AIBU to find it odd my children sound English?

[brawst]

Neither of my kids have Scottish accents. Both DH and I have Scottish accents and have never lived outside of Scotland. I have a Glaswegian accent and DH has a very soft Edinburgh accent.

We live and the kids grew up in Fife, but both of them sound English. They both moved to England at 18 for studies (over a decade ago now) and people will ask them if they have Scottish family or links because they’ve very Scottish names, like Angus McLeod etc.

They only used to have a very slight accent, but DD said she put this on so she wouldn’t get teased at School

I suppose they may have just consciously adopted 'received pronunciation' as their norm.

Did they go to private school?

I live in the north east.
I am not from the north east.

every so often i make my children say “day 24 in the big brother house” or shout “my eyes, spuggy, my eyes” really loudly for the comedy value.

Parents' accents have a smaller influence on children than their peers. Did they go to ordinary local state schools with children who had strong local accents? If yes then that's quite unusual.

I do however know a family that this happened to locally. Both parents have Highland accents, three kids went to local Highland schools (forty years ago before the English incomer influx so almost all the other kids were local sounding) and yet all three have always sounded English but with light Highland intonation. A mystery!

Why would she get teased at a Scottish school for having a Scottish accent?

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Kids try to sound like those around them. I have a BBC Scotland accent and DH an English accent.

My DD sounds like me but her friends at school tell her she sounds English

my DS has acquired a really thick Fife accent (it’s awful) to fit in with his mates. I’m hoping when he goes to uni this autumn and has to make himself understood by people from all over that will sort his accent out.

she was putting on the scottish accent so she wouldn’t get teased.

@brawst are they autistic or neurodivergent? my children have english sounding accents despite being raised in wales as welsh speakers! but they are neurodivergent and its quite common to have this more ‘posh/rp/english’ sound in ND people.

My wife has family in Scotland in the highlands and 2/3 of her Scottish cousins don't have Scottish accents at all either. One has a very slight accent.

DH is from the north east but hasn’t lived there for 20 years now, he has a much milder accent than his Parents and sister. As soon as we go up there though it comes back!
I think it’s natural to absorb a bit of the accent of where you live

I developed a Geordie accent when we lived in Northumberland - I was ages 4-10. My parents were both Londoners. I lost the accent PDQ when we moved down to the south-east and they sent me to public school.

Having said that, I've been binge-watching Inspector George Gently for the last couple of weeks, and I can 'feel' myself thinking in a Geordie accent again (after 50-odd years!). I don't think it's made it as far as my mouth yet, though!

I have several friend who went to private schools in Edinburgh and who sound totally Home Counties

DH and I have very different non-local accents to our local area (which we've largely retained over many, many years) but the DCs have gradually aquired the local accent. Sometimes DS2's accent changes while he's talking to me and blends with mine.

When they were younger, I used to be able to tell which words they heard more at school or home by which accent they used.

I could see DS2 shifting regional accents if he moved away...

I have relatives that moved to Englad with their Scottish families they have all lost their accents even the middle aged adults it is very odd, but i think accents must be easy to pick up.

My son has the dreaded international school accent... I now have a soft Glaswegian accent, when I used to have a really thick one, and my husband has abandoned the scouse accent in favour of a soft Northern one after we moved abroad.

Nothing wrong with a Fife accent 😉. I'm sure he will make himself understood somehow, it never held some of us back.

I come from Liverpool though Ive lived most of my life in the midlands.
All my family have obvious scouse accents, some broader than others. We are very working class.
I went to what was considered a posh secondary school. All my friends had dads who were senior civil servants, solicitors, vicars, even one two bishops. My dad was a milkman, my mum a dinner lady. I soon lost the scouse. It was hard enough fitting in without speaking broad scouse.
I now have a soft northern accent, though when I go back for more than a day some residual scouse creeps back in

Accents are weird. I've lived outside Scotland for nearly 40 years but still have a Edinburgh accent. My parents were 40 when we left and still have strong accents.my Grand parents lived in Australia for 45 years and still sounded Scottish.
My dcs have a SE accent/international rp accent. DD is off to Scotland for uni so will probably pick up an accent as she picks it up easily.
I often get mistaken for posh Irish or posh Scottish ( which i guess Edinburgh and private school gets you)

I live in the back arse of rural Northern Ireland and both of my children have southern English accents. I blame Peppa Pig. I try not to take the piss out of them when they ask , " Mummy, shall we get in the cah?"

My Aberdeen born DC moved to an English school aged 12 - he did exaggerate the accent a bit to begin with for shits and giggles (used to go full Doric), but he’s never lost it. Ofsted inspector identified where he came from immediately (fellow loon). His older brother (20 years in Scotland) has a softer accent, but with that sort of mid Atlantic twang that a lot of the kids have. Me and his dad have English accents. Go figure.

My friends son went to Queen Victoria school in Dunblane , he has a "ecclectic" accent which i am assuming is the international school accent?

I once read that whatever accent you have by age 9 will stay with you.

My daughter had a very SE English accent which she lost within 6 weeks of moving to Scotland as she wanted to sound like her friends.

I moved to England and had an Aberdeen accent. I had to put on an English accent when teaching French 🙂

Some Fife accents are fine. His is not. It’s pure Orc. 🤣

When I worked in a certain Fife secondary school, I was surprised at the number of children from a certain state primary school who came up using a schwa in certain words and no audible "r" sound. (For example "butt[schwa]" instead of "butter" with an audible "r".

I reckoned that it was down to a mixture of exposure to mass media plus the influence of primary teachers with English accents.

I was brought up in Fife, and it seems to me that much of the dialect and accent has been lost. I recall our teachers training us not to to go up at the end of our sentences...

If you want to hear an example of the older Fife accent, listen to Andy Stewart's "The Rumour". (Andy Stewart was an excellent mimic as well as a songwriter, though many only know of him as a singer.)

My husband's children moved to England as adults and you wouldn't know that they spent their formative years in Fife.

For those youngsters who haven't heard it, here's "The Rumour":

I know a few South Wales people who sound English, odd when their parents and siblings sound like Nessa from Gavin&Stacey. Friend groups can have a big impact.