Kids with American accents

[SilverGlitterBaubles]

All my friends kids, nieces and nephews have really strong American accents and I've even heard them use words like candy and trash can. What's going on?

I think it's swell!

It's definitely a thing, I'm losing the will with my teen son and his American accent. We are English by the way so it's uk wide

I hear some words used by kids in the UK but nothing like the full on American accents of kids I know in Ireland.

Watching American TV , films YouTube etc in a loop is my theory .
Though in my case we spend a lot of time in the US and Canada especially when DD was young so I suppose that’s a factor in our house .
Lots of FaceTime with Canadian family and friends this last year.. I suppose we’re “submerged “

I'm Irish, in Ireland and have children and nieces and nephews, know lots of children through voluntary work and none of them have an American accent.
Where in Ireland are the children you know?

Silver teen does do the full on American accent forgetting he's talking to us, Dh and I can often be seen doing faces.

Oh and our theory is Playstation/Xbox coupled with lockdowns and no school where kids ended up nocturnal, speaking to American kids.

Start putting Bluey, Home and Away and Neighbours on non-stop and she'll be right.

My two were obsessed with the Suite life of Zac and Cody back in the day and developed an American twang at the time.
They both speak with our local accent now

oh yeh, so completely. My son consumes so much american media that he not only has that very rounded drawl, he chooses the american pronunciation of words too. In my day, you could just about get away with saying movie and cookie without being laughed at! But my son did not know what a lever was. I had too say leee-ver and then he say 'oh right!'. He also pronounced route 'rowt' the other day.

He's 15. It's only going in one direction.

I do wonder if in 100 years all English speakers will have a more uniform accent and it will be harder to place people.

People are mixing less in real life and more and more on line.

Years ago it was just a screen but now the online interaction is voice too. zoom, tutorials, webinars, facetiming etc....

Your parents' accents are less significant a factor in your accent than they once were.

@OverByYer

My two were obsessed with the Suite life of Zac and Cody back in the day and developed an American twang at the time. They both speak with our local accent now

My dd who spends less time on line and more time out with her friends and or studying has a local accent too. But my son, honestly, he has interacted very infrequently with 'real life' friends in the last 18 months. School was back up and running for six weeks and during that time he mixed with people. But now he's back to voraciously consuming the internet.

@HermioneGrunger

Oh and our theory is Playstation/Xbox coupled with lockdowns and no school where kids ended up nocturnal, speaking to American kids.

This!

It's watching hours and hours of YouTube!!

I've noticed this a lot too. Even in the Olympics I hear the Americanisms in the interview post competition.
It is from YouTube.

It was the same when we were kids too! A friend of my sisters was full on Yank. Used to tell everyone she was American (she absolutely wasn’t - her uncle had emigrated and that’s as close as she got). Everyone knew - but she carried on regardless. Odd girl (and I’m talking mid teens).

Kids YouTube. The only little girl I know with an American accent watches hours of it everyday

I’ve not noticed accents, but words definitely. As above, it’s YouTube and X-Box. A kid in my class a few years ago said ‘zee’ for z which I thought was interesting! Language is certainly evolving very quickly now. It’s quite fascinating really!

Yeah it's YouTube. My son who is 8 came in with a packet of biscuits the other day and said 'can I have these cookies'!

He also addresses the room with 'hey guys' when we have friends over

I have a friend from a naice part of South Dublin who speaks with a full on US accent. She doesn’t say candy or trash can etc, but it’s jarring when she says “mom” instead of mam.

It’s so strong people at our wedding were asking her which part of America she was from - she was mortified so just she played along and made up a back story!

She feels really out of place now and was thinking about getting elocution lessons to sound more Irish. It’s less dramatic now as she’s gotten older and mixed with a wider social group, but it’s definitely still there!

Agree with pp it’s hours of YouTube - I’ve also heard children recently (over the past few years) with fauxmerican accents - all whom are spending hours watching videos online.

However I also knew someone years ago who adopted and forced a fake American accent for many years - and probably is still eking it out - after spending a month on holiday in the states as a teen (late 90s).

This is where Ross O Carroll Kelly's accent comes from totally roight? It's been happening for years in South Dublin. But now it's spreading. I heard a woman refer to the 'parking lot' recently....in Cork

@TerribleCustomerCervix
Your friend comes from a "naice" part of South Dublin - there's no way she'd use Mam
Having said that my grand aunts from
a small farm in the south west of Ireland always use Mom when speaking of and to their mother.

My non posh relatives in the North call their mum Mummy.
I consider Mummy posh.

The Americans have a lot to answer for:
"guys"
"like" interspersed throughout sentences with no relevance to anything.

[quote LadyEloise]@TerribleCustomerCervix
Your friend comes from a "naice" part of South Dublin - there's no way she'd use Mam
Having said that my grand aunts from
a small farm in the south west of Ireland always use Mom when speaking of and to their mother.

My non posh relatives in the North call their mum Mummy.
I consider Mummy posh.

The Americans have a lot to answer for:
"guys"
"like" interspersed throughout sentences with no relevance to anything. [/quote]
Starting a sentence with ' So' for no apparent reason. This is going to be awkward in Ireland where most sentences end with ' so' for no apparent reason! Eg a bag of chips please - 'that'll be 2.50 so "

I'm ordinary, mc in Dublin, and I have always said 'mum' and that is what most of my school friends would call their mother; not all but most. But you do hear some Irish people who honestly believe that only English people call their Mother 'Mum' and that it's an affectation to call your mother 'Mum'!. They haven't got out and about much. My DC obviously call me 'Mum'' and the girls my DD is friendliest with seem to call their mothers 'Mum' too. It's about 50:50 mum/mam here.

A close friend of mine from school, her daughter calls her ''Mama'' so I do know what it's like to listen as an outsider and think 'oh that sounds a little posh!'' but that's what felt right to them. I'm used to it now and so glad I said nothing! It suits them! My friend is a Mama not a Mum.

I should say, I read on mumsnet. That's how I know that some people think say Mum is an affectation and that all Irish people ought to say 'Mam'.