justicemode:

squigglytext-blog:

shipvicturi:

So, I have an American friend named Jane who married this English guy about 7 years ago. They live in Sussex together (god rest their souls), and they had a little boy pretty much right after they got married. As he grew up, they figured he would have a mix of their accents with a heavy lean towards English (because he’d go to school with English kids and teachers and the like.)

That’s not how it fucking worked out at all though. Instead, he says individual words with either an American or an English accent. Like, one second he’ll be like, “Daddy, I’m knackered” and the next he’ll be like, “AY YO MA WHERE YOU AT???” Every time they send me a video I just fucking piss myself listening to this kid.

Ok so this is a very good example of what we call “code switching” in sociolinguistics. Without going into to too detail, this comes in a few kind of flavors. The most commonly talked about kind is the ones you see in bilingual kids and adults, where they switch languages (sometimes mid coversation!) Depending on who they are talking to or what about.

That kind is also interesting, but in this case we have a child who is budialectal. First, let me dispel a myth. Kids are VERY GOOD at learning languages when they are little. Learning two languages at once will not slow them down noticeably or cause any other issues. The same is true for dialects (or varieties, as we call them in sociolingusitcs).

Think of African American children. They are suuuuper amazing, because more than likely they acquire AAVE (African American Vernacular English) at home, and then are always told they can’t use it in school, where they are taught whatever “standard American English” is (it doesn’t reeeallly exist, but meh). And they switch between the two all the time!

Anyway, if a child is receiving input from one parent in one dialect, and a different input from they other, just like they would acquire two languages, they acquire two dialects. And they employ them depending on a bunch of factors! Who they are talking to, what about, etc!

You won’t hear a ‘blend’ because the dialects are two separate systems stored in two different grammars! And they will sound native in either!

-neighborhood linguist

I think one of my favorite things about this site is when an op goes “here’s a funny anecdote” and then suddenly the neighborhood subject matter expert shows up and explains what’s behind. Learn so much here.