Anyone else's child speak with the 'wrong' accent but then grow out of it??

[clarsair]

This is driving me mad! I know it shouldn't but I cringe every time I hear my daughter speak.

She is two and has somehow developed a very non-local accent. DH, I and all our family, and all the nursery staff have local accents so I can only guess she's picked it up from TV or another child at nursery. Family have been commenting on it, it particularly annoys my Mum, who tells her to stop it (but I can't see how it's deliberate!). I'm trying to speak more slowly and clearly to my daughter but its been a few months now and it's not changing.

Has anybody else experienced this? It's not just certain words, it's about 90% of her speech.

 

[Jade--x]

Sorry my LOs don't do it, but I do apparently. I've always been told I don't sound like I'm from where I'm from since I was younger, I've never noticed it and my family only notice it now I have hints of northern in it, but people from out of the area have always asked if I've lived here all my life. I'm not sure when it started I think it was around 10/11 so not as young as your LO but I haven't all of a sudden just gotten a 'derbyshire' accent. If anything I think its got worse as I've got older.
Maybe speak to your GP if you're not sure where she's getting it from, I'm not sure if they'll do it for accents but maybe they'd be able to get her to see a speach therapist or something?

 

[Dragonfly]

Yep, both my children speak with some sort of posh English accent. I assumed it came from their granny. Williams grown out of it in to normal accent Alex is all posh.

 

[Foogirl]

My daughter has a very strong regional accent. My husband and I don't. I know it comes from nursery as all the staff have this accent. And the slang words.....oh I hate the slang words. She talks about "mah" instead of "my" etc, oh and once told me "I'm pure soakin so ah am" I correct the slang and pronunciation, and she is slowly learning. It bothers me because she spends more time with us than at nursery, but theirs is a stronger accent. Neither my husband or I have strong accents. She did go through having an english accent and even copies some american accents. None of it lasted long.

I'm sure she'll grow out of it, I had an English accent at her age, despite my parents having strong scottish accents. Then I moved to scotland and found that children hit you if you speak funny. My accent changes depending on where I'm travelling to. As I go south I get more english and as I go north I get more of the Scottish Accent I grew up with. I never notice it, but my husband does!

I think suggesting speech therapy is a bit drastic. My SIL is a pediatric speech therapist. Her take on it was, children will pick up on their strongest influence. Making too big a thing about it may well stop them from exploring language and thats not something you want.

 

[binxyboo]

I have a Hampshire accent and Hubby is from Yorkshire. Daniel has somehow picked up a Cockney accent. (The other day he tried some cucumber and told me " I dunt loike it")
I have no idea where he has got it from because my Mum is my child care provider and she has a Hampshire accent like me.

 

[Foogirl]

I have a Hampshire accent and Hubby is from Yorkshire. Daniel has somehow picked up a Cockney accent. (The other day he tried some cucumber and told me " I dunt loike it")
I have no idea where he has got it from because my Mum is my child care provider and she has a Hampshire accent like me.

Abby goes cockney on some words. Her "sea-owrse" (sea Horse) is quite comical.

 

[Mrs Doddy]

My lo is very posh - don't know where she gets it from lol

 

[Kmx]

My ohs niece done it and still does until she went to school. It was really annoying lol I hated it but the family seemed to love it lol. It was American and I can only guess it was from tv. She was known for loving tv and had it on 24/7. My LO isn't talking yet but don't know what I'll do if he does this lol. Don't think there's much u can do except maybe correct them? My ohs family really encouraged it and spoke back to the girl in an American accent. And now their other daughter now speaks this way too x

 

[Tegans Mama]

Tegan speaks in quite a posh English accent, but apparently so did I as a young child. She says "can't" in an american accent though for some reason. Instead of the english "carnt" she says "cant" or caint

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I'm very curious to see how Alex will speak, when he speaks more than "Hiya" and "Bye!," since I have an American accent and DH is pure Scottish

 

[Ice Cold Cube]

Alex has an ultra polite English accent. Very strange for a boy being brought up in the west of Scotland!

Laura x

 

[tokyo_c]

This thread is making me chuckle - I am Scottish, husband is Japanese and somehow my LO has ended up sounding half Scadinavian half very southern English! No idea how :-o

 

[MacyClara]

Mine speaks in a very southern accent and it drives me nuts. I've tried so hard to have her say words properly and not use regional slang (ya'll especially) but its no use. She doesn't even go to daycare so I don't know where it's coming from.

 

[Jchihuahua]

Daisy's accent is a real mish mash! I have a geordie accent, hubby is rural Oxfordshire and we live in Leeds and hers is a bit of all of it!

 

[alicecooper]

Sometimes DS2 sounds almost cockney for some bizarre reason lol

 

[Wriggley]

People keep telling me my LO has an American Accent and i had also noticed it but didnt think much of it until other people started commenting on it.

thing is he dont go nursery and i cant think of any american speaking programs that he regularlly watches so no idea where its comes from

 

[_Vicky_]

Hehe I am very Essex and oh is derby - Sam is VERY Essex think Eastenders get 'aaarttttt' of my pub and even says innit! (although I don't) Fynn says 'daddy says 'baaath' mummy says 'barth' hehehe it will all change when then get to school no doubt their esexisms will be gone forever

 

[clarsair]

It's good to know I'm not the only one experiencing this. Particularly accents that seemingly come out of nowhere! I'm fairly sure it'll get more local when she starts school as she'll be going to a Welsh-medium school, but that's a very long way off (and she could potentially end up with a different accent for English speaking!). I just wish I didn't find it so embarrasing and feel like I have to apologise and explain to other people.

 

[Tacey]

We have this too! She drops her ts all the time "Buh-er" for butter for example. We also had a bizarre period where she went very west country. She talked about "noit toim" instead of night time! I have no idea where it's come from. We live in the West Midlands...

DH and I don't have regional accents. Some might call our accents posh, but having grown up with truly posh people, I don't agree!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

When ruby started talking she said quite a few words in her dads Liverpool accent (not a mega strong scouse accent but you'd never need to ask where he was from!) but she stopped doing it.
Then came the dropping the Ts phase, ugh that did annoy me but again, it passed!
It's fascinating how these things happen. My best friend at school always spoke with a classic RP accent despite both her parents and brother being very cockney / Thames estuary.