Sorry, I’m going to write about accents again. You’ll think I’m obsessed.
We moved from the south of England to Scotland when our eldest was 3 years old. He retained his English accent, although it did soften round the edges. I remember the time he came home from school, aged 5, and said they’d been learning about volkeenaws. It took a minute for the penny to drop, and then I realized that he was talking about vol-cay-noes. Never having heard the word in an English accent, he didn’t know to anglicize his Scottish teacher’s pronounciation of it for my benefit. They were just volkeenaws.
The same thing happened here in the US last year around St Patrick’s Day. My second came home from Kindergarten with a picture of a man in a funny hat, and told me it was a leprechaahn. When I said “oh, a leprechaun, how lovely!”, he retorted “it’s not lepre-coooorn, Mum, it’s lepre-caaaahn.”
Now it’s happened again with my third. She has a dvd which she borrowed from a friend, and which she calls “The Princess and the Paahprrr”. She first heard and used the word at the friend’s house, and I certainly wasn’t going to adjust her pronounciation, so in order to avoid confusion, I now just find myself talking about the princess and the paaahprrr too. It’s bad enough trying to explain what a paaahprrr is to a 4 year old, without having to remember how to pronounce it each time.
Today when she put the dvd on, we got off to a very complicated conversation when she asked me what a paaahprrr was (again…), and because I hadn’t seen what dvd she’d chosen and lacked the context, I started explaining how some kids call their parents Mommy and Daddy, but some kids call their parents Mama and Papa. She looked at me very blankly, and I eventually realized the confusion. It was quite a long conversational journey back from that to Barbie twirling round in her (suspiciously rather attractive and not at all ragged) pauper’s dress.
You will be able to tell from this story how very impoverished the conversation round the dinner table in our house is. Husband and I evidently never discussed volcanoes, leprechauns or paupers at all in front of our children in their crucial early formative years.
I admit, I don't get it: please tell this American how you would have said "pauper"? And I can only hope it's not like the bastardization that makes taco into "tack-oh"
ReplyDeleteI would say por-per, but without sounding the 'r's at all. Paw-pa. Pour-pah. I can't really write it. Get an English colleague to say for you.
ReplyDeleteI was similarly remiss in discussing portraits and calves, among other things! I, too, adjusted my pronunciations periodically to make life easier on everyone. Now we're back in the US and my kids are all on about zee-bras and I can't let the zeh-bra thing die. Mothers. We are all so embarrassing, aren't we?
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that Americans tend to hear my accent (very English) and assume I'm Australian?
ReplyDeleteWe've been having cards for dinner, accompanied by copious amounts of giggling, ever since we went to Ireland in the summer.
ReplyDeleteApologies for self-publicity but it's explained here: http://edubuzz.org/blogs/guineapigmum/2008/09/27/the-rain-in-spain/
Thanks for the laugh. I think my "Home Counties Bastardised by Me and Living in the US for 5+ Years" husband would pronounce it: paww-puh. Just called him to double-check. Yeah, that's how it sounds.
ReplyDeleteI still catch hell and puzzled looks for "wadder".
I can only imagine how our daughter will sound with the aforementioned dad, Mid Atlantic US mom and living in Ayrshire. Mass confusion will be suffered by someone at some point, and chances are it'll be by me.
@ Mud in the City: My husband used to get the same all the time whilst we were living in Chicago. And now, living near Glasgow, I get asked if I'm Irish more times than I can count.
Ah, I've thought of a way of explaining it.
ReplyDeleteAs you (Americans) say daahdrr and I say dorta for my female off-spring, so you say paahprr and I say porpa.
Does that help everyone?
Umm, how should taco be pronounced if not tack-oh?
ReplyDeleteGuineapigmum - I was kind of wondering myself (although too shy to ask). I think it would be tah-co with a long 'a', as in dark or spark. But maybe nfah could enlighten us (and be the spark in our dark)?
ReplyDeleteYou've got it, long 'a' sound - "taah-koh" :) Well, for my run-of-the-mill Mid Atlantic twang.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in England for 21 years and I still have my (midwest) American accent. My husband and sons have English accents and we frequently have misunderstandings because of their accent vs. my accent and the way we pronounce words differently!
ReplyDeleteYour post reminded me of when I used to help at my son's infant school. I would sit and listen to the children read and help them out when they got stuck on a word. They would listen very carefully and then repeat it back to me in my American accent!
Ha ha! Family in Ireland is just fascinated with Miss E's accent - and Jay's acquisition of a similar one as he talks more and more these days.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were at home though - Miss E very quickly acquired a Northern Irish accent - which lingers here still.
For us the biggest cause of confusion is not accent - but words - we no longer say nappy, pram, changing bag, footpath, - very very sad - tragic really (lol!)