Accents and children

[leigh2209]

I hesitate to post this message as I know it's a subject that elicits strong opinions but I would really welcome your views and any advice people might have.

My wife and I are currently raising our 2 year old daughter here and I'm really worried that our daughter will pick up a Leeds accent. I quite like accents but to be completely honest, I really dislike the Yorkshire accent!

I was born in the North but have moved around all my life and am told I speak without an accent. My wife is not from the UK and English isn't her first language. She speaks English beautifully though and has a subtle and charming accent. I'd really like my daughter to 'speak nicely' too but don't see how this is realistically possible if we stay here! I'm afraid we can't afford to send her to a private school. What can we do apart from move before she gets much older? Elocution lessons? Any ideas?

My main goals as a parent are that my daughter grows up a kind, considerate person and that she's happy. How she speaks is of no real importance but I would like to raise my daughter to speak lovely clear English without a strong accent.

I always find children adopt the accents of their friends from school. I have a Russian accent, which my daughter also had until she started school. Now she has a perfect English accent, with local dialect.

Accents are from peers.

Could you consider a private school. Although many may still have an accent they will be better spoken. Also other people that have moved in a professional capacity may also be more likely yo choose private.

How can you speak without an accent? 🤦‍♀️

Oh dear (at how you're looking at this. Not saying oh dear to her accent!)

They will pick up what's around them. My child is a Yorkshire accent sometimes cos she's growing up in a place with is way more Yorkshire than where I grow up.

My parents are from the south and moved north when I was 4. I started school with a southern accent. Within I year it was fully northern

Leeds is one of the less strong Yorkshire accents. I'm from Leeds and I like my accent if you don't like it here's an idea move somewhere where you do like the accent. What a stupid thought to have!

My husband grew up in an area with a very broad Yorkshire accent around him. But his accent wasn't strong at all. So families do have an input. So your daughter probably won't have a strong an accent as her friends.

I had the opposite. Husband and I were from Yorkshire/Derbyshire, but we moved down south for work, and then had children after a few years. It was really odd when our children started to talk and said grahss and bahth! It was as if we'd bred little aliens! Even playgroup had obviously had its effect, and banished our short A'd grass and baths!

I have to admit I stamp down pretty hard on dialect, 'we was going', 'free o'clock' etc because it can actually be misunderstood and it makes my teeth itch. Accent is learnt from peers, not much you can do about that apart from move.

How she speaks is of no real importance

Obviously it is though, to you, or you wouldn't have made this OP.

Oh behave you utter snib

*Snob

I mean it's of no real importance in the grand scheme of things. If I had a choice though... my daughter speaking beautiful English without a strong accent or speaking with a Leeds accent, I would prefer the former.

I'm afraid I would say if accent bothers you you need to think about where you want to live.

And yes I agree that Leeds accent isn't very Yorkshire. I grew up in and around Leeds and went to school there I have always had a northern accent but it certainly wasn't Yorkshire

We live in Leeds and our children were brought up here. Neither of us (parents) has a Leeds accent. There are multiple influences on childrens' accents - not just peers. Choice also comes into it. One of my DC has accentless English, like mine, one has almost accentless but with very slight hints of Yorkshire that you probably wouldn't be able to place, and the other has a slightly more pronounced (but not strong) Yorkshire accent - I think the latter from choice. BTW they were all privately educated, though in different schools - I really don't think this has any bearing on it at all.

I also think a lot of their accent is picked up before school. I was a SAHM, and I think if you speak to them, read to them, etc. a lot in the accent you want them to have, ie. yours, while they are very young they will pick this up. Although it may erode a bit later, the basis is there and I think you will find they do not develop a broad accent.

I also think that clear enunciation is much more important than accent and I wonder if you are conflating sloppy speech with local accent?

How can people say they have no accents. Of course you do

Unless you're a robot

Thank you very much for your reply. This was exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for. It's much appreciated.

You mentioned that your children were all privately educated though. Do you really think that this has had no bearing?

Yorkshire accent is the best! I love it. I'm a southerner raising my kids in Leeds. They both speak like me (a bit posh so I'm told) and don't have Yorkshire accents. Only a few times have I heard a hint of an accent on one particular word but that's it

I am talking about both really - sloppy speech and accent. The first concerns me much more than accent though.

You're right, I do have an accent. It's apparently pretty 'neutral' though. I guess it's somewhere closed to RP.

Everyone has an accent.
It is impossible to speak without an accent.

You could send her to elocution, but there 's the realistic possibility that she'll think you are a massive bellend who can't accept her as she is rebel and speak however is natural for her.

So move. If you can't bear for your daughter to sound like a local, move to somewhere it's acceptable for her to sound like she comes from!

Meanwhile, I'm a Dutchman.