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This makes me wonder if my 19 month old child has any distinguishable accent, since she has a Dutch-speaking father, a German-speaking mother (who both speak En

This makes me wonder if my 19 month old child has any distinguishable accent, since she has a Dutch-speaking father, a German-speaking mother (who both speak English to each other), a Syrian baby-sitter, and she goes to a Swedish-speaking preschool. She understands all of us in our own languages, and usually replies with words in the "correct" language to each person.

stevekemp 2y ago
That's an interesting mixture! I know our child with only English and Finnish-speaking parents always preferred to reply in the local language (Finnish) for a long time. He would understand English questions and conversation, but if I said "Do you want to go outside?" the answer would be "Ei!" (no). It took a year or so before he was consistent in replying to speakers in the appropriate language, and even then sometimes the languages would get mixed up , mid-sentence at times. Even now I think it is apparent that Finnish is his real native language. Although his English is basically perfect there are rare lapses in grammar that make it obvious he's constructed the sentence in Finnish and translated to English rather literally.
- euroderf 2y ago
  Yes, you can detect Finglish working its way in. Finnish overloads verbs with multiple semantics more than English does, and it sets off the Faulty English Detector.
  - stevekemp 2y ago
    Mostly, when he's tired or distracted, I hear questions like "Where the cat is?" instead of "Where is the cat?", or "What the clock is?" rather than "What is the time?" I can see where both of those come from, but 95% of the time he asks questions "properly". I realized recently it has been years since he got a persons gender wrong - that was a hard one for him to learn, as with all Finnish people, but it seems to have finally sunk in.
    - euroderf 2y ago
      Some errors in English come straight from Finnish, and only sheer quantity of exposure can overcome them I guess. And consider one of the more subtle English constructions - when to use "so" or "such" with an adjective or adverb. This might be the most common error I see from Finns, and again, perhaps only sheer exposure - esp. written English - might cure it.
- tetris11 2y ago
  We got a Turkish/Greek rescue ~ 3 years ago. Wildly intelligent, can follow simple commands in both languages but prefers to protest in Greek (oi!) and switches to Turkish whenever she wants something (isterim!)
  - doubled112 2y ago
    A rescue child? I've only ever heard "rescue" used for shelter animals, and everything made sense until "both languages." Then I was really amazed to hear about your talking dog, and after a few reads I'm still not sure what you rescued.
    - tetris11 2y ago
      (I'm just poking fun at some of the parent comments who talk about their children like pet commodities)
    - dotancohen 2y ago
      Also, "can follow simple commands"?!? Maybe the dog barks in Greek but begs in Turkish?
    - binary132 2y ago
      I too am highly perplexed
hagbard_c 2y ago
A bit of the same here, I'm Dutch with a Swedish/French wife with whom I speak English. She speaks Swedish to our children, I speak Dutch. Both of them go (youngest) and went (oldest) to the French school in Göteborg which follows the Swedish curriculum but adds a heavy dose of French language and culture to the mix, the oldest now studies English language/literature in Utrecht, the Netherlands. At home we're tri-lingual - Swedish, Dutch and English - with French added as an extra.
animal531 2y ago
I grew up in South Africa but watched and absorbed a lot of American and British English from television. As a result whenever I speak English to locals they'll ask me where I'm from. They usually explain and say that I still definitely sound as if I'm local, but they can't place exactly where from and/or why I sound wrong. My best guess is that the different influences randomizes some overlaps in words, tonality etc. Either way I don't think its bad and it's usually a good conversation starter.

stevekemp 2y ago

That's an interesting mixture! I know our child with only English and Finnish-speaking parents always preferred to reply in the local language (Finnish) for a long time. He would understand English questions and conversation, but if I said "Do you want to go outside?" the answer would be "Ei!" (no). It took a year or so before he was consistent in replying to speakers in the appropriate language, and even then sometimes the languages would get mixed up , mid-sentence at times. Even now I think it is apparent that Finnish is his real native language. Although his English is basically perfect there are rare lapses in grammar that make it obvious he's constructed the sentence in Finnish and translated to English rather literally.

euroderf 2y ago
Yes, you can detect Finglish working its way in. Finnish overloads verbs with multiple semantics more than English does, and it sets off the Faulty English Detector.
- stevekemp 2y ago
  Mostly, when he's tired or distracted, I hear questions like "Where the cat is?" instead of "Where is the cat?", or "What the clock is?" rather than "What is the time?" I can see where both of those come from, but 95% of the time he asks questions "properly". I realized recently it has been years since he got a persons gender wrong - that was a hard one for him to learn, as with all Finnish people, but it seems to have finally sunk in.
  - euroderf 2y ago
    Some errors in English come straight from Finnish, and only sheer quantity of exposure can overcome them I guess. And consider one of the more subtle English constructions - when to use "so" or "such" with an adjective or adverb. This might be the most common error I see from Finns, and again, perhaps only sheer exposure - esp. written English - might cure it.
tetris11 2y ago
We got a Turkish/Greek rescue ~ 3 years ago. Wildly intelligent, can follow simple commands in both languages but prefers to protest in Greek (oi!) and switches to Turkish whenever she wants something (isterim!)
- doubled112 2y ago
  A rescue child? I've only ever heard "rescue" used for shelter animals, and everything made sense until "both languages." Then I was really amazed to hear about your talking dog, and after a few reads I'm still not sure what you rescued.
  - tetris11 2y ago
    (I'm just poking fun at some of the parent comments who talk about their children like pet commodities)
  - dotancohen 2y ago
    Also, "can follow simple commands"?!? Maybe the dog barks in Greek but begs in Turkish?
  - binary132 2y ago
    I too am highly perplexed

hagbard_c 2y ago

A bit of the same here, I'm Dutch with a Swedish/French wife with whom I speak English. She speaks Swedish to our children, I speak Dutch. Both of them go (youngest) and went (oldest) to the French school in Göteborg which follows the Swedish curriculum but adds a heavy dose of French language and culture to the mix, the oldest now studies English language/literature in Utrecht, the Netherlands. At home we're tri-lingual - Swedish, Dutch and English - with French added as an extra.

animal531 2y ago

I grew up in South Africa but watched and absorbed a lot of American and British English from television. As a result whenever I speak English to locals they'll ask me where I'm from. They usually explain and say that I still definitely sound as if I'm local, but they can't place exactly where from and/or why I sound wrong. My best guess is that the different influences randomizes some overlaps in words, tonality etc. Either way I don't think its bad and it's usually a good conversation starter.