! Especially the word "ney" which must be from family and not my self.

I have a fairly "neutral" (generic southern I guess) accent. I used to have a Northumberland accent but had to tone it down because I live abroad and nobody understands northern. I still pronounce things like bath, grass the northern way though. Partner is German. My daughter is only 3 and mostly sounds like me. She's at a bilingual nursery and the English speaking staff member is South African. Recently she's started saying "yiss" instead of "yes" and singing the alphabet song with "zee" instead of "zed" (I correct that one!)

Im Scottish and dad is London - living in SE. Kids (10 and 13) can do an amazing Scottish accent on demand but unfortunately it's a plain old Estuary accent for them now. When they were little though they would throw in the odd Weegie pronounced word to my own amusement!

I mean I’d place it as being (most probably) English 😁

I certainly don’t think everybody in the south of England sounds like the queen did btw…and I don’t even live in the UK. I’m Irish, but we get a lot of British TV.

I do think you’re wrong in your belief that most people don’t think they’ve an accent, but maybe that belief is area dependent or social class dependent. I’ve a feeling it might be 😉

I'm from north east , DH from Cumbria. Kids had my accent as we lived there till there were little. Been at international school for 10!years now and have a weird non descript accent. My son pronounces his words with an American twang as his nursery teacher was from Florida. I love listening to them talking to their (local) friends as they code switch and change how they speak English , and switch back when speaking to us or other British friends. Fascinating.

Everyone doesn't think that at all

Everyone has an accent. Why would they think they don't

Well Im Just saying I know a lot of Americans who say they don't have accents when clearly to us in the UK and Ireland they do.

Not sure if the last part of your comment is supposed to imply all southerns are posh or something but whatever at this point people believe what they want to believe 🤷🏻‍♀️

The insecurities and jealousy towards Southern English always come out to play and the assumption we all live in mansions and speak like the queen. Lol think it and Seeth about it if you want

I don’t think all southerners are posh. Why would I think that?

Everyone has an accent, whether they think they do or not. Sometimes somebody has an accent that is so mixed in terms of its influences (whether from parents or moving around) that it is difficult to place.

I think both the UK and Ireland have a very wide range of accents over a fairly small geographical area so they are a bit different to America in that sense.

I’m also not jealous of people living in Southern England @Bankin.
What a bizarre assumption.

We’re from Kent but live in the West Country. Very few dc have West Country accents and most people we know moved here from the south east - it’s a town that people move to for jobs I think. Dc speak English with a general southern accent. Dd1 and 2 are posher than dd3 who drops her ts etc but I think that’s based on friendship groups.

They will have a Liverpool accent once they start school.

Isn’t that just what us southerners like to think to make us feel superior? Think hyacinths bucket 😂