Scottish child picking up English accent

[Scotupnorth]

A bit nervous about posting this as I hope it's not taken the wrong way by anyone...

I live in a town in the Scottish Highlands, we moved here not long ago from another town in Highland. We needed to move to a bigger house but since Covid prices have gone wild with so many people moving here and so we couldn't get anything suitable in our price range in our home town and needed to move to another one about an hour away. I love it here although similar to many of the other towns in the Highlands, there has been a huge influx of people moving here from England, particularly post-covid. I have no issue with this however my daughter has started at the local nursery where the majority of staff and very many of the children are now English and she is now starting to say many things with an English accent. She is only there 3 days a week and we are very hands on with her so she hears us speaking to her all the time but as time goes on she's speaking this way more and more and it's starting to make me a bit nervous. Obviously there is nothing wrong with English accents but she has been born and brought up in Scotland and has never set foot in England so it would be weird for her to grow up speaking with an English accent. I was hoping initially that she would lose it as she gets older but I've recently started working in a position with local children and so many of them have English accents, including many children who have been born here, that I'm worried that she won't. When she has been saying things in an English accent we have been repeating it with our accent and she will often repeat it again with a Scottish accent, but as she is speaking this way more and more, I don't want to be correcting her all the time and giving her some kind of complex about it.

Anyone else in a Highland town having issue?

I hope this post is not taken the wrong way, there is no anti-English sentiment to my post or feelings but I just feel it would be weird for her to speak with an English accent when she is Scottish and has been born and raised here to Scottish parents.

There are schools in Peterhead doing a Scots standard grade (whatever the new version is called).

Gaelic in schools is doing pretty well.

But it won't replicate things like the Gaelic singing tradition of the Kirk (although I doubt many people under 25 will be able to sing a hymn in any language soon).

A massive part of Highlands is owned by a Danish billionaire which concerns me more than lots of individuals.

Serious structural change is needed. Not least improving the shit show that is the Rest and Be Thankful l, the duelling of the A9 and the ferries.

I just object to dumping these problems at the feet of another group, in all it's contexts.

Can I just say I'm Scottish and have lived down south in London for 40 years and never, ever has anyone "joked" with me about Scottish money, being a Jock, haggis, Nessie etc. I have never felt attacked or patronised for being Scottish. People love my accent. My children don't have any trace of it - they can't even pronounce "loch".

@UnderTheStairs51 I appreciate your posts which are a bit more nuanced.
You need to ask why you are so unwilling to look at the amount of English immigrants to Scotland.
A balanced view would accept that there is a problem. The movement of diverse groups of people is less of an issue than English incomers, because they are diverse and they will integrate and also add value.
One large national group, especially a cohesive with a cultural history as "the conqueror " is really problematic.

1. Because of the cultural history and context
2. Economic, cultural and social advantage
3. The existing "Scottish cringe" privileges this group and entrenches an inability to critically appraise the real situation.

Ooh, I didn’t know about the Scots standard grade! That’s very encouraging and thank you for sharing that! I think Gaelic is doing well and whilst not always a mainstream option in many schools, those who teach it are doing well.

Yes, land reform…I bloody despair. We will see what the new Land Reform bill brings but so far it looks insipid and timid. I’m also very worried about the Free Ports. I’ll not mention the elephant in the room, ok I shall. The current administration is dire. Anything north or west of the Forth Road bridge is moving with glacial speed.

Me neither. I moved away in 2010 and literally nobody has ever made a comment like that even in jest. It’s sad though because I don’t sound very Scottish anymore, but I certainly don’t have the local (very specific) English accent from where I live now. Essentially I don’t really belong anywhere anymore, but I can always blend in.

The loss of Scottish Gaelic/Highland culture is of course sad, but the blame doesn’t solely lie at the feet of wealthy English retirees with money to burn. It’s far more complex and nuanced than that, surely?

Moreshroomsplease, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on more complex and nuanced reasons. Whilst I agree that so many problems are not caused by the Home County/ London retirees, there is a huge problem where rural housing is concerned and another poster mentioned second homes and Air B+b. Everyone crammed into the Central Belt and little to no investment elsewhere.
Planning control is also a pain in the neck, stuck in 1948 I believe.
There are around 20 million acres of empty land most of which are large estates used predominantly for shooting. What a waste of land.

I'm not sure we apply this to any individual groups though do we?

Is there a debate about Nigerian immigration for example? That has changed several Scottish areas significantly, usually connected to university admissions. Would you want to debate that or is it just English movement?

I maintain that your stance is illogical. You want EU migrants back but blame those in places like Lincolnshire where the pace of change was very rapid and had a very significant impact on farming employment, languages spoken in schools, resources etc.

Personally I feel that we need a wider conversation about the impacts of the pace and volume of change, not a focus on specific groups whether they are English, Nigerian or eastern European.

And FFS I resent your implication that because I'm English I won't integrate and I'm glad my role in healthcare is of no use to my community.

25 years here says differently but I'm grateful the majority of Scottish people I know do not share your views.

I'd like to think my posts here show that some of us 'conquers' do actually know a bit about Scots language and culture, regardless of what you choose to think.

@UnderTheStairs51 your main issue is that you won't accept that English immigration to Scotland is a problem.
It's not racist or xenophobic it's just a practical problem.
My question is why are you not open to this? It doesn't make you a screaming separatist or a racist it's actually a real problem.

Honestly, no I won't because our hospital couldn't function without the many people from England and many other backgrounds and I think you are determined to blame one group for wider social and economic issues.

@UnderTheStairs51 ah it's because you're actually English!!!
Ok well you will find my point difficult to accept, because you will feel personally attacked.
Individual English people are lovely as are people of all backgrounds.
But the Highlands and Islands are overwhelmed by a huge number of fairly homogeneous English incomers, most retirees. Some lifestyle choices.
If Cumbria was suddenly filled up with Americans that might be something comparable.
The answer is get house prices standardised across the UK so there's less incentive for people to move.

Oh sorry. My views don't count because I wasn't born here. But you are a lovely open minded individual.

I'll take it you've never been to Oldham, Bradford or Luton if you think England remains entirely English.

You seem determined that your particular part of Scotland translates to the whole of north Scotland. It's not my experience.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Swap English with Black / Asian / Eastern European, and then ask yourself if you would still feel comfortable posting or saying this.

@UnderTheStairs51 what do you mean by "England remains English?"
I don't discriminate against English people who have a different colour of skin from me.
You have disappointed me with this comment. It's too close to the complaints I've heard from white English incomers who've said " Scotland is like England in the 1950s"
You know people who feel that way can jyst F off back to England.

I've noticed that lots of autistic children tend to speak in an accent, usually an American or posh English one, which is what I thought this thread was going to be about...

I was born and lived in England before my family moved back up north so I spoke with an English accent. I spent years being made to feel that I was not welcome or wanted here. Lots of constant digs at "being English", hating the English, vote yes to get the English out, why are English people so boring, I've never met a funny English person, you'll never be able to work in that place because they'll not take you seriously. Purely based on my accent. It really fractured my sense of self and belonging for a long time. I now work in an environment where it's a mixing bowl of different accents, ethnicities, backgrounds and it's wonderful.

We all left our highland town when we finished our degrees because there was nothing there for us. Maybe an influx of young families would do it some good.

Culture, language, accents all evolve and surely with modern life, air travel, technology, AI and whatever else this is just going to happen faster.

@treadingonlego my problem is specifically with white English incomers overwhelming the Highlands and Islands.

England is the big country south of Scotland that dominates the UK and many people feel that country has been responsible for colonial crimes across the world.
Some Scottish people were involved with that too.
But the people who were colonised aren't my problem really. They aren't clamouring to move to Scotland unless they have a good reason, like a job. They are welcome.
My issue is with so many of these white English people being able to buy houses in Scottish places that Scots children feel they need to adopt an English accent.

perhaps we could say that Polish was just an accent of German, Flemish/ Walloon merely an accent of Dutch, Creòle just an accent of French.

Polish and German are in two completely different language groups, I'm not sure what your point is.

'Some Scottish people were involved with that's shows your understanding of your own country's history is pretty poor.

You are very much out of step with the Scottish movement on this www.nms.ac.uk/collections/colonial-histories-and-legacies#:~:text=For more than 200 years,soldiers%2C missionaries and forced migrants.

@Igneococcus my point is that you are showing a complete ignorance of Scotland as a separate country with its own language and laws.
Suggesting that it's a dialect of English is rather upsetting, similar to the suggestion that Polish and German are somehow related.
Every Polish person I've known has had a poor opinion of Germans. This is the national sentiment of Scots towards the English.
No matter what you'll hear on here. Go to a football match.

@gingerlybread does the projected future population decline in Scotland , in particular affecting school numbers, health and social / community services in many parts of the Highlands, not bother you though? It’s not possible to sustain communities and rural ways of life when there are no children and young people. I’ve seen reports that highlight the importance of in-migration to rural areas.

I'm geordie but live in North Northumberland now. DH is Northumbrian but has the softest accent ever. He says "buk" instead of "boook" iykwim.
DS completely took after DH and I have to admit I was gutted. There is something deeply personal about an accent and that sense of belonging. I know it's silly because we all belong anyways, but I'd hoped DS would take after me. Can't explain why it bothers me but it does.
DS now tried to imitate my accent as he's a massive NUFC fan but it's so clearly false and just not his.

OP I don't have any advice, and my situation is different, but I do kinda understand the weird feeling of your child having a different accent.

To be honest, gingerlybread, your last couple of posts sound unhinged to the extent that I'm now wondering if you've been drinking. Your post at 22:23 is aggressive and obtuse; your reply to me is just wild. I'm leaving it there.

Apologies, OP. If you were genuine, then none of this derailing will have helped.

@UnderTheStairs51 I know all of this, I know about the slavery reparations, yawn. Class and religion were markers here. It suits your narrative of a unionist cohesive state.
People in the highlands with memories of the famine road and Culloden may not share your urban gloss. The famine roads are still actual roads. The military roads which suppressed the highlands in 1745 are still used daily by HGVs.
I could tell you more of the history of Scotland than you will ever be able to know because I was born and educated here.
You are actually foreign.
We also welcome and include you.
If you don't like that fact, you'll never be able to understand this country.

My wee cousin is 8 and has the most English accent ever! We stay in central Scotland and they stay in a really rough area in Bathgate and she goes to the local school. It's honestly the weirdest thing ever. There's nobody at school English or anything. I've got other cousins in Liverpool but she's met them a a handful of times so literally nobody knows where the accent comes from 😂 she's honestly so funny with it. We are all common as muck and she's got the most English accent ever xxx

Gaelic is certainly a different language to English, Scots I'm not sure because despite never having learned it I can actually mostly understand it, it's close enough to English for that.
And now you are even trying to play the Poles and Germans off against each other in the pursuit of your anti-Englishness (but only the white ones).