Something odd has been happening at Casa Very Bored lately; the boy has decided to go all southern on us. Now, before I inadvertently start a North V South blog war, I'd just like to say I have no problem with southerners, nor with the way you speak and am probably much more offended by the accent of my home towners than anyone who lives south of the Watford gap, see Jenny in the video below for clarification... but...(of course, there's a but) I really do wish my child would stop talking like a southerner.
I blame Nick Junior, well there really isn't anyone else to blame, seeing as my own accent is a very watered down Nottingham twang and t'husband has a posh Leeds accent - yep, that really does exist, posh in that it's just more of a generic northern accent rather than anywhere you can place, oh and he takes less than 10 minutes to say the word 'no'. (That'll be death threats from the Yorkshire contingent then...)
As a child of a working from home mum, my boy definitely probably spends too much time in front of the telly, so much so that his day to day vocabulary is punctured with sayings from his favourite TV programs, at the moment the phrase 'it sure is.....' seems to be spouted at regular intervals, I'm not sure which Spanglish character is to blame for this, Dora or Diego, but I've warned the boy that if I ever catch him saying 'baby jaaaagwaaaar' then he's to pack his bags and leave home immediately, 5 or not!
baby jaaagwaaaaar
The English based programs are much less nausiating but they do all seem to be dominated by home counties accents. It obviously makes sense to make children's programs in accents that are easy to understand, and regional dialects will hold limited appeal to the masses if it takes too long to figure out what the hell people are saying. I mean would Peppa Pig be so popular if she was a scouser or a geordie? Probably not.
But... (it's back again) I find myself continually narrowing my eyes and scorning at my son's speech nowadays.
"Mummy, Daddy makes me larf"
"laff, Joseph, it's laff, not larf."
"but Humf says 'larf'."
"yes but me and your Dad say 'laff'."
"when we go to the beach will you help me build sarnd-carstles?"
It sure is a larf making sarnd carstles.
"no son, I will not. But I will help you build SAND CASTLES, hard 'a' no 'r'."
"saaaand caaaastles?"
"better lad, better!"
And so it goes on.
Anyway, I'm hoping it's just a phase, sure enough not that long ago he recited numbers in a brummie twang copied from the lady who occasionally babysits for him, we managed to beat it out of the boy (joke) but were rather red-faced when he would then correct our friend saying "Aunty Ann, it's not 'foive' it's 'five'." etc.
It could be worse though, the boy shows no interest in watching CBeebies so no danger of him trotting out an West Indian accent from watching Rastamouse.
