if a American family moves to England and has a Baby,?

Question

The parents and siblings speak with an American accent However everone else in the babies life speaks with an English accent, Wich accent will the baby grow up to have?

Answer 1

Most foreign nationals' children grow up with the native accent so in this case it would be english. Not only would the parents accents most likely change but the child is exposed from school, tv & friends, all of which play a very big part in a childs accent.

And yes destiny, americans most definitely have an accent! Very strong in a lot of cases. Is a southern accent the same as north, east the same as west? No...

I believe southern england has the least tones and inflections in the english language but i'm probably wrong.

Answer 2

An english accent--is there really such a thing as an American accent? America is the "big melting pot" People come to America from all around the world. There's not a distinct accent that Americans have...is there? Although it appears that the dominant trait is the American accent. Hmmm!

Answer 3

I flew to England many years ago, from the western US to marry and begin a family. My Husband was also from the same area as I. We had 2 boys born in England. They were 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 when we left and returned to the US. They both had British accents and called us, "Mummy and Dawdy." We associated with both Americans and British people as well as our associations with people from other countries and continents. My son's "accents" as well as our own, gradually faded over the years, but lingered for some time. It can all depend on how much exposure one has to their surroundings and how they are raised in there home.

Answer 4

The baby will have an English accent, but will probably be able to imitate an American accent very well.

Answer 5

An American accent with an English inflection.

Answer 6

I think the child would sound American when speaking to his family and sound English with everyone else. My husband was in a situation like that--when he was a baby he moved from Switzerland to Quebec, and he speaks to his family (in French) with a Swiss accent but used the Quebec accent with everyone else. My daughter also started with the Swiss accent but when she started kindergarten in French (in Quebec) she picked up the Quebec accent, and she too would make the switch between family and friends. (Although we moved back to Switzerland when she was 5 and she's completely lost the Quebec accent by now.)

In your scenario, I wouldn't be surprised if the family thinks the child sounds English and the friends (if they know he's American) think he sounds American, but I think a lot of that wouldn't be perceived by someone who didn't know the background. (Apart from the occasional unexpected expression, or by special request, my husband never sounds Quebecer anymore.)

Answer 7

The child will choose to have the accent that he/she feels will get him/her the most social capital. Actually, in the case of a bidialectal child, it seems pretty reasonable to assume that the child will be able to use both accents, perhaps a British one with friends and neighbors and an American one with family.

Answer 8

He will have since he is home with American parents and while at school he is around English speaking ppl! So he will be able to speak both depending where he is! A lot of ppl can do that perfectly its hard to decide if they are American or British! I think its pretty cool though!

Answer 9

The parents will eventually pick up the english accent and so will the child

Answer 10

Hello,

My family friends has the same thing. well basically because your baby lives in england he will adapt to the english accent, but will understand you.

that is how it is.