picking up accents at school

[Sallyssss]

Ok, now I am know this thread wont make me the most popular person, but I need some advice/reassurance (or a kick up the back side ;-) .

My 5 yr started a new local school in a new area (where we have moved to)and has already started picking up the accent, which to put it mildly I do not like!

Hmmm - do I accept this? Will she grow out of it? Any words of wisdom?

I'm from Lancashire and have graduated over the years from sounding like Jane Horrocks to just having a generic accent that you can tell is northern (the flat vowels never leave you!) but wouldn't be able to place. I now live in London and will likely end up moving to Essex where DH is from and I find it really odd that my DS will have an Essex accent when he starts to talk!! There's a bit of a sense of pride there in that I like my northern tones but he's never going to have then as I'll be but one of many people he'll learn from. But there is also definitely a bit of snobbery too. My DH's cousins live close to us and have that horrid faux-jamaican accent that "da kids" have these days and I can't stand it. I've said more than once that it will be a sad day when my DS says "innit" at the end of a sentence. But I know that day will come.... !

But also it's not inevitable. We stayed with some of DH family in Australia a few years back who are from Northen Ireland. His male cousin was 7 when they moved there about 20 years ago, and still has very strong NI accent!

DS is only 2.6 but is already proper Brizzle. He currently ends every sentence with 'din't oi?' As in "Oi went to the park din't oi?"

FreakO - My dd says that too - I didn't think of it as a Bristol thing..until now...! I haven't yet heard "wur's that to, Ma" from her, but maybe it is not far off!

Inevitable - peer group has much greater influence than family. I know many children with parents from other countries - parents have original country accnts - children all have the same accent as their English school friends..

I think peer group is more important for younger children (less than 13/14?) in terms of accent. And I agree that it's inevitable that people absorb some of the accent they hear around them. But personally, I had a very London accent at primary school but as I've got older my accent has drifted back towards my mother's standard RP, although hers is very slightly northern flavoured and mine southern.

My dad is from the West Indies and seems to have managed to pick up almost pure RP in the forty years or so since he's been in the UK. So your accent can change even as an adult.

you accept it or move somewhere where everyone speaks just as you like

smugmum -my ds has taken five years to change his accent, it's only just happened in the last six months - he's 7 and a half - and we've lived here (in leicester) since he was 2. His younger brothers aren't at school yet and talk like me and DH, sort of southern yoof-RP, but he says 'moommy' instead of 'mummy' and 'foon', just like the derbyshire kids mentioned earlier in the thread.
We first started noticing it at Easter when he kept saying 'Easter Boony'. I think it's cute, but my mother is horrified! She's Scottish...