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.

My parents sent me to elocution lessons, I don't have a local accent I'm told it's pretty generic. Could you consider that? Having said that I do love accents, I find them quite charming!

I have a verrrry welsh accent, but somehow my daughter's accent is quite englishy and clipped. She sounds a bit like Emma Watson. Idk how the fuck that happened, living in rural wales. Her dad's accent is more English/neutral, but I think it's more from a couple of her peers and emulating famous people she like. It constantly amazes me though! She's been brought up with me saying 'WHERE ARE YOUR YEARS' (ears) for example, but has always said 'eers' since she was tiny. What makes me laugh is that it's rubbing off on my mum 😂 I digress. I think your daughter will likely pick up the accent and speech patterns of her peers. You can stamp out bad grammar and pronunciation of certain words but short of moving, it's out of your control.

My parents are Polish, and I spoke English with a strong polish accent until I started school and then it gradually dwindled away and turned into a standard, south-east England accent. I’m in my mid-20’s now and I only have the slightest hint of an accent when I speak English now - most people can’t even tell straight away. My DH notices my Polish accent rear its head either when I’ve spent a lot of time with my parents, or when I get angry or excited
My kids speak Polish with a perfect accent, but have a pretty unremarkable, south-east England accent when they speak English. Kids are a product of their environment! All in all, they will spend more time at school among kids with a Leeds accent than they will at home with you or in elocution lessons. I’d say it’s pretty inevitable that they will pick up the accent they hear the most, which in all likelihood is going to be a Leeds accent!

“I guess it's somewhere closed to RP

Really? Very few people speak RP any more- not even the Royal Family!

As a born and bred yorkshire lass I am trying hard not to be offended. I have an accent but can speak using correct grammar thankyou very much.
What about the slight yorkshire accent she will pick up in leeds is that offensive to you? Do you think she will seem less educated? Do you think you are better than people with that accent?

I grew up not speaking with the local accent and it marks you out as an outsider, which isn't what most people who live their children want for them.

However I can also see why your child speaking with an accent that you don't like grates.

You'll just have to move to somewhere with an accent that you like...

Or to your wife's home country so they can grow up with her language as their local one, and speak English just like you (this works as long as you read to them every night and speak English around the dinner table every day...)

Two words for you, Dr Who.

As a northerner (other side of the Pennines) now living in Leeds, it is actually quite pleasing to have northern accents on tv. I remember growing up with 3 TV channels and listening to Moira Stuart and wondering why she sounded so different as I was obviously surrounded by local accented people.

My Mum had a habit of correcting my toddler when he said coat due to the difference in the Lancashire/Yorkshire pronunciation. I told her although it was different to our accent that he has picked that up from his peers.

It seems as if you like living in Leeds due to feeling superior due to your accent. Accent does not equal intelligence. If you don't like it move.

I’ve got lots of Leeds friends who all have a very soft northern accent “posh Leeds” you can hear they are northern but it’s very subtle and very nice to listen to

FWIW I find Yorkshire and Lancashire accents absolutely beautiful. I always hoped I'd marry a man with one and I did.

Its not referred to a Received Pronunciation anymore.. that particular accent is called SSBE: standard southern British English because even phoneticists know there's no such thing as Received Pronunciation!

am told I speak without an accent.

😂😂😂

Shite.

If you hate the way people speak there to that extent then you should move into an area where everyone talks 'properly' and your ears will not be offended by the inferior accents being spoken around you...it must be SO HARDto live with and the people of Leeds must feel truly blessed whenever you open your mouth.

from 2:28.

You think you don't have an accent, everyone has one. I'm from the south originally and moved around lots. Apparently I sometimes sound like a farmer or and Essex girl.

I'm a Cornish maid so definitely have an accent but why should I change it, it's part of who I am and I'm keeping it.
And my thanks for the offence re West Country accent !

Such an emotive subject, especially in the UK. I didn't realise my post would provoke such strong reactions. Please believe me when I say that I don't consider myself superior to anyone. I do not, and certainly not because of how I speak.

As I admitted, I'm not a big fan of the Yorkshire accent but there are lots of accents that I love listening to... north east, Scottish, accents,.... I was watching the news last night and noticed the newsreader Huw Edwards has a lovely Welsh accent. What really grates me is lazy, sloppy speech. When I hear people say thinks like... "a dote wanna" = I don't want to, "shaw we go to pub" = shall we go to the pub,... it drives me nuts.

Move to Harrogate. You'll find plenty of likeminded people there.

This is why I don't like Harrogate.

At the end of the day, your daughter might want an accent. She might want to sound the same as her peers or connected to the place she’s grown up in. She’s an individual - not yours to control, so, your opinion on how she speaks wont be the deciding factor in the long run.

You're absolutely right. However, where we live, the school that she goes to, the people around her, will all have a major impact on how she speaks. These are things that a parent does have some input into.

With the greatest respect, to make decisions about your child’s schooling or worse to try to influence who she befriends because of an accent seems completely insane. Also, please don’t let your daughter now that you don’t like the accent she may well have - that would not be good for her self esteem.

*know

I went to a boarding school in SE with lots of very posh kids who put on Estuary/london accents (mockney). It’s pretty silly to say that localised ways of speaking are ignorant. Also to assume that because people speak one way in a pub, that they’d be unable to write important documents for work/poetry/do public speaking. Havent you seen My Fair Lady? Dialect/accents are fascinating and a rich part of our heritage!
I personally sound more one regional with family from a particular region and more Southern with others. She will be fine, focus on her fluency, grammar, confidence not her accent,

When I moved to France from Scotland, a very English woman told me the Fremc h wouldn't be able to understand my French because I spoke with an accent. She had no idea that she was also speaking with an accent.
Do you think that might be true of you OP?
I believe there is a certain type of English person who feels their way is the correct way.
Obviously being Scottish I disagree
My French children sadly speak English with a quasi American accent. They sound very Euro trash. What is truely important to me is that they are good people.

Do what my parents did and move to the other end of the country. Dad is from Yorkshire . And I only have a northern accent if I’m with relations otherwise bbc accent .

Leeds, Leeds, Leeds!

Yep, you're a snob - apparently I have a Yorkshire accent, stronger when I talk to family but posher when I'm at work.

I love accents, it makes you who you are. My sister in law is a snob changed her accent to be 'more posh', which is hilarious as her DB is clearly from Leeds, just makes her look fake.