sam/stu

We have all been here 18 months now and we have recently had a visit from the in-laws(:- (Thats definately a new thread for the womens!!!) . My kids cousins came over and they sounded very 'posh', considerimg we are all from the east end of London I found that quite bizarre!
I have not noticed my kids accents until this visit they have now got this really strange 'cockney'/Canadian drawl - weird!! Have a friend that has been in Canada since age 16, to me he sounds Canadian but to his mates he sounds English. Unfortunately, have a spotty, hormonal 15 year old, grasping the accent at the mo 'cos its a 'babe puller' his words not mine! At what age do they totally ' lose it'? Thats them not me!
BTW - I have been asked if I South African/Australian/Scottish (sorry Raine!).
Just curious!
Sam x

Dorothy

The older they are when the arrive the less likely they are to lose the accent altogether. At 15 your son will probably always sound a little English to the Canadians. Just like my kids will always sound Canadian to the Aussies (even though I hear a slight twang starting)

sam/stu

But I am finding myself saying things that I have never said before. I go to the 'gas' station now where I went to the 'petrol' station before. I put my garbage out now whereas I used to put my rubbish out for the dustmen. When the kids get in from school they want 'chips, chips in the UK mean french fries. oooH!

Ekka

Well, you did migrate to a very different culture, in fact to the English-speaking Commonwealth country which is most different from the UK. Had you moved to Australia (or even to New Zealand), you'd still be buying petrol, still driving on the left, still buying fish and chips, and still seeing the cricket and all your favourite UK TV shows on the telly. There is far less American influence, and the language used in both print and speech is much closer to those of home.

In fact, life in the antipodes is very similar to life in the UK, only warmer, less crowded and with more opportunities.

Judy in Calgary

My husband and I have South African accents. They've been moderated a bit by thirty years in Canada, but they're still basically South African.

Our Calgary-born children have Canadian accents.

When our older son was in grade one, we were getting ready to leave for his school's Christmas concert. Just as we were about to climb in the car, he turned around and said, "Mom, I want you to come and watch my play. But PLEASE don't speak to anyone when we're at the school. You have to promise."

A few Canadians can make out my South African accent right away. Many of them guess that it's Australian or British.

But then, back when I was growing up in Swaziland, I couldn't tell the difference between an American and a Canadian accent. How many of you were able to tell the difference between an American and a Canadian accent before you moved to Canada?

I always thought that the doctor who had delivered me in a Nazarene mission hospital in Swaziland was American. Obviously I don't remember him from my birth. I remember him because he treated me a few times during my childhood, and also because he and his wife were friends of my parents.

It was only when my husband and I moved to Canada in our twenties that I realised that that man had been Canadian. By then he and his American wife had retired to his native Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. We went to visit them in Oliver, and they came to visit us in Calgary. They have since passed away, both at advanced ages.

sam/stu

But lots of creepie crawlies!

or4ngecrush

Yeah I moved from East Kilbride to Edinburgh and apparently when I go home I have an Edinburgh twang and when I'm here in Edinburgh, people always ask me what part of Glasgow I'm from?


I think some people also pick up accents more than others though

karla03

My husband left home at 17 and joined the Army. He lived in South Wales (Merthyr Tydfil), he is now 31 and we live in Manchester and my friends still have a hard time understanding him - but to me he does not sound Welsh Yet if he goes to visit his parents, everyone thinks he sounds English.

Karla x x x

Souvenir

I knew a Cockney couple in Oakville. They'd been in Canada 3 years. Their son, then aged 15, had no trace of a London accent that I could detect.

Cookie

Our friends emigrated to Ontario back in 2000. One year later both kids (13 and 12) had Canadian accents.

We moved to NS in Jan 07. Our youngest son (12) has a wee Canadian twang, moreso when he is with his friends. He always uses Canadian words like 'garbage', 'chips' for crisps - even tells us off for using English version. Our 16 year old has no trace of a Canadian accent at all.

I think our 12 year old will become completely Canadianised and our 16 year will develop a slight Canadian accent in time. I think that once you are an adult you are likely to stick with the accent of your birth country although you adopt Canadian words.

Funniest thing I heard here was a Canadian lady telling me that she loved my Scottish accent and when I said that I loved her's, she replied 'what accent? Do I have one?

or4ngecrush

Yeah I suppose, cause my Mum is English and to others she sounds Scottish but to Scottish people she sounds English, and she's lived in Scotland since she was a teenager.

Biiiiink

Same, my kid's is rapidly changing. Some words sound Lahndahn, some just normal, and some decidedly trans-atlantic - I suppose depending on where he heard them. Not sure how the London thing came into it - maybe too many Cbeebies DVDs?! He still uses British vocabulary though and gets furious with waitresses who repeat back his order and say "fries". "NO I said-ed chips please".

Certainly I don't have the accent of either of my parents, I have the one I picked up at school. Mine starts JK on Tuesday, I assume that will accelerate the change for him too. He'd better be able to switch for his own sake though, I have some cruel relatives that are already laughing at his twang.

Voyager970

Sam / Stu

Been here nearly one year

I have 2 daughters aged 15 and 14

The 15 year old is still holding onto her scottish accent, her choice to keep the native tounge

My 14 year old has a singy / twangy scottish / canadian accent, its really weird as she sort of sings her sentences and it drives me mad, she is adapting and will probably lose her auld accent within the next 6 to 12 months.

My wee boy is 5, now he is on a league of his own here

He switches between scottish and canadian, depending on who he is with.
If its Canadian children he speaks canadian, and scottish if its the family or friends who are not canadian, its really weird !!!!

I find this extremely intelligent at the age of 5, so with regards his accent I dont know which way he will go.

Eddie

or4ngecrush

When I was in NS in October we met this lady who used to live in Ontario but had just moved to NS, she's originally from Paisley, Scotland. The strangest thing was that when she spoke to me she had this complete Glasweigan accent but when anyone Canadian spoke to her she switched completely back to her Canadian accent. It was the weirdest thing.

cancov

When I moved to Canada from Coventry when I was 5, the kids in the school yard used to back me into a corner and have me sing nursery rhymes on command for their entertainment-just to hear my English accent!!!!

I then grew up in Canada before moving back to Coventry at the age of 17. From the day I arrived in England to the day I left last year (12 years in total) I was asked AT LEAST once a day if I was American/Canadian/Australian/South African!! As far as the English were concerned, I definately had a foreign accent. Mostly I got asked if I was American.

Now that I am back in Canada, I get asked if I am English alot. At first people recognised an English accent straight away. Now people say they can detect a hint of an English accent. My husband, who still has his full Coventry accent (and no-one can understand a word he says!!), thinks it is nuts that people say I have an English accent-to him i sound completely Canadian!

As for my kids.....they now have a Canadian twang. My daughter has a selective Canadian accent. Whenever she is in the presence of her friends she puts on the strongest canadian accent! Then at home it eases off!

Oh! When I moved back to England at age 17, I could not tell the difference between English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish accents! Even Australian sounded the same to me!! I couldn't hear any difference whatsoever between Coventry and Birmingham accents, or any regional accents for that matter. As time went by, of course I could tell the difference. I cold even tell apart different areas of Coventry! And after a few years, I could no longer tell if someone was American or Canadian. Now that I am back I can totally tell, and so can my Hubby now.