Accents, Speech Patterns and Family Life

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dh immigrated to Canada and then the US as a child. His parents chose at that time to speak only English in the home so that the children would learn English well and without an accent. It worked even though my ILs do not speak English without an accent or without some Filipino speech patterns. I've seen other people though, like a person with Southern born parents in the Northwest who speaks with a slight Southern accent, despite never having lived there himself, who seem to pick up accents and speech patterns at home. Where do you think that people normally get their accent and speech pattern - at home or at school?

[Tammi K]

Interesting question. We moved to Australia when my kiddos were 12, 10, 6, 4, newborn, and then had one there.

 

To my ears no one developed an Australian accent...until we returned home. Then as soon an we hit the Los Angeles airport, I was surrounded by a bunch of little Ozzies. Except for the youngest two( who were by that time 6 and almost 3) who still had no real trace of an Australian accent despite attending school with Australian children. Hmmmm, never could figure out why some developed it and some didn't.

[Crimson Wife]

Mostly school/peers but somewhat from parents. My kids all say "aunt" to rhyme with gaunt/haunt/flaunt/etc. rather than pant/can't/etc. because I'm from New England.

[Bang!Zoom!]

This is a really timely subject. Spent the day with the kid reading out of old school readers; went over the stress syllables, rising and falling inflections. Several words I noticed (okay, like most..) I have a slang lisp to, it's definitely tainted stuff..

 

So I ended up playing audio versions for her to learn the words correctly..

 

Later on this evening, I was watching some documentary based out of Canada, and man...I really noticed the sounds in it.

 

Know what I'm talking a boot? lol

 

She ought to be a fine mess after a couple years in the South here shortly...

 

I think you get it early on in your family and community.

 

Once I saw Madonna on an interview (she grew up in a city not far from me) and she had picked up a British accent. My mind went: "Oh you poser..have fun with it!"

 

My parents had very distinctly different speech fluctuations- I think I pronounce more like my mother, but if I am taped and listen to it, I sound just like my Dad. Go figure.

[regentrude]

We are first generation immigrants. DH and I are proficient in English, but speak with accents of varying degrees. Our kids attended public elementary school and speak English without any German accent - but also without the local accent.

[stripe]

I have a friend who grew up in the South; her mother is Puerto Rican from NYC. My friend sounds much more like a New Yorker than any kind of Southerner. I had a friend also whose mother is from the deep south and father from Nigeria. She had a very crisp standardish American accent, not southern, but her mother sounded Nigerian too.

 

My kids kind of picked up my husband's accent when they were little but they have lost it. They mostly sound like me, but they have picked up a lightened up version of the accent of the region in which we live (not where I grew up). I tease them about it. When I was a kid, we lived in Boston for a while and I did acquire a Boston accent, but I lost it as soon as we moved away.

 

I find people with the fake euro accent to be generally annoying. Except for Jessye Norman -- I am willing to give her a pass.

[Kathryn]

When I was very young, I spent most of my time with very Southern babysitters. My Boston-born mother used to make fun of my accent. Now, people from the SOuth and New England say I have no accent.

[Parrothead]

I didn't move to the southeast until I was 10. It took about 5 years to pick up a southern accent. Not as heavy as some since we lived in a military community and not everyone I had contact with was southern. I've been gone for 12 years and have lost most of it. But every once in a while someone will comment about hearing a word here or there that sounds southern.

 

Dd left the southeast before she learned to speak well. She had a southern accent from listening to dh. He was born and raised in southwest GA. I think she has since lost it.

 

Dh is losing his accent. No very quickly but it is no where near as pronounced as it used to be. When we were in his hometown earlier this month the accent made him cringe. He was having a hard time understanding some of his extended family. :D

 

I think it has a lot to do with exposure. When I watch a lot of BBC America my thoughts start to sound slightly British in my head at times. I pick up easily on accents. I think it is because of moving so much during my life. I say 'yens" when I'm in PA. I say "y'all" when I'm down south. I sometimes fall back to "yous guys".

 

I never did get the midwest accent while we were in MT. My short A's were just starting to change in my head before we left.

[Denisemomof4]

I guess at school. Dh's parents had HEAVY accents. His mother's is so strong that I often can't make out what she was saying. Dh has no accent at all.

[jenangelcat]

My kids all have a British accent despite never having set foot in England. Their dad moved her about 15 years ago so his accent is somewhat diluted. They are with me most of the time, yet they've picked up his accent.

 

People comment on it all the time.

[stripe]

Dh has no accent at all.

 

;) everyone has an accent

[SquirrellyMama]

 

I find people with the fake euro accent to be generally annoying.

 

I was just about to ask a question about this when I saw this thread. I've been watching an episode of House Hunter International. The couple, a husband from England and a wife from the US South, live in England. The wife has dropped her Southern accent and adopted an English accent. I find her rather annoying and I wondered if Europeans found Americans who adopt their accent annoying.

 

I love accents so I find it sad when someone throws their accent off for a new one. I can understand losing some of it over time but this woman is over the top.

 

Kelly

[justamouse]

I was just about to ask a question about this when I saw this thread. I've been watching an episode of House Hunter International. The couple, a husband from England and a wife from the US South, live in England. The wife has dropped her Southern accent and adopted an English accent. I find her rather annoying and I wondered if Europeans found Americans who adopt their accent annoying.

 

I love accents so I find it sad when someone throws their accent off for a new one. I can understand losing some of it over time but this woman is over the top.

 

Kelly

 

Sometimes it's not that they are faking it, it's that they have an easy ear. They can slip between all of it, and when it's what they most hear...

 

I know that because I can do it, and it can be embarrassing, sometimes. BUT, it can also be fun. My kids and I have a great time playing characters with different ethnicities. It can go on all day long, and I've been able to do it since I was a kid.

 

BUT ask me to play with a Portuguese accent? And I can't. Though I spoke it fluently.

[SquirrellyMama]

Honestly I think some people simply cannot help that. I remember in junior high a girl in my class moving to the south and coming back for a visit a year later. She had the thickest southern accent! As if she has lived there her entire life. I think some people just pick up accents easily.

 

I agree but from the way these people talked this lady picked it up on purpose. She has this English dream and that was part of it. I enjoyed her husband's accent but she just seemed pretentious.

 

Kelly

[SquirrellyMama]

I have friends from the south who have kids who have never lived in the South. The kids usually speak with a midwestern accent even though the parents have a very thick southern accent. When the kids become excited a southern accent flows from their mouth. I love it! Iowa accents are so boring.

[mommymilkies]

Both. My mom's family is very Southern KY Appalachian. Despite being raised most of my life in IL, I do have a twang and say some unusual words (bag="beg") compared to around here. The twang gets worse when I'm around my family but was almost nonexistent in high school.

[hillfarm]

I am another one of those accent-shifters. I definitely don't do it on purpose, but if I hear someone speaking with a particular accent, that's what my thoughts start sounding like in my head and what my words sound like when they come out of my mouth. The more time I spend with them, the longer my thoughts sound like they do.

 

I always though it had to do with being really interested in languages in high school (at one point I was studying English, Spanish, German, French, and Latin simultaneously!). I had to develop the ability to quickly adjust my spoken language to sound like those around me.

 

I do love regional differences and really enjoy listening to the people in my area of the midwest. They speak what they think of as perfectly normal English. However, occasionally their use of an unusual singular/plural or the way they order their words is more closely related to German than "normal" English. (Big influx of German immigrants here in the early 1800's).

 

I get very frustrated with the grammar snobs who look down on these people. There is a time and place for everything. Sure, use your best English when you are writing a report for work or submitting an article to the newspaper. But revel in your linguistic heritage when you are chatting with relatives during family gatherings or with the cashier at the local grocery. I think the world would be a much poorer place if we root out all the instances of regional language differences.

[stripe]

I agree but from the way these people talked this lady picked it up on purpose. She has this English dream and that was part of it. I enjoyed her husband's accent but she just seemed pretentious.

 

 

I find it annoying when someone travels to England for a week and comes back talking about posting a letter from their flat, etc etc. Give me a break. I went to school with a guy who had this thick brogue, but he was really an American who'd lived in Dublin for a few years. He seemed like a nice enough person, so I tried to withhold my initial tendency towards scorn.

 

Outside of the family. I've met many immigrants with accents who have kids who do not have their accent at all.

 

I also know immigrants who have spent a lot of time losing their original accent in order to sound middle American (sort of the tv accent). Actually the people I know who did this most successfully are people who weren't immigrants, but came to the US as students and then ultimately returned to their home country. I think they were tired of people not understanding them. My husband is really annoyed when people cannot understand a word he is using but he can't figure out why not. He came home the other day asking me to tell him how his pronunciation of "focus" was different than mine. It was minor, at best. I couldn't determine what the problem was and chalked it up to someone being sort of dim.

 

I also love people who speak English with another accent, such as Japanese people who learned English with British teachers and so speak with a British accent.

[Cinder]

I think the accent comes from different sources depending on the person. I lost my Hawaiian accent when I went to college in NY. My boys haven't picked up a regional accent in spite of living in TX, AR, KY, GA, though ds1 was picking up an AR accent when we lived there. But then we moved. Dd is picking up a GA accent from her best buddy next door. She hasn't really adopted the accent entirely; I mostly hear it with the short a sound.

 

I once met a guy who was born and raised in TN but had no southern accent. He said his parents were from the north/midwest and he just never picked up the local accent.

 

I knew a woman born and raised in MS who had no southern accent. Her dh and kids did, though.

 

I knew a woman who emigrated from the Philippines when she was in her 20's. She lost most of her accent but you could tell she was not a native (US) speaker. Her sister also emigrated in her 20's but had not lost her accent at all.

[Jean in Newcastle]

It is interesting to hear your stories. I do remember talking to some Mexican guys once and starting to unconsciously use their speech patterns after only minutes talking to them. One asked me, "Are you mocking us?" and I was horrified! It really was unconscious. I think because I grew up speaking one language inside the house and another language outside the house, I automatically listen to how things are said and try to adapt to fit. Once I explained, they were cool with it and just laughed at me.

[Sandra in FL]

I'm Jamaican. Dh is American. We live in S. Florida. I have always been very conscious of how I speak to dc because we homeschool. I played a lot of books on tape, TV, etc. There are some words and vowel sounds that the kids say that sound "Jamaican" but only a Jamaican who is listening very carefully (like me) would pick them out.

 

My oldest has the slightest accent. My middle did a lot of speech therapy so I don't know what his accent is - probably a blend. My youngest (because I was lazy and played so many books on tape) gets a LOT of comments from his friends on why he speaks the way he does (kinda drags the last syllable).

 

In the end, it all works out. They haven't a clue what my mom and brothers are talking about when we have family dinners and the patois is let loose :lol:

[justamouse]

It is interesting to hear your stories. I do remember talking to some Mexican guys once and starting to unconsciously use their speech patterns after only minutes talking to them. One asked me, "Are you mocking us?" and I was horrified! It really was unconscious. I think because I grew up speaking one language inside the house and another language outside the house, I automatically listen to how things are said and try to adapt to fit. Once I explained, they were cool with it and just laughed at me.

 

That happened to me, with a CHinese waiter. I've never been SO embarrassed. Mortified. It was completely unconscious, and my friends at the table all LOOKED at me and asked me WHY, and I hadn't even realized I had done it. Mortified is an understatement.

[justamouse]

I can totally see this happening to me. I hear/feel the melody and sound of people's voices. And it's like my brain just picks up on that and makes me do it. LOL Even after visiting Germany for a few weeks I start to feel awkward when I talk because my voice is trying to do different things than I'm used to. I don't know how else to explain it, but I think you know what I mean.

 

I totally get it.

[Impish]

Another linguistic chameleon here.

 

I pick up accents and speech patterns in nothing flat. Not something I even notice unless someone points it out to me.

[mommymilkies]

I can totally see this happening to me. I hear/feel the melody and sound of people's voices. And it's like my brain just picks up on that and makes me do it. LOL Even after visiting Germany for a few weeks I start to feel awkward when I talk because my voice is trying to do different things than I'm used to. I don't know how else to explain it, but I think you know what I mean.

I do this, too. My stepdad was a New Yorker and sometimes I use some of his accent (I lived with him for 16 years!). My brain just naturally blends to what's around it. I watch so much British TV and read so many British books that my inner voice is British naturally-inner speech and reading books. :lol:

[Belacqua]

I find it annoying when someone travels to England for a week and comes back talking about posting a letter from their flat, etc etc. Give me a break. I went to school with a guy who had this thick brogue, but he was really an American who'd lived in Dublin for a few years. He seemed like a nice enough person, so I tried to withhold my initial tendency towards scorn.

 

Heh. There was a kid from my northern-US college who spent a semester in DC. He came back wearing linen pants and sounding like a weird Atticus Finch/Colonel Sanders hybrid. We decided to find it endearing.

 

Do you find that you don't really notice the accents of people you spend a lot of time with? My husband's accent, to me, sounds ordinary (and how's that for some unconscious ethnocentrism?); when people meet him, though, they always ask where he's from.

 

Then there's the little girl my son tutors who is convinced he sounds like Harry Potter. I imagine that's just wishful thinking on her part. :)

[Farrar]

I find it annoying when someone travels to England for a week and comes back talking about posting a letter from their flat, etc etc. Give me a break. I went to school with a guy who had this thick brogue, but he was really an American who'd lived in Dublin for a few years. He seemed like a nice enough person, so I tried to withhold my initial tendency towards scorn.

 

Hehe. Sometimes it just happens though. I was showing another American around Hong Kong once and we had the following completely absurd conversation:

 

Me: "You have all those bags, so we should take the lift."

Her: "What?"

Me: "The sign says it's that way."

Her: "What is?"

Me: "The lift."

Her: "The what?"

Me: "The lift."

Her: "Huh?"

Me: "The lift. You know. Because you have all your luggage."

Her: "The what?"

Me: "The lift."

Her: "Huh?"

Me: "The lift! The... OH! The elevator! The elevator!"

 

I swear I was just saying what the sign said.

[Twilight Woods]

I grew up outside of Chicago. My grandparents all grew up in Chicago. It is funny how different certain words are said. Like, Chicago, Coffee, Joliet, Jewel, Ogden... I could go on.

 

I have a mixture of Chicago/Suburbia accent. My mother and grandparents still have the "chicago" sound to everything.

 

My favorite.... I am going to Jewel..... ok well when you goto Jewels..... that added s always drove me crazy.

 

:tongue_smilie:

 

DH grew up in Canada..... His accent comes out when he talks to his brother...it's pretty funny.... He also has a "bit" of a British sound to him as well I think that is b/c his grandmother is British..... I have a hard time understanding her when she talks. His brother always makes me say words like Roof, coffee etc.. he thinks my accent is funny.

 

The girls have a typical midwestern accent....

Edited September 22, 2012 by my3luvbugs990105

[Belacqua]

 

My favorite.... I am going to Jewel..... ok well when you goto Jewels..... that added s always drove me crazy.

 

Is that a Great Lakes thing? I love that weird little habit. I still find myself wanting to say KMarts, just because my grandmother did and I always found it so charming.

[Twilight Woods]

Is that a Great Lakes thing? I love that weird little habit. I still find myself wanting to say KMarts, just because my grandmother did and I always found it so charming.

 

 

I am not sure. MY mom and her mother do it all the time. :)

[JessReplanted]

I grew up in MA and my whole family has a strong accent. After moving away for college though, I began to let the accent go. There are a few things I'm passing on to my kids though - like 'wicked', saying 'aunt' (not ant), and 'soda'. ;)

[Little Nyssa]

My kids have not picked up my accent. I'm from the East coast and we live on the West coast. I don't know where they've gotten it from, but my kids pronounce these three words alike:

 

Mary

marry

merry

 

They say 'may-ree' for all of them. To me, these are 3 different vowel sounds. I'm trying to train them out of this, but I don't think it's going to work. :001_smile: I can only imagine how I would feel if we had more significant differences, because I really don't like it!

 

ETA I don't have the Boston accent, though I am from there, but I like to say "wicked good" or "bubbla" (water fountain) or "bookin' down the highway" just for fun.

[SquirrellyMama]

My kids have not picked up my accent. I'm from the East coast and we live on the West coast. I don't know where they've gotten it from, but my kids pronounce these three words alike:

 

Mary

marry

merry

 

They say 'may-ree' for all of them. To me, these are 3 different vowel sounds. I'm trying to train them out of this, but I don't think it's going to work. :001_smile: I can only imagine how I would feel if we had more significant differences, because I really don't like it!

 

 

 

But.. they do all sound the same. I don't say "Mayree" but I do pronounce them all "Mare-ee". I'm curious how you think they sound.

 

Kelly

[justamouse]

My kids have not picked up my accent. I'm from the East coast and we live on the West coast. I don't know where they've gotten it from, but my kids pronounce these three words alike:

 

Mary

marry

merry

 

They say 'may-ree' for all of them. To me, these are 3 different vowel sounds. I'm trying to train them out of this, but I don't think it's going to work. :001_smile: I can only imagine how I would feel if we had more significant differences, because I really don't like it!

 

ETA I don't have the Boston accent, though I am from there, but I like to say "wicked good" or "bubbla" (water fountain) or "bookin' down the highway" just for fun.

 

Mare

 

mar ry

 

mer re

Edited September 22, 2012 by justamouse

[mommymilkies]

But.. they do all sound the same. I don't say "Mayree" but I do pronounce them all "Mare-ee". I'm curious how you think they sound.

 

Kelly

 

:iagree:

[Crimson Wife]

But.. they do all sound the same. I don't say "Mayree" but I do pronounce them all "Mare-ee". I'm curious how you think they sound.

 

Kelly

 

Marry has a short a, like "cat"

 

Merry has a short e, like "pet"

 

Mary has the same vowel sound as "air"

[Mélie]

This topic really interests me, because I'm from Québec, Dh is from England, and we live in Texas. :lol:

 

The boys were born in England, and we moved to Newfoundland, Canada shortly after they turned 3 and 4. They both quickly lost their English accent, but didn't pick up a Newfoundland one. So far, they haven't picked up a Southern accent, and speak in a sort of generic American/Canadian accent.

[Farrar]

There are really people who say Mary, marry and merry differently? I have totally never heard that.

[JessReplanted]

We just moved from PA to TX (although I'm originally from MA). We were at a library program last week and the teacher was going over syllables with the kids.

 

Because of her accent, she told them that "Squirrel" is one syllable. I was :blink: and then :lol:. Nobody else in the room seemed to notice.

[JessReplanted]

There are really people who say Mary, marry and merry differently? I have totally never heard that.

 

 

Yes, they are all slightly different.

[Crimson Wife]

There are really people who say Mary, marry and merry differently? I have totally never heard that.

 

DH drives me nuts because his sister is Erin and my cousin is Aaron and he pronounces both the same (with the same vowel sound as "air"). So I have to keep asking whom he means. :glare:

[PeacefulChaos]

My grandparents are from the midwest and they don't have an accent.

I was raised by them and I don't either, despite living in the south for 9 years before moving back to the midwest.

DH has a slight southern accent, but not like many. His parents aren't from the south, though, which is why IMO.

I'm really hoping our kids don't pick up a southern accent. :glare:

[SquirrellyMama]

DH drives me nuts because his sister is Erin and my cousin is Aaron and he pronounces both the same (with the same vowel sound as "air"). So I have to keep asking whom he means. :glare:

 

How do you pronounce Erin? I would pronounce both of those names the same way.

 

Kelly

[butterflymommy]

I was just thinking about this. DH grew up with parents who didn't speak english. Heavy accents and slang in the people around him who did speak english. Around age 6 DH refused to speak anything but english. He sat in front of the evening news with Tom Brokaw and repeated everything that was said. That's how he taught himself to speak "proper" english. His brothers teased him mercilessly but today they speak with heavy accents and DH doesn't.

 

I more or less speak unaccented english too, and I've been noticing that our kids speak like us even though we are in an area with a very thick, noticeable accent. I warn them at least once a week not to pick up the accent or slang from school. In fact, they speak so differently, that they've been asked by the kids if they're from a different country.

[Jean in Newcastle]

How do you pronounce Erin? I would pronounce both of those names the same way.

 

Kelly

 

:iagree:

 

But then I had a woman I worked with screaming at me once that her name was "Dawn", not "Don". Since I pronounce Dawn the same as Don, even when talking about the sunrise, her anger surprised me but baffled me at the same time because I couldn't make my mouth pronounce them differently. She had moved to the PNW from somewhere in the NE and I think she must have been angry a lot at how people pronounced her name because everyone I know here pronounces Don and Dawn exactly the same.

 

(I pronounce Mary, marry and merry all the same too.)

[stripe]

His brother always makes me say words like Roof, coffee etc.. he thinks my accent is funny.

My brother in law makes me say words like "little" and other words where t-->d. He also finds my use of the word "done" to be a novelty (as in, "I'm done eating. Are you done?"). I am sometimes asked to pronounce things just for entertainment purposes.

 

The first time my husband said "squirrel," I seriously had no idea what he just said. The only person I've ever heard who says it anything like him was David Attenborough in one of the nature documentaries. I laughed so hard.

[mommymilkies]

How do you pronounce Erin? I would pronounce both of those names the same way.

 

Kelly

 

Yeah, I can not possibly figure out how to pronounce them differently. I had friends and family that were Erin or Aaron from the South, NE, and MW and all were pronounced the same every time.

[LaxMom]

Interesting question. I've lived outside of Maine long enough to have no accent. My children - MD natives - have Canadian speech patterns and pronunciation, e.g. been and again are pronounced with long vowels.

 

No idea why, though I joke they're channeling their great-great grandparents.

[momma2three]

My husband is English, and I am American, and we live in New England. My two older children definitely have clear English accents. It's very interesting, especially since I am home with them and DH works long hours. I would have thought that 3 years of preschool would socialize my oldest, but she still has it.

 

I don't know enough about linquistics to correctly describe what she does, but it's mainly her As. She says "dance" like "donce." She also drops her Rs after an A. Interestingly enough, that is also a Boston thing... but I don't think we know anyone who actually talks like that, so she definitely got it from her father.

[stripe]

My kids dropped their r's as well. One child had trouble saying "r," including at the beginnings of words, but the other just announced one day that r's were going to be pronounced distinctly and has stuck to it.