Does Your Kid Have an Accent?
Every once in awhile, my daughter will spit out something with a distinct Southern drawl. Mind you, she’s spent all three years of her life in upstate New York, but my little Yankee has a rebel Daddy influencing her muddled patois.
So where does the Scottish accent come from? And where did my four-year-old cousin in Philly get the Boston pronunciation of his vowels? Definitely not from his New York-born parents.
Most kids develop speech patterns akin to their parents, and they adjust as they get older to those of their surroundings. My aunt in North Carolina still sounds like a born and bred New Yorker. Her kids sound like they were raised in the South – which they were.
I, on the other hand, have an accent formed by a childhood with a mother from North Jersey and a father from upstate New York and an adulthood with a husband from down South. When I people started questioning my sudden acceptance of country music after years of complaining about the twang, I had to admit I’d become immune. I live with the twang. And that twang, in a sea of fast-talking New Yorkers, is all it takes for our daughter. She calls one of my best friends – who has her own Long Island-ese, by the way – her aunt Taaayeruh, a distinctly Southernized version of Tara.
I’m stumped, however, on the Scottish and British words that pop out of her mouth – the insistence that her toys stop being “nawty” in a voice reminiscent of the SuperNanny (which we don’t watch, or at least, not with her awake). And that Bah-ston accent of my little cousin? He can pahk that cah in his toybox, but it’s not leaving Pennsylvania.
Is this just another weird thing in my family, or do your kids spit out strange accents?
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Looks like our kids are in an accent exchange program: we live in Texas, but our 3 year old son has an almost Cockney accent, while our 5 year old daughter talks like she’s auditioning for the Sopranos. We’ve been absolutely stumped – interesting to hear it’s more common than we thought.
Okay, I’ll admit it…my four year old’s first TV obsession was Charlie and Lola and when we moved from Manhattan to upstate New York when she was almost two and a half everyone assumed that we were moving here from the UK. I’m sure that there are other little ones out there saying “to-mah-to” for that reason.
lol Alice, I’ve lived in the South all of my life and have never heard someone say ‘ye’ instead of ‘your’.
Where did you derive your, or shall I say ‘ye’, assumption?
Many southerners use old English words, such as “ye” instead of “your”. They are also many of us descended from Scotch-Irish and still sound a bit lilty. The Scotch-Irish are a whole ethnic group with a wild history. Kicked out of the British Isles for refusing to give over to English rule. Crazy!
A third on the Bahston accent thing with toddlers. My little guy has been saying cah and pahk since he began uttering anything comprehensible. And we’re in California.
My husband’s voice teacher told him that most toddlers have a bit of a Boston accent because of how their tongues are connected, or something. Don’t know if it’s true, but there we are.
My parents are from the mid-west, I was born in Houston, lived in Florida, grew up in California, and have now lived in Georgia for 11 years. I am often asked where I’m from no matter where I am. On several occasions, people have thought I’m British, which I can’t figure out at all…
My daughter has an accent I can’t put my finger on. I’m Canadian, from the maritimes, my husband is from Newfoundland (VERY distinct accent there) and we live in Ontario. Most of the time i can’t pin point what accent she is speaking in!