The ‘Peppa Pig effect’ on toddlers which is MORTIFYING parents!
So funny
Anyone who has a toddler will know pretty much everything about Peppa Pig (probably from watching every episode 4000 times).
But mums around the world are discovering a very odd side effect on watching the television show – their little ones are talking exactly like Peppa!
In an article on Romper, mum Janet Manley revealed that after a long international flight and watching several episodes of Peppa Pig, her toddler adopted Peppa’s posh British accent, started calling her “Mummy” – and even punctuating her sentences with an ‘oink’, like Peppa.
“Two years later, she still oinks in conversation. Call it the Peppa effect,” she wrote.
getty images
Another mum, from Virginia in the US, added that her little one has started saying "Daddy" in the same way Peppa Pig does.
Meanwhile, a mum from Seattle, Washington, noticed that her three-year old “watches so much Peppa Pig she pronounces 'Zebra' and 'tomato' with a British accent.”
According to a study by the University of Plymouth, children begin to acquire an accent at around 20 months of age, which would explain why so many toddlers are adopting Peppa’s accent – regardless of where in the world they live.
Romper editor Jacqueline Burt Cote said she first noticed her son speaking with a Peppa accent two years ago.
“He pointed to a picture of a zebra in a picture book and pronounced it with an English accent,” she said.
“I would say he still occasionally pronounces certain words that way, at 4 — it's too late now, he learned them that way during that formative phase.”
Another parent on Twitter revealed: "I was excited when my daughter started watching Peppa Pig because I thought she might pick up an adorable British accent, but all she's learned is to snort like a pig."
"Thanks to Peppa Pig my 2yo, who has never been outside of Washington, Oregon and California has a solid British accent,” added another Twitter user.
Roberto Rey Agudo, the language program director of the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Dartmouth College told Romper that reports of Peppa accents around the world are partly down to the popularity of the show.
"[It’s] in part because Peppa Pig has been such a phenomenon with the 2 to 5-year-old crowd and it's considered cute, whereas I don't know what other shows have that kind of currency right now,” he said.
Nicola Conville has worked as a journalist and editor for more than 20 years across a wide range of print and online publications. Her areas of expertise are parenting, health and travel. She has two children; Lucy, age eight, and Nathan, age five.
