To ask what is going on with my son’s accent?

[ShouldITakeIt]

My son is 10 and we moved to Scotland (not too far from Glasgow) from London just under two years ago. DS speaks mostly in the same accent he has always had (a fairly well spoken English accent), no hint of a Scottish accent yet but recently has adopted what I can only describe as a Yorkshire accent! He has no friends or teachers from Yorkshire, so it’s quite confusing. I would like to say I have no problem with Yorkshire accents, in fact I think they’re lovely, but I can’t understand why my son is now sounding like a member of the Dingle family when he’s never even been to Yorkshire 😂 at first I thought maybe he’s trying to fit in with his Scottish pals and failing spectacularly, but he seems genuinely unaware he’s doing it, and it’s at home too. He does still speak in his “old accent too” but mixed with this new northern twang. Anyway, I’m not too bothered, but just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience 😂

A friend of mine moved to the US when her son was 13 and she said that within a few months he sounded different but not American, more like Australian! He had no contact with anyone from Australia! She thought it was very strange!

There is a thing/condition know as bidilaectal. More commonly, switching between 1 accent and another- not taking up a 3rd one. Does he watch any TV shows with a Yorkshire accent?

Hi 👋 no, he doesn’t watch any shows with Yorkshire accents that I can think of! V interesting to hear about the boy moving to America but gaining an Australian sounding accent! This seems to be what is happening to my son. I wonder how he sounds now?

We are in Aus, our accents are not strong Australian. My DS (nearly 15) has an audible english accent that is coming out more since his voice deepened, he gets comments on and sometimes teachers think he is from England (we lived there when he was little for 2 years but that accept was different- his is more “posh” now. I don’t think he puts it on. I think it’s because he’s neurodiverse. He has ADHD no ASD diagnosis, but i do wonder sometimes about ASD.

Or maybe too much Peppa pig (jokes. He doesn’t watch that, and really hasn’t watched a lot of tv preferring games and you tube- which is more American- so if it was tv related he’d be American)

My nieces and nephews in Aberdeen have an amusing drawl that defo doesn’t sound aberdonian. Bit of American/ Yorkshire…

My own half Irish half Scottish sons, born SE England have what I hear as an English accent but friends down here comment has strong Scottish tones.

I love an accent… any accent.

Thanks for the responses everyone, really interesting to read. I think it must just be a mix of hearing two different accents at home and at school!

I also have a younger son (6yo) who is autistic and was not speaking when we moved here. He is now very verbal (but not conversational yet) and he speaks in a Scottish accent

Probably a mix of accents. But can I ask if he suffers migraines? https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/25242-foreign-accent-syndrome-fas

He doesn’t generally suffer migraines but funnily enough went to bed with a headache tonight! Thank you for the link, never heard of this before!

I'm neurodivergent (I think that's relevant because others I know who do this are mostly ND also) and I experience linguistic convergence.

This is picking up the accents I'm exposed to. I slip into the appropriate dialect as well. Amusing because people won't realise where I'm from, but can also be embarrassing sometimes. I also slip into quite a valleys accent when drunk and/or in high spirits.

My children and partner do the same.

My youngest has a weird almost northern accent mixed with a Welsh one sometimes depending on who she's been speaking to at school. We are in Wales but not in a strongly accented area anymore.

Kiwi here who is ND. I have the "posh English" accent too. Mine got stronger during/after puberty 😅

My DS has an accent somewhere between the Midlands, Lancashire and a bit of RP because of various influences. We moved to New Zealand but he didn't pick that up. However, when his voice changed in his teens he started to speak like he came from Bristol. No influences that we know of but still does it sometimes.

What does his favourite YouTuber or TV character sound like? I bet that's the answer...