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!

The Queens English doesn’t mean sounds like the Queen,

All Southerners definitely don’t sound the same and it’s quite right to say you only have to travel the area to hear that.

There are only 3% of people that have an RP accent, are a lot on MN?

Absolutely! I live in West Yorkshire and me and DH grew up in towns 10 miles apart but with totally different accents.

That’s interesting. Is there a “neutral” Irish accent? Or do those learning to speak English in Ireland just end up speaking like their teacher?

Your story about the French teacher reminds me of a scuba diving instructor I once had. She was Austrian but had had an Australian boyfriend. When I first met her, I assumed that she was South African.

I would assume people are being deliberately vague when talking about accents of themselves and their relatives. For the purposes of this discussion it doesn't matter and frankly how many people on her could tell the difference between an Aberdonian and Dundonian accent or a Geordie or Mackem accent anyway?

I grew up talking like my parents with a 'posh' generic southern accent and never picked up the local accent. My parents had moved from the home counties to the West Country.

I wish I had become more local because I was much teased for being 'posh' at school but the West Country accent just never became my natural way of speaking, though I can 'do' it perfectly. It's not inevitable and depends on the child.

My kids speak English just like me and Icelandic just like their father, though there aren't really that many differences in accent in Icelandic. They also speak English with a cracking Icelandic accent when they're speaking to Icelanders in English (kids like to speak English here). It's very funny.

There is supposed be a supraregional Irish English accent, but mostly I’d say they just sound like their teachers. That’s a bit of a guess on my part though tbh, as I’m not an English language teacher.

DS and all his close Anglophone school friends in France speak RP, regardless of the fact that all their parents have different accents from all around the UK, NZ and Australia.

He speaks French with a "Standard European French" accent rather than the local accent.

Most "foreigners" learning English sound American.

I moved to Devon from Yorkshire when I was 7. Both parents have Yorkshire accents. I have an RP accent with a slight Yorkshire twang on certain words. DH was born and bred in Devon, but doesn't have an accent as such. Kids both speak RP.

Scottish with English parents. Think I had a weird cross over accent until moving out the parental home and it finally developed in to broad Scottish.

I'm from Edinburgh and speak 'generic middle class Scottish' with shades of my Edinburgh childhood showing if I get drunk.

DS speaks 'posh Edinburgh' with the occasional Edinburgh schoolboy-ism such as 'shanner' and 'eh no?'. He hasn't yet referred to spring onions as sybees.

It fascinates me how German people always say 'nevertheless' when speaking English but it's not a word people with English as a 1st language use. We tend to use 'but' or 'however' at a push. Something to do with the equivalent German word being used a lot more in conversation.

I'm from West Wales with a softer accent I guess, as I've lived out of Wales for 36 years now and have to speak to non English speakers for most of my time, so it's a little more "anglicised". DS dad was from North Yorks.
DS speaks English with a Hampshire accent, as that's where he started school, Swiss German variation and accent is Baaseldytsch, and High German with a Swiss Accent.

Not a single Welsh lilt....😕

But it is a fact that, I am not describing my accent as neutral because it is my opinion that it is neutral, I am using a term that is used to describe the accent In some industries.

FWIW, the OED definition of RP is:

The most commonly accepted or standard form of pronunciation; spec. the standard, most regionally neutral form of spoken British English, traditionally based on educated speech in southern England

I don’t believe RP is still considered to have such a strong connection to class as it did historically.

I don’t accept that if you and I had a conversation you would be able to describe me as having an accent but I wouldn’t be able to say the same about you. The OED definition doesn’t address this.

And adopting an RP accent is everything to do with class. Removing any trace of anything which could attach you to a geographical location or social class you find undesirable is nothing other than middle/upper class japes.

Okay, @BRL2, but that is your opinion. It is not my opinion that my accent is neutral, it is a fact that that term is in useage to describe my accent 🤷‍♀️

And adopting an RP accent is everything to do with class. Removing any trace of anything which could attach you to a geographical location or social class you find undesirable is nothing other than middle/upper class japes.

People don’t usually consciously adopt an accent (I concede some people do). It’s subconscious. It’s not “japes” 🙄

I don’t accept that if you and I had a conversation you would be able to describe me as having an accent but I wouldn’t be able to say the same about you.

I don’t really understand what you mean? If you don’t think you have an accent, are you suggesting that your way of speech is neutral? How would you describe your “non accent”? I am guessing SSBE.

I don’t know anyone who has adopted an accent (RP or otherwise). Most people have the accent they grew up with, although perhaps it changes over time depending on who you spend time with.

I don’t think many people who describe themselves as having a RP accent have described other accents as undesirable - they just don’t speak that way. It would be peculiar to adopt a regional accent if it isn’t what comes naturally. Inverted snobbery is still snobbery.

Actually, come to think of it, I do know someone who adopted an accent. I used to know this white guy with locs called Jamaican Al. I assumed that he was a white Jamaican but it turned out that he’d never been there - he just started speaking with a strong Jamaican accent in his teens and it became his accent. I don’t think that is what you mean though.

My DC both have London accents, I can't stand the way DD can't say "th"

I do have an accent. You would immediately recognise that. What I find odd is that you believe I wouldn’t think you have an accent.

How old were you when you moved there, out of interest?

It’s nothing to do with inverted snobbery. It’s just an observation that you think your ‘neutral’ accent is the default way to speak.
anybody with an RP accent has worked to achieve it. Most kids pick up local accents so if you don’t sound like the people you live amongst you have consciously worked on sounding different.

My daughter has a Bolton accent and I love it and will always tell her to be proud of it. Accentism can get to fuck

What if the other people you hang out with speak with RP? My junior school was very middle class. My secondary school was more mixed - but the kids who spoke with RP sat together and hung out after school. The teachers at my secondary school spoke with RP. People in the area I grew up in spoke with RP - it really is possible to grow up without a regional accent.