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Beckham's kids picking up American accent
Filed under: Big Kids, Development/Milestones: Babies, Celeb Kids, Celeb Parents
I was born and raised in Texas and have a bit of a southern accent. I never noticed it much until I moved to New York, where they have their own distinct way of speaking. And while Ellie may be Texas-born, she spent the first three years of her life in New York and that is where she learned to talk. At home, she was influenced by her southern family, but day care was a completely different story. When she began speaking, her accent was an odd mixture of the two sounds. And while I tried to prevent it, I noticed that even I started to pick up the different pronunciations of words when in the company of native New Yorkers. It happens.
David Beckham says his own kids are having a similar experience. "They sound as if they are from London – and that is how I want them to sound," he says. "But they are getting little parts of an American accent. Romeo keeps saying 'Awesome' a lot. 'Awesome, awesome.' "
I remember when Detroit-born Madonna started sounding British after relocating to London. People made fun of her and perhaps she was overdoing it a bit. But the phenomenon of adjusting one's accent to new surroundings is real. It's called linguistic accommodation and it happens subconsciously. But I am happy to report that it isn't a permanent condition. We now live in accent-neutral Idaho and sound southern once again.
David Beckham says his own kids are having a similar experience. "They sound as if they are from London – and that is how I want them to sound," he says. "But they are getting little parts of an American accent. Romeo keeps saying 'Awesome' a lot. 'Awesome, awesome.' "
I remember when Detroit-born Madonna started sounding British after relocating to London. People made fun of her and perhaps she was overdoing it a bit. But the phenomenon of adjusting one's accent to new surroundings is real. It's called linguistic accommodation and it happens subconsciously. But I am happy to report that it isn't a permanent condition. We now live in accent-neutral Idaho and sound southern once again.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
11-27-2007 @ 2:16PM
Spring said...Why is this even being written about? I am going to go look for the previous survey, because I thought a fair amount of the comments were requesting less celebrity news on Parent Dish, and this "news" is particularly weak. I am confused why it's even being written about here.
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11-27-2007 @ 9:38PM
Eva said...Actually, a lot of people DO like celeb stuff, and this is interesting autonomous of the celebrity stuff. Lots of people are concerned with issues of child language acquisition. I thought this post was great--it didn't just relay the celebrity news but do some analysis and personal relating.
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11-27-2007 @ 10:13PM
Jenn said...My parents are from NYC, I was born in Minnesota, spent several early years in Europe, and then the majority of the remainder of my life in Texas.
I have an interesting amalgamation of speech characteristics, believe me. I have a few Northeast speech mannerisms, a few Midwest, and a few Southern. I tend to put a Midwest swing to words with an "oh" sound (Minnesooota, sooooda, that sort of thing). I say "soda" (Northern) instead of "Coke" (Southern). But I also say "y'all," which tends to throw people for a loop.
And I've found that the more time I spend on the phone with my European colleagues, the more European mannerisms appear in my speech (although not necessarily accent).
Beckham seems to be talking more about mannerisms than accent, which is to be expected -- you use the vocabulary the people around you use.
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11-28-2007 @ 2:12AM
Nicola said...I am American, my husband is British. Our son was born in the UK, but we now live in the US. He has a dominantly "American" accent now, but says a lot of words in a British accent and uses a huge number of uniquely British expressions. My husband was a full time stay at home dad until our son started school, so even though we are back in the US, the British influence was huge in his early speech development. My parents are British and get a big kick out of their little American/British grandson.
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11-28-2007 @ 7:38AM
Sandyone said...Some people pick it up more readily than others. My American son spent maybe a couple of hours per day after school hours with the British neighbor kids and he picked up not only the mannerisms, but an accent, too.
My sister immediately steps into whatever accent she's surrounded by.
I suspect that the greater your aptitude/ability for learning new languages, the more easily influenced you are.
Language learning is wicked!
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