[Closed] When do children develop an accent?

Mrs S and I are from SE England and therefore do not have accents. We now live in Scotland and all of our kids have lived here their whole lives.

Eldest speaks with either english or scottish accent, depending on circumstances. She is bilingual and turns it on and off as she likes
Middle child is very scottish, not a hint of english accent, (nice scottish)
Youngest, who is a boy mainly just shouts and whinges so quite hard to tell but probably more english sounding that scottish.

Not sure what that all means.

"RP" ❓

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation ]Received Pronunciation[/url]

A colleague wife is French and they're bring up their kids bilingually. I think they had French accents even as babies: they gurgled differently to our kids.

Being from the North East, I speak proper. I'm worried that my kids might sound a bit posh though, as they call my wife mum instead of mam. Though, not as posh as OMITN sounds.

@franksinatra - went to a friend's wedding in the summer. She's from aberdeen and has an accent to match. Her sister's accent is even stronger.

Both their parents are English and very RP. I found it most disconcerting!

Being from the North East, I speak proper.

Howayhinneymanpet!

I remember reading somewhere that speech is formed in different parts of the brain in children and adults, which is why you can't learn a different language without having an accent as an adult.

Not sure when the switchover is, but you better get cracking.

We left Essex when the eldest was 7 middle one was 5, and they both had (tame) Essex type accents, mum and Dad both RP type accents - we are now in the midlands, and they have been shifting their accents slightly (in the last 6 months!) - so they are pretty malleable at that age.

Howayhinneymanpet!

Whay ner a'hm no' a Geordie like.

My brother seems to pick up accents as he moves around, but they add together. When he lived in Newquay he sounded Australian. Apparently, it's gone very odd now that he's living in Canada.

Kids tend to adapt to their environment. My step daughter moved down south when she was 2 1/2 and at 12 still has the slightest accent. She pronounces almost everything the same as a Laahdoner(bath, grass etc).
When she stays with her dad in the holidays she develops a slight accent but it's probably more to fit in, similar to a "telephone voice".
I think if you're careful to weed out the foreign words such as "meither" instead of "bother", "roll" instead of "balm cake" then the accent will fade over time without resorting to beating. Obviously, living in London she is still able to support United so we've not had an issue with that.

Going to school in Manchester, I'm constantly disappointed that neither of my daughters sound like Shaun Ryder

Based on my son and his friends their accents can be quite clear right from when they start speaking, but it can change noticeably over time and even depending on who they're speaking to. Presumably it's still quite fluid when they're young and it gets more fixed the older they are.

I have a Yorkshire accent, but my wife speaks proper, and my son is forever switching between saying "grass" and "grarse", "bath" and "barth" and suchlike. I'm hopeful that he'll settle down and stop talking like a ridiculous southern pansy now he's started school in the north full time though...

My MIL said the other day, my 10yo daughter sounds common.

I said you mean like everyone else in our village. 😉

There's only one thing worse than speaking like a witless yokel and that is phoenticising your uncouth dialect when writing......

I've an RP accent (strange seeing as supposedly only 3% of the population have it, yet almost the entirety of STW, must be like being and above average driver).

I grew up in Wales though and left aged 11, friends who stayed untill they were 18 have really strong accents so I'd go with puberty.

My kids are doomed.

Wife speaks Greek to em....err hxello peeps!! I instruct them to talk proper like...one of the boys, 2 and a bit, said to me "alright mate" the other day...so proud!!
They go to a Swiss German Kindergrippe and I've been told are speaking the local lingo...not that I would notice...it's all foreign to me.

Any my sister who swapped her nationality and has been living in Leeds/Sheffield for donkies speaks all NM.

After a few days at Christmas and spending time with Auntie I caught one of em saying saying something in Northern.

Actually not sure how many others have witnessed young bilingual kids...really quite impressive.

I've never been quite sure if RP is neutral English or posh English. By posh I mean very upper class and the way people spoke up to the fifties and sixties - you can hear it in black & white movies. A few people including my Mum still speak that way.

We kids had to learn Geordie pretty damn fast when we moved from rural Oxfordshire to Tyneside when I was 15. Whyaye.

int womb tha nose
i love accents and think that it'd be a crime if they were lost but then i dont want my kids sounding like chavs either! funny old me.

I was brought up in the midlands but my parents are from Yorkshire and Lancashire. I always got comments at school that I sounded really “northern” but now I live in Leeds I think I sound pretty southern. Once at a party I was speaking to someone who correctly identified (without ever having met me before) that I was brought up in Warwickshire. I wasn’t aware that there *was* a Warwickshire accent, let alone that I had it, and my vowels are very different to those of my school friends.

My sister on the other hand went to a different school, closer into Birmingham and spent her teens talking like a proper brummie. That disappeared when we moved to Yorkshire, and has gone through various phases. She’s now settled in Lancashire and picking up that accent, as is her 3 year old son who sounds like he’s going to end up properly Lancastrian. They seem to be encouraging him in his northernness, as he also spends a lot of time wearing a flat cap...

My mates Mrs is German and they met when we were over there in the army , she couldn't speak English so learnt it from him and despite never having been to Newcastle she spoke with ac really strong geordie accent like his. It was quite comical

My brother in law and his wife are both native scots and moved to wolverhampton 4 yrs ago.

They had twin lads 1 year later.

Since the boys started speaking, they have had a broad brummie accent courtesy of their childcare providers.

The best bit is hearing them using scotch words with their accent!! It cracks me up everytime I hear them.

Mini-DBW #1 is 3. From about 2.5 he developed the best West Yorkshire accent I've ever heard.

"Ah dernt nerrr" (equals "One does not understand what you mean, whatwhatwhat" in case you southerners were having problems decrypting that)

Proud dad. #2 should be here any day now too so I can be proud dad x2.

Mrs North's father is very bothered about Toddler North developing a "local" accent (a challenge - we're twixt Wigan and Liverpool).

Ironic, given that he's never shaken his Sunderland tones and his wife is distinctly "local" sounding, in spite of a career in teaching (or, perhaps, because of a career teaching in Wigan).

That said, I did draw the line at my daughter pronouncing "fairy" as "furry".

Children start developing an accent when they start speaking. Not wanting to sound overly patronising, but isn't that bleedin' obvious?

I remember reading somewhere that speech is formed in different parts of the brain in children and adults, which is why you can't learn a different language without having an accent as an adult.

The language acquisition bit of the brain largely degrades from the age of 12ish, which is why kids younger than this can pick up new languages without much effort, but it is increasingly difficult as you get older. As I recall (undergrad level linguistics but, er, some years ago) they'd established this effect but I'm not sure they'd pinpointed it to specific areas of the brain. More research may have been done since then however, so what I just said could quite easily be utterly wrong. Glad I could help.

On accents, one thing that is interesting is the way some accents seem to cling on harder than others - I know some northern Englishers who moved to London and sounded like extras from Eastenders within months, but a Glaswegian who'd lived there for twenty odd years still sounded very, very Glaswegian.

Children start developing an accent when they start speaking. Not wanting to sound overly patronising, but isn't that bleedin' obvious?

I remember reading somewhere that speech is formed in different parts of the brain in children and adults, which is why you can't learn a different language without having an accent as an adult.

The language acquisition bit of the brain largely degrades from the age of 12ish, which is why kids younger than this can pick up new languages without much effort, but it is increasingly difficult as you get older. As I recall (undergrad level linguistics but, er, some years ago) they'd established this effect but I'm not sure they'd pinpointed it to specific areas of the brain. More research may have been done since then however, so what I just said could quite easily be utterly wrong. Glad I could help.

On accents, one thing that is interesting is the way some accents seem to cling on harder than others - I know some northern Englishers who moved to London and sounded like extras from Eastenders within months, but a Glaswegian who'd lived there for twenty odd years still sounded very, very Glaswegian.

Moved 12 weeks ago from London to West Yorkshire, kids are 4. Me and the Mrs are both from N Yorkshire, but accent dumbed down by spending 12 years in London in corporate middle management

Twin 1 - not much change in accent so far, no detectable regional accent
Twin 2 - several words have Yorkshire ending, but twin 2 probably had more of an estuary accent going on before the move.

So sample size of 2 very different results, to be honest I think this reflects their personalities too, twin no 2 is most likely to mimic trends set by other children and twin 1 is more independently minded.

Its like being trapped in my own Robert Winston experiment

Actually not sure how many others have witnessed young bilingual kids...really quite impressive.

Isn't it just! Children brought up in that environment treat language and accents as toys. After spending the christmas break in Ireland, our 4YO came back to France sounding as if she had spent her life in Co Mayo and the following day just switched back to her usual little french girl accent (although to her mum's delight she is now definately mam)

after 6 months, for sure - we got our edest out of birmingham by then

My sister-in-law moved to california when her kids were 9 and 12 - both started to fake a local accent almost immediately and were fixed "in" it pretty soon. 10 years later and their "english" accent is very much dick van dyke

(used to know a couple who were very cosmoplitan indeed - French Arab and Middle Europe somewhere. Their kids had 5 languages: parents spoke english and each grandparent spoke a different other language to them. They were pretty much fluent in all of them aged about 5 but couldn't speak the "wrong" language at all to any of the grandparents)

I'm from Sunderland originally, so Howayhinneymanpet and Mam instead of mum made me laugh.

Currently living in Edinburgh and wor lass is Scottish. Both of the kids started to get a more Scottish accent when they got to about 4, and at six my wee boy has quite a strong but nice accent. Especially compared to my sister's kids who live near Stansted...I couldn't be doing with all the cor blimey guvnor chat, I'd have to move rather than inflict that on my kids!

in spite of a career in teaching (or, perhaps, because of a career teaching in Wigan).

I still remember a coursemate from Derby on my primary education course being told off by a lecturer because she described a candle as having a "dint int' bottom" instead of saying there was an "indentation in the base".

My wife did supply at a 'posh' primary near us. She was doing a lesson on rhyming words: the words didn't rhyme when she said them but did when the kids said them.

Local accents are now on the list of things that Ofsted look for now, I believe.

Actually not sure how many others have witnessed young bilingual kids...really quite impressive.

Indeed

I remember when mine were younger and we were staying at the in-laws in Naples.
Me and the kids sitting having an ice cream at a pavement cafe when some argument started after a moped rider hit a ped.
Anyway, the kids sat there and took it all in, the oldest one [9] just kept saying to me "you really don't want to know what they're saying dad"

Children start developing an accent when they start speaking. Not wanting to sound overly patronising, but isn't that bleedin' obvious?

This was intended to be a fairly lighthearted thread. But, yes, you're right, it is obvious (hence the fact that so many people posting have different accents from either or both of their parents).

The only thing for it is to lock her away from her mother, and any other northerners, until she's at least 16. In that time she should only listen to Charlotte Green reading the news on repeat.

my GF was born in yorkshire and had a thick yorkshire accent (parents both cockneys though) her and her brother quickly dropped the yorkshire accent at school and picked up a posh southern accent.

Funny when we go north and she drops back into it, without realising, cos it looks like shes taking the piss!

Very young. Junior called his mum Bwabwa when a todler, then Baa and now Baab, but has remained incapable of pronouncing her name. So much for our RP. English relatives say he sounds French though he sounds normal to me apart from those Rs. 😕

RP = right posh 😉

Mr bh from Wigan, had strong Lancs accent as a child, now speaks with a soft Mancunian accent.

Mr bh from Wigan, had strong Lancs accent as a child, now speaks with a soft Mancunian accent.

You need to stop beating him. It's getting cruel 😉

If only, I've been tied to the kitchen sink for the last week.

What's the difference between a Kangaroo and a Kangaroot?

A Kangaroo is an Australian marsupial and a Kangaroot is a Geordie stuck in a lift.

My sister's wee girl has grown up in France, her whole education has been in French, she speaks English with brogue most Scots would be envious of.

My brother moved south to near London for a couple of years, his kids had very middle class Edinburgh/Morningside accents. Within weeks Hamish became 'amish. They are back in Fife now, and being schooled in the broadest of local dialects.

When I stayed in Orkney, the local BBC radio station would interview exchange students upon their arrival, then again just before they left. It was a hoot to hear students from Brazil speaking with a broad Orcadian twang.

My accent is a combination of Orcadian, Scottish Borders, Fife and Edinburgh, it usually raises a smile.

It adapts doesn't it?As soon as they are in 6th form they adopt the Uni non accent.

I remember Mrs NBT telling me the story of her first visit to Whistler, before I met her, with a friend from Wigan. As they went up the chairlift, he was telling her the story of his visit the previous summer, and pointing out the area where he'd seen a burr

a burr? what's one of those?

you know, a burr

No, sorry, what's a burr?

You know - big, brown, claws, goes "RRRAARRGGHGHGHGH"

Oh, a *bear*

Yes, that's what I said. A burr.

Wiganers, confusing people the world over

Accents are strange, I grew up in Norfolk and haven't got an accent apart from a couple of trigger words but my brother has one. I know a few peopele in Bristol with proper Bristolian parents but no accent. I even knew a Geordie without an accent - although she was posh.

As we are now a more transient society than we a couple of generations ago, I do wonder if over time whether the stronger more dominant accents will start to spread out from the current areas, to the extent where we eventually end up with one or two dialects for the whole of the UK?

Out if curiosity why do most people not hear foreign English dialects? For example when talking to an American or Australian why do we only tend to hear an American or Australian accent? Would somebody from Perth have a totally different accent from somebody in Sydney. Would somebody from Florida sound different from somebody in Iowa and why is that difference not that noticeable to us?

I remember Mrs NBT telling me the story of her first visit to Whistler

Oh, well lah de frickin dah. 🙂

[quote=shotsaway ]Would somebody from Florida sound different from somebody in Iowa and why is that difference not that noticeable to us?

You can hear lots of different accents throughout north america - Noo Yoik is very different to LA for instance

I have a middle class Glasgow accent; Mrs RBIT has a Bolton twang.

We were so proud when Miss RBIT started saying odd words in broad Rochdale (aged 2): "Mummeh!"

My mates Mrs is German and they met when we were over there in the army , she couldn't speak English so learnt it from him and despite never having been to Newcastle she spoke with ac really strong geordie accent like his. It was quite comical

I have a colleague from S Asia who spent 12 years in Ireland before moving to the UK. He speaks English with a definite Irish accent.

Andy

Oh, well lah de frickin dah.

Edit - whoops forgot the winky. 😉

I'm from deepest darkest Yorkshire, now living in in Sweden. My 5 year old girl is born and raised in Sweden. She had a very neutral accent to start with, then went proper West Yorkshire and now has this weird middle English accent which I guess she has picked up from watching Peppa Pig and Charlie and Lola.
She also speaks fluent Swedish and Finnish too...

Some on here might be too young to remember Wearside Jack, a bloke who sent a tape to the Police during the Yorkshire Ripper investigation, taunting them for their ineptitude. The Police played it to a phonetics expert who was able to say that the man came from a certain district of Middlesborough and possibly one of three or four streets. Subsequently three or four women rang the Police and said they thought the voice was their husband!!! Frickin' mad, eh?

He was arrested recently when the DNA on the envelope he licked was matched up.

Jan Molby - case closed 😆

I met a German who'd learnt English on a school exchange to East London - fantastic Gockney accent !

(I'm told that I speak French weirldy; I have a bit of a North East English accent and the only place I speak French is alpine ski resorts, where the local accent is supposedly quite marked. My mate's parisian wife laughed quite a lot when I tried my skillz - she promised I didn't say anything rude but suppose I might have)

Out if curiosity why do most people not hear foreign English dialects? For example when talking to an American or Australian why do we only tend to hear an American or Australian accent? Would somebody from Perth have a totally different accent from somebody in Sydney. Would somebody from Florida sound different from somebody in Iowa and why is that difference not that noticeable to us?

On a similar note, most Swedes can't hear the different English accents!

Mrs S and I are from SE England and therefore do not have accents

Yes you do. You have SE of England accents...

My 2 are really confused, I;m from Newcastle, Mrs Lister is from Reading, we live in (non welsh speaking bit) Pembrokeshire but they go to Welsh speaking primary school...

Is that thing at the end of our road Pembroke Castle, Carsel or Castell?

I'm not sure if accents ever stops changing.

Mrs Flying Ox was born in North Shields. Unintelligible Geordie until she moved to St Andrews when she was 6. Now she's got a very posh Scottish accent.

I'm from Sheffield and so never had an accent, but moved up to Edinburgh about 8 years ago. My accent is slowly migrating rather than changing directly to Scottish. Despite the blatant oxymoron, I'd say I'm currently hovering around a posh Middlesbrough. Apparently I was Leeds* about 2 years ago.

*spits

Both myself and SO now live within 6 miles of our respective family homes. In a rather small hamlet near Royal Tunbridge Wells, eldest goes to local primary and now talks like he has swallowed several plums, daughter goes to nursery at the castle and is developing much the same way. SO definatley posh, but not as much as her granny, and my acsent seems to change depending who I am with, posh or very much not.

We have three little Sean Bean's that are developing Scottish pronunciation and phrases (although 'how' is banned...)

I think you mod it to suit where you are.

I was proper kiwi in NZ when i was wee, and I met an expat at Scot in south africa who spoke weegie to us and proper afrikaans to the locals.

With americans I find I speak with a wee twang so they understand.

Why do some english folk and Americans not understand the more regional but not particularly strong accents but we can?

RP is a terrible accent. It sounds like you've got a cucumber up your arse.

But then, being a northerner, I cringe when I hear myself speak, I'm so colloquial. How can people take me seriously when I sound like I should be ****ing a sheep?

But the proper Wigan accent is great. No bugger can understand it, even other Wiganers. They just agree.. aaaaarrrrrr.

Accents are strange. I grew up on North Tyneside and both my parents and sister have Geordie accents whereas mine is reasonably neutral (best way to describe it) but with very slight Geordie inflections. Always been that way. Usually when people find out where I'm from I get "you don't sound like a Geordie".

Children start developing an accent when they start speaking. Not wanting to sound overly patronising, but isn't that bleedin' obvious?

well, no

Mrs_D is from Whitley Bay, where her parents, sister and her husband still live. They all have strong local accents. Mrs_D has been in Bratfud since 1986 and has neither a Bratfud nor a Geordie accent. I have a distinct Leeds/Wakefield accent wi' a hint o' Bratfud. Strange considering I work in Barnsley.

7yo Geordie niece has no discernible accent whatsoever; she certainly sounds nothing like her parents or grandparents

I'm born and raised in Leeds but live in Wakey(cas for 20 years).but everyone knows i'm from Leeds by my accent.and everyone from Leeds can hear I live in Castleford by my accent(2 miles apart btw).GLY

Some on here have said that Americans can't distinguish your various British accents. As an American, I'd have to say that this is basically true.

But the flip side is that there is no such thing as "an American accent." Americans in different parts of the country (as well as Canadia) have very different dialects. People from the south(east) have a drawl and talk reeeeaaallll ssssslllllloooowwww. I assume that you're talking about American newscasters and such. The way that they speak is the most generic and inoffensive version of American english possible. Nobody really talks like that over here.

I'm from near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We have a distinct dialect called Pittsburghese. Its so distinct that universities like [url= http://pittsburghspeech.pitt.edu/PittsburghSpeech_PgheseOverview.html ]Pitt[/url] and [url= http://www.cit.cmu.edu/current_students/services/pittsburghese.html ]CMU[/url] need to provide info to students that aren't from the area. [url= http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pittsburghese ]Urban Dictionary[/url] even has an entry.

There is a [url= http://www.pittsburghese.com/translator.shtml ]translator[/url] that you can use if you wanna sahnd like a yinzer anat...

But the proper Wigan accent is great. No bugger can understand it, even other Wiganers. They just agree.. aaaaarrrrrr.

Very true, it took some getting used to when I lived there.

Moved from Lancashire to Wigan and at the time worked for a company based up in Co Durham! No wonder I'm going deaf young....

I still remember seeing Ian Brown in the Jamaican takeaway the other week and shuddering at his accent. If hora jnr has that I'm oot/giving him up.

West Yorkshire accent is the best lad. Fact.

My four year old girl speaks English with a southern accent and Spanish with an andaluz accent.

I'm from Bolton mrsj is from Blackburn we live in Perthshire.
Our Scottish born eldest (8) turns the accents on and off to either fit in or take the piss for comedy effect!

I am slightly (seriously) concerned at the promotion of 'scots' as a language in school though.
If I wanted my kids to speak like thick Glaswegians, I would let them watch Scottish 'comedy' programmes on the TV thank you very much!

And no, the irony isn't lost 😳

hora - Member

I still remember seeing Ian Brown in the Jamaican takeaway the other week and shuddering at his accent. If hora jnr has that I'm oot/giving him up.

West Yorkshire accent is the best lad. Fact.

It's an odd one - the central Manchester/Salford accent became much, much harsher in a generation:
Compare someone like Les Dawson (about as central as you can get, Collyhurst) to someone like Mani (born a couple of miles up the road). Massive difference.
The modern Manchester accent is much more nasal and incorporates similar elements to Estuary.

Ian Brown (Warrington) and most of the other 'Madchester' muppets (apart from Mani) adopted the accents of their fans, NOT the other way around.
It's just an affectation.

I'm from the Moston/Blackley area. Despite my dad having what would be classed as a quite posh, ex army accent, I grew up in the 70's with a typical 'Madchester' type accent.
Everyone in my area sounded like that.
The accent was then copied by people like Brown to make them sound more street and disguise the fact that they're as authentically Mancunian as Arthur Smith.

And as someone who's lived in West Yorkshire for 20 years, the locals basically sound like a generic BBC 'northener' who's had a mild stroke. 🙂

And as someone who's lived in West Yorkshire for 20 years, the locals basically sound like a generic BBC 'northener' who's had a mild stroke.

😆

(although 'how' is banned...)

Along with [i]the now[/i]

I remember a thread on that Scots language bullshit.

It's just english spoken unintelligibly.

[quote=[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/when-do-children-develop-an-accent#post-4557216 ]torsoinalake[/url]]I remember reading somewhere that speech is formed in different parts of the brain in children and adults, which is why you can't learn a different language without having an accent as an adult.

Not sure when the switchover is, but you better get cracking.

Nine years old. More or less. And kids brought up bilingual/polyglot will have pretty fluid accents and can normally switch at will depending on company (mirroring). Or do some "code switching", where two (or more) languages will be used in the same sentence when speaking to someone also conversant in said languages!

So, being born out in ye olde Crown Colony (Hong Kong), going to the International (UK curriculum) schools... ended up with the "International Hong Kong English" accent... which is like Received Pronunciantion, Candian, American, Aussie & Kiwi accents... all at the same time.

Then there's the "Local Hong Kong English" accent...

our eldest has always pronounced Garden as Gaahrden -- my wife is convinced it came from Nursery but actually it is an exaggeration of how she says it ... i haven;t the heart to tell her.

I thought this was quite good too... 8)

My parents live in the canaries. After they'd been there a while I started Spanish lessons so that I can communicate better when I'm out there. My (catalan) Spanish teacher commented that I'd managed to pick up a broad Canarian accent which was noticeable even through my broken Spanish.

The parents are from Sunderland, but in general they sound fairly RP.

I've lived in Yorkshire all my life, but it is only in the last five years that I've noticed that I've developed a bit of a Yorkshire accent.