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Original poster

regional accents

37 replies

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 20:31

OK am quite prepared to be lynched here but ...

Does anyone else feel a slight pang when dcs pick up an accent which is different from the way that they (ie parents) speak?

Mine have picked up elements of local accent from school and I would REALLY like not to mind but it does make me cringe a little.

Don't think I have any difficulties with local accent in others, but would quite like my children to sound like dh and me.

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ChipButty · 17/05/2007 20:32

I cringe! You are not alone!

peggotty · 17/05/2007 20:35

I'm scottish but live in the north of england, and although my dd is only 2.4 and doesn't really have an accent yet, my dh (also scottish) and I both find it really weird that she's going to have an english accent. He jokes (I think!) about sending her to a boarding school in Scotland just so she gets a scottish accent although she just as likely to come back with a plummy english one

speccy · 17/05/2007 20:37

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Califrau · 17/05/2007 20:37

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sniff · 17/05/2007 20:38

yes but on my case it reenforces home sickness

I have a north birmingham accent (not black country) and we live near Liverpool they use different words for things and obviously have a completly different accent that my boys can mimic really well , my oldest ds has the strangest ever part scouse part brummie part st helens !! poor kid

Original poster

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 20:41

It's the vowels that really irritate me.
'But' as in 'put'.

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ChipButty · 17/05/2007 20:46

My DH is from London and I am a Northern lass and our DS usees flat vowels with me (ie short a in bath and path) and long vowels with Daddy ('barth', 'parth') It's hilarious!

ChipButty · 17/05/2007 20:46

uses not usees (I was obviously focusing too much on the vowels!)

colditz · 17/05/2007 20:47

I am in the Midlands (East) and well aware that my accent makes me sound like a right thick twat to a lot of people - but if I ever moved South-East, I would be GUTTED if my children picked up Estuary English, I find it HIDEOUS.

Original poster

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 20:50

My children differ in how they speak with DS2 definitely having the strongest local accent. Don't know why this should be as they all go to school in the same area.

Do you live in the south now, chipbutty?

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squeakybub · 17/05/2007 20:58

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Original poster

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 21:01

How did your parents speak, squeakybub? And which accents would you avoid?

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squeakybub · 17/05/2007 21:06

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suedonim · 17/05/2007 21:16

It's not inevitable that children will pick up an accent. Not one of my four has a Scots accent despite three of them being born in, and all four raised in Scotland for the greater part of their childhood. They all have similar English accents to dh and me. Oddly enough, though, dh and I no longer sound like our siblings, after being away from Kent for so many years.

Mercy · 17/05/2007 21:20

Be prepared to be lynched then......

Colditz, why would you be gutted if your children spoke with an Estuary English accent?

Oh, and a grammar school education doesn't necessarily make a difference. Neither does a master's degree.

colditz · 17/05/2007 21:46

I don't know, Mercy, it's irrational. I just don't like it. But I still live where I was born so not likely to happen anyway.

According to a (thick bint) person from Essex I once knew, my accent makes me sound a "Bit fick"

Right-o, love.

expatinscotland · 17/05/2007 21:51

I'm foreign.

Of course my children don't speak like me.

My dad had two foreign parents. He didn't sound like them. My mother had a foreign mother. Mama didn't sound like her mother.

People speak like the vast majority of people around where they grew up.

If you want them to sound like you, move back to where you live.

Duh.

Get over it.

What a silly thing to be bothered about.

expatinscotland · 17/05/2007 21:52

Are people really so provencial?

Seriously?

I don't get it at all. I grew up in a city where a HUGE percentage of the population are born to immigrants. Regional accent? Hell, many don't even speak English - as a native language or at all.

Original poster

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 21:55

expatinscotland I didn't say I was worried about it, just that I would prefer them to speak differently.
are you sure you NEVER make a judgement about people according to the way in which they speak? I think that this is one of the major ways in which we categorise others (I'm not condoning this).

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expatinscotland · 17/05/2007 21:57

No, no I'm sure I don't, amateur.

Assessments, yes, as in 'this person did not speak English as a first language, I wonder where they are from?' (a matter of curiosity to me, as my own father did not speak English until he went to primary school) or 'this person is Scottish/Welsh/Irish, etc.'

And the fact that people so often judge people here on the basis of their regional accent here really, really upsets me about bringing up my own children here, because I find that terribly sad.

liquidclocks · 17/05/2007 22:05

It's a historical class thing expat. I think DH 'sounds' a bit posh because he's from Canterbury but actually in terms of parents occupations I'm probably from further up the scale but I have a northern twang so to a southerner sound 'common'. Only ever had a problem with being stereotyped in London though of all places - I didn't expect it there at all.

Very funny with DS though - he's very confused about how to pronounce duck, mum, grass garage etc

Original poster

amateurmum · 17/05/2007 22:07

But if you agree that your children are likely to be judged by the way they speak, why is it strange to be concerned by this?

In an ideal world, it would not matter, just as it would not matter what people wore, what they looked like and the myriad different ways in which we present ourselves to others.

I think I have fairly RP pronunciation and this has been both an asset and an issue at different points in my life and in different situations.

Am certainly not planning to send DCs to elocution lessons but would prefer they did not develop a strong local accent.

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expatinscotland · 17/05/2007 22:13

Because I find it pathetic, amateur.

To the point where BOTH me and my Scottish children actively encourage our children to leave the country when they get old enough.

NotRhubarb · 17/05/2007 22:14

I have changed my accent, not deliberately though. I am from Oldham originally but never had the full accent. Since then I've lived in Oxford, Scotland, Preston, France and now Carlisle. I don't know what accent the kids have but it's definitely Northern.

I quite like accents. Most anyway.

pinkspottywellies · 17/05/2007 22:17

I moved from one area of the country to another when I was 13 and my accent was picked up on straight away - I was bullied for being posh (I wasn't just didn't sound rough like them!) I had the local accent within 2 weeks but when I hear it now it makes me cringe (I've moved further North now and talk like them now!) My accent changes depending on who I'm speaking to aswell - not consciously but I can hear myself doing it!

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