Accent of an English child with American parents

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Anonymous

#418598 Fri, 14 Sep 07 05:33 PM

Would a child of three and a half years, born and living in England but with American parents be expected to have a predominently english or american accent?

Anonymous

nona the brit

#418629 Fri, 14 Sep 07 06:31 PM

It suppose it would depend on that child's exposure to people outside the home, but also not forgetting that TV etc will have an influence.

My 3 year old nephew is in a similar situation. My brother is English and my sister-in-law is American. My nephews accent is predominently English but some of the things he says (even his name) have a decidedly American 'twang'. Probably if he had two American parents he would have even more American influence. Of course, he goes to an English nursery school and mixes with English children, so it is only a touch of 'Americanism'.

If the parents in a house speak a different accent to the local one, the children usually start off with their parents accent, then pick up the local accent with increasing exposure to others, then can switch from one to the other at will. I know someone who speaks one regional accent to their parents and another to everyone else.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,347)

The name says it all.

Accents

Siggy

#419803 Mon, 17 Sep 07 12:01 AM

Typically a child picks up the accent of his/her peers and culture, not his/her parents.

Based on a sample size of two (my daughters) I can attest to their both speaking with wonderful northern English accents at the ages of four and nine, just prior to our moving to the US. Now, at 16 and 21, they are never mistaken for being English and have to actually work hard to mimic an English accent!

I should point out that northern English words such as "fettler" or "daft" are, in fact, pronounced much closer to the real thing because these are words they have picked up from their parents and have no US equivalent. But to all intents and purposes, their accent is pure Ohioan!

Siggy

Siggy

Joined on Mon, May 1 2006

Ohio, USA

Junior Member (82)

If life wasn't so pointless and absurd, I would take it more seriously

Accents, Sample

Anonymous

#419898 Mon, 17 Sep 07 06:48 AM

>> Typically a child picks up the accent of his/her peers and culture, not his/her parents. <<

And a very good thing that is too. We should be thankful for it. Otherwise a child with two foreign parents would never be able to speak English with a native accent. I.e., a child with two Korean parents would forever have a Korean accent.

Anonymous

Accents, Speak english

Mosca

#425150 Sat, 29 Sep 07 02:30 PM

I have seen something entirely unrelated to the english language, yet closely tighed to your issue.

I think the influence/adoption depends on the childs connection and relation to their parents. Two of my cousins, live in the south of my country (which has got a clearly distinctive dialect/accent) with the father having the very distinctive (capitol) accent and the mother having a local accent. The two sisters have adopted different accents - one the local accent, the other (the first born) the capitol accent (without even having visited). This was established at an early age an never changed. It's also been clear that there's been a strong emotinal and mental association between with the first born sister and the father.

At adult age, the older sister also decided to settle down in the capitol.

I've always been fascinated by their story. Smile [:)]