Accent Grave

I've been wondering how long it will take for some of our family members to develop accents.  Gary is constantly told he sounds exactly like an American at work, and also by our nephew.

Seth is pretty staunch.  I don't think he will ever sway from his generic American drawl. 

However, Rowan is marching down the road towards Kiwi lingo.  I think her first decision to do so was when they were reading a story in class. I happened to be there that day.  It was a clue story, so the teacher read, "I'm fast, I have black and white stripes, I am a. . ." and Rowan shouted first before any of her classmates, "ZEEbra!" The other classmates shouted, "ZEHbra!" 

Her face went beet red and she looked around at me in horror.  I had been teaching her incorrect pronunciation her whole life!  I was in for it when I got home.

Here are her adaptations:

1.  Mum - switching interchangeably between Mum and Mom (Seth told me adamantly that he will call me Mom forever.  Done.)
2.  Again - she pronounces it very carefully as "agayne"
3.  Tomato - it's toMAHto, not toMAYto
4.  Banana - baNAWna not baNAHna
5. Together - dropping the "r," as in "Mum, can Cara and I walk home togethah?"

It's pretty cute.  She also likes to correct our pronunciation.  She still sounds really American but with enough perserverance, study and hard work (which I think she's trying) she will sound Kiwi through and through - I give it around a year.

As it turns out, I have an accent - a Canadian one.  Everyone thinks I'm from Canada, and when I tell them I'm from America, they start chatting about guns.