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Kids Accents

Kids Accents

Old Aug 9th 2013, 11:15 pm
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Default Kids Accents

I have 2 kids. Son is almost 10 and daughter is 8 1/2. (The half is important apparently.)

We have been here for almost 4 years. 2 1/2 years in Indiana and almost 1 1/2 years in South Carolina.

Son speaks with a predominantly English accent sprinkled with the odd word with an American 'twang'.

Daughter speaks with a predominantly American accent sprinkled with the odd word with a English vibe.

I've been mommy rather than mummy to both of them for over a year now.
Confuses the hell out of people. Especially when they hear me with my weird Scottish/English/American accent thing that I have going on. I love to watch people's expressions change when they hear the 3 of us talking together.

As we have lived in the Midwest and now the south, I can't begin to imagine what my daughters accent will sound like if we move to the west coast at any point in the future.
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Old Aug 9th 2013, 11:46 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

My 2.5 yr old has a cross between a East London Cockney and a toothless wonder from Southie. I sound like neither, not does anyone else around us.

The 5 yr old mostly sound very southern English with the odd US words, but so far mostly English, but she going to school soon and I'm sure that will change.

Both born and bread in the Boston burbs.
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Old Aug 9th 2013, 11:47 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

My two are growing up in Hong Kong and picking up a "Hong Kong accent", which is a mishmash of English, Australian, New Zealand, and American accents crammed together. My American friends thing they sound British, my Aussie friends think they sound American, etc. They also throw in occasional Filipino mannerisms and expressions since all the domestic helpers are from the Philippines.
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Old Aug 9th 2013, 11:48 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Little Miss P was born here in NC, and at 6 1/2 she has a soft southern drawl, ...... scattered with occasional words with flattened Yorkshire vowels!
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Old Aug 10th 2013, 1:10 am
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Default Re: Kids Accents

My kids were aged eight and six when we came here to the US (now aged 29 and 27). Both had a rural Somerset accent back then. The eldest, my daughter, was talking like a born and bred Bostonian in a month or two, then picked up a back country NYS accent as soon as we moved here. Now she's back in MA, talks wicked Bostonian again. Meanwhile, my son continued with his original British accent more or less unchanged ... fortunately for him, since he went back to the UK to live.
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Old Aug 10th 2013, 6:13 am
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Originally Posted by Bob
My 2.5 yr old has a cross between a East London Cockney and a toothless wonder from Southie. I sound like neither, not does anyone else around us.

The 5 yr old mostly sound very southern English with the odd US words, but so far mostly English, but she going to school soon and I'm sure that will change.

Both born and bread in the Boston burbs.
My girls (both US born) would switch off on things depending on who they were talking to (my hubby is american) if they were talking to me it was said the english way and vice versa, I was always mummy UNTIL they started school now they constantly correct me... 'its toos-day'!
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Old Aug 10th 2013, 6:13 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

We moved to Switzerland when my son was 8 and daughter was 4, where they went into a French-speaking school. After some time, both spoke fluent French; DD was indistinguishable from the local kids, DS spoke French words with a unadulterated English Home Counties accent.

Moved here ages 11 and 7: DD effortlessly code switches her accent between British with me, and perfect Arizonian US (words, accent, mannerisms) with her friends. DS STILL speaks as if he's in Surrey, only now using words like 'dude' and 'awesome', which is v comical.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 1:34 am
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Default Re: Kids Accents

i am corrected constantly -; mummy its 'yow gurt' not 'yog urt' but like yours they are largely English sounding with just odd words that are americanised.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 1:07 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

I have two kids born and bread in Newcastle. We have been in Michigan for just over a year. My (almost) 9 year old son is still a Geordie with a smattering of US terms and he has gone from Zed to Zee. He is adamant he is English and wants to stay that way. He has changed only enough to 'fit' with school.
My (almost) 8 year old daughter changes her accent depending on whether it is a school day. I say goodbye to an English girl on a Monday morning and an American girl steps off the school bus on Monday night!
It will be interesting to see how quickly she changes after the 10 weeks summer holidays and lots of British visitors.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 1:25 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Originally Posted by Bayleaf_01
I have two kids born and bread in Newcastle. We have been in Michigan for just over a year. My (almost) 9 year old son is still a Geordie with a smattering of US terms and he has gone from Zed to Zee. He is adamant he is English and wants to stay that way. He has changed only enough to 'fit' with school.
My (almost) 8 year old daughter changes her accent depending on whether it is a school day. I say goodbye to an English girl on a Monday morning and an American girl steps off the school bus on Monday night!
It will be interesting to see how quickly she changes after the 10 weeks summer holidays and lots of British visitors.
Yeah I think it is partly a boy vs. girl thing. Maybe boys in that age group are more self contained and girls feel more pressure to conform ..
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 1:28 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Originally Posted by robin1234
Yeah I think it is partly a boy vs. girl thing. Maybe boys in that age group are more self contained and girls feel more pressure to conform ..
I think the fact my youngest has changed her accent comes down to a couple facts:

1. She is the youngest and has been here for half of her life.
2. She talks a lot and all her friends talk a lot too.
3. She wants to fit in.

When she came back from a 3 day Girl Scout camp in the Spring there was not a hint of a British accent to her voice.

Her brother likes to be different and as a result is making more of a conscious decision to keep as much of his English accent as possible.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 3:13 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Originally Posted by robin1234
Yeah I think it is partly a boy vs. girl thing. Maybe boys in that age group are more self contained and girls feel more pressure to conform ..
I agree, my accent hasn't changed much since I was eight years old, despite two moves within the UK to areas with totally different accents, before crossing the pond 12 years ago. If it had simply been a matter of wanting to fit in, I would have changed it in a heartbeat, because I was ribbed mercilessly at high school, but I don't think I could change it if I wanted to now (which I don't).

Last edited by Pulaski; Aug 12th 2013 at 3:16 pm.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 3:34 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Both of my children are septics so they speak accordingly.

I think my daughter might pick up a few bits and pieces from me in her accent though because she is much more rhotic than her brother.

We live in one of the more accent neutral areas in the state, it's just the bog-standard generic American accent with no real regional clues but my daughter definitely sounds like more of a cheesehead/UP-er with all the rounded 'R' sounds that she has.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 3:42 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

my boys both born here in Arizona obviously have American accents and I don't think they have picked up any of our British in any way.

The surprise is when you take them back to the UK, kids crowded around them at the park just to hear them speak. If they were any older they could have easily pulled.
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Old Aug 12th 2013, 7:11 pm
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Default Re: Kids Accents

Originally Posted by robin1234
Yeah I think it is partly a boy vs. girl thing. Maybe boys in that age group are more self contained and girls feel more pressure to conform ..
That's interesting, probably true of mine.
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