Say what? Aussie Generation Alpha kids starting to speak with an American accent

Generation Alpha Australians have started to speak with an American accent, with some experts saying it’s due to excessive screen time watching US influencers.

But the phenomenon appears to be working both ways.

Gen Z TikToker Vivian Peterson recently went viral online, claiming she noted nasal speech and lisps in US youngsters, appearing to say American kids were getting Australian accents from popular shows like Bluey.

“It’s so strange and I don’t know if it’s because of the iPads or the unrestricted internet access ... but the younger Gen Alpha in elementary school right now, they all have lisps and they’re all very nasally,” she said.

Australian parents have echoed these concerns, saying their kids were adopting American accents after following their favourite influencers online.

“I can notice my seven-year-old Aussie daughter sounds American when she watches too much YouTube Kids,” one parent wrote on a Reddit thread.

Another parent said their teenager, 15, also speaks with an American accent.

On Thursday, Sunshine Coast mayor Rosanna Natoli and Logan City mayor Jon Raven, joined Nat Barr on Sunrise.

“My youngest daughter, born in 2010, has a Gen Alpha accent when she talks to her friends, and when she speaks to me she switches back to her Australian accent,” Raven said.

“It is really interesting to see the jokes that come out of this.

“My eldest daughter, she loves a bit of ‘6-7’ gags.”

The phrase “6-7” is a Gen Alpha social media term, which is largely nonsensical.

Most argue it means “so-so”, or “maybe this, maybe that”, especially when paired with a hand gesture where both palms face up and move alternately up and down.

Raven continued: “All of these things move so quickly that I am fascinated to see what happens when under 16s can’t use TikTok and other social media anymore.

“That is where they learn a lot of this language and they pick up the accents and they have to stay ahead of the new meme.

“If our kids are using American accents, which has been going on for a while, I can’t wait to see what happens when we start getting European influences they are interested in.

“We can have some Nordic accents going on in the schoolyard.”

Natoli also spoke about the changing accent.

“There is nothing like that moment when you are overseas and you hear another Australian and you think, ‘my goodness, do I sound like that?’.

“We have to keep that moment.

“We need to keep our identity of sounding like an Australian and not getting all of our accent from TikTokers from Texas.

“We want to keep a bit of that Aussie.

“When I was a kid, I was really teased for rolling my r’s, as I’m Italian.

“We want to keep a bit of that twang, so when we go overseas, we know who we are.”