Post B24vbAHCSgOrDZw3zk by rainynight65@aus.social
(DIR) More posts by rainynight65@aus.social
(DIR) Post #B24bcPbAyuNdwfb2hc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-08T11:17:33Z
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I know many people who grew up in the midwest but who now live in NYC and are raising kids. On occasion they will say "my toddler has a NYC accent where did she get it from?"Because most of my friends are communist nerds their kids don't watch TV much. Most of their language exposure is their parents in person interactions around the city, and as they get older school. But this is true of toddlers who are not in school. My brother is convinced "it's something in the water"1/
(DIR) Post #B24bqfnpX1lAFuJd9k by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-08T11:20:07Z
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I don't think I can rule out the water or gravitational fields, or just something about the architecture that does things to a child... but more seriously. I have a theory about what's really going on. The toddlers are picking up the NYC accent from their parents who "don't have one" --because we are talking about people who have lived in the city for a decade or more. The real question is WHY do parents notice it when their child says it. "over here" is a phrase they *really* notice.2/
(DIR) Post #B24bvUZeht58sWz24e by futurebird@sauropods.win
2026-01-08T11:20:59Z
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"Why does she sound like a cabby? No one we know talks like that!"Except. You do. You just can't hear it. 3/3
(DIR) Post #B24byQ57rknnoY6Dku by MisuseCase@twit.social
2026-01-08T11:21:29Z
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@futurebird The kids are right at the age where they’re picking up language skills and presumably they’re not isolated in their family’s apartments all the time, right? They are going around hearing people talking.
(DIR) Post #B24gpFKEzHzTcRc9Ds by jannem@fosstodon.org
2026-01-08T12:15:51Z
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@futurebird Also, they hear lots of other people all the time. Whenever they're outside, even if half-asleep in a stroller, they pick up snatches of language from people passing by. I don't think they simply average what they hear either. More like a mode, picking out what seems to be the most common way to speak around themselves.
(DIR) Post #B24h15xdd9dQ3BgyXI by Gizmo@butts.team
2026-01-08T12:17:53Z
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@futurebird This helped something click for me. My niece has started saying the Philly “wooder” for “water” and my sister noticed this. But her in-laws also have the Philly accent. She does go to daycare so there is that, but yes. My sis has lived in Philly over a decade. The wooder isn’t coming out of thin air
(DIR) Post #B24hbRjOAPWXziMQG8 by epicdemiologist@wandering.shop
2026-01-08T12:24:34Z
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@futurebird I sound SO much more Southern than I think I do (brought to mind by a podcast I was on recently).
(DIR) Post #B24pNAmFChFyzYOvmy by LeoRJorge@mastodon.social
2026-01-08T13:51:35Z
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@futurebird Don't get me started in toddler accent witchcraft! We're a multilingual family (I'm Brazilian, wife is Latvian, we live in Czech Republic and talk to each other in English). We talk to the child only in Portuguese and Latvian, and he speaks Czech in School. English is just this language he hears but doesn't really speak. However! The few words he speaks of English are in this very stereotypical Brazilian accent I don't really have at all. Where? How?
(DIR) Post #B24vbAHCSgOrDZw3zk by rainynight65@aus.social
2026-01-08T15:01:21Z
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@futurebird I don't hear my own accent when I speak - but I doubly hear it on recordings of myself.
(DIR) Post #B254LqsnBSKoJUIApE by kevingranade@mastodon.gamedev.place
2026-01-08T16:39:26Z
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@futurebird or you do hear your own accent and you start doing diction exercises in your car at 16 to undo it because you hate the way it sounds...Then move to the other side of the country for a decade, twice.Yea I get, "wait where are you from?" a lot. I'm not saying I don't have an accent but it's incredibly idiosyncratic now.
(DIR) Post #B2573oO21dXtDnzehk by fulanigirl@mstdn.social
2026-01-08T17:09:47Z
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@futurebird Accents are definitely still a thing. When I was in the classroom and excited about a concept, my Floridian students would say "Wow, you are really from NY!" which of course I was. My children were raised in NJ, they both have a northern NJ accent and my grandson is born and raised in MD. Sometimes, my daughter and I look at him and shake our heads. He speaks like a Marylander. LOL . When in the deep south my daughter had to translate for me because my ear catch what was being said.
(DIR) Post #B25A0W4BywZjOfplVA by gneilyo@mastodon.online
2026-01-08T17:42:50Z
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@futurebird I get asked about my accent from time to time, which is funny because I live ~25 miles from the town I grew up in.
(DIR) Post #B25JKpuinc0WKbAUng by outer@mas.to
2026-01-08T19:27:22Z
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@futurebird My brother's toddler used to slap taxis crowding her crosswalk, and say, "I'm wokking heah!"