The “Peppa Effect” — When American Children Speak With a British Accent

Sweets, or candy? Rubbish bin, or trashcan? Or here’s a more unfortunate one — fanny, a word you won’t find on Peppa Pig because fanny, unlike its American counterpart, means vagina (or women’s genitalia in general). The Americans and British, as they say, are two cultures separated by a common language.

And some American parents (for several years, now) are complaining that their children are picking up British accents, complete with such exotic words as ‘petrol station’, ‘holidays’ and ‘Father Christmas’.

‘Oh dear’.

As a British parent, this humors me (or can I write ‘humour’, with a ‘u’?).

Languages evolved to help us communicate — but sometimes there’s a lot missed in translation. And that can happen even within a language, especially the English language, which has touched every corner of the globe.

It can happen in words (‘thong’ in Australia doesn’t quite mean the same thing as it does in Britain), or phrases (‘I’m pissed’ in American, so I’m told, just means you’re angry, but over here you’re more likely to just be drunk), and even accents (who doesn’t love a good old ‘to-mah-to’/’to-may-to’ debate?).

So, what’s happening with Peppa Pig? Why are some American parents pissed (the non-drunk version — I think.)? And should you be worried?

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The “Peppa Effect”

According to data from Parrot Analytics — a consulting firm apparently not named after ‘Polly Parrot’, a pet owned by Granny Pig — for a 12-month run that ended in February, Peppa Pig was the second most in-demand cartoon in US households.

Moreover, in the last month, Peppa Pig generated higher demand than 98.9% of all children’s titles across the US. Impressive. It’s even more in demand than its home country — compared to its domestic market, audience demand for Peppa in the US is 112% higher than over here in the UK.

So, Americans — at least their pre-schoolers — love a good British accent. (Did you know that, according to this 2020 study, the British accent is the most popular abroad? Understandable).

It even has its own hashtag, #PeppaEffect. The official twitter account of Peppa Pig, noting the trend, even recently posted a helpful ‘guide’ for its American parents who may be a little confused, including such gems as bin = trash can and Father Christmas = Santa.

So… what does this mean? Are American children really at the mercy of a British invasion?

Well, for a start, as amusing as that is to a British person (and note that we British now have to endure your American words such as ‘prom’ instead of ‘disco’, and ‘awesome’ instead of ‘marvellous’), it’s unlikely American children are actually picking up a British accent. If they did, I’d be worried — how much TV over every other possible interaction do you need in order to pick up the accent that’s on TV?

Dr Susannah Levi, an associate professor of communicative sciences and disorders at New York University, is skeptical about the “Peppa effect”.

Back in 2019, in an interview with the Guardian, she already explained that toddlers:

[T]ypically … develop the accent of the community around [them] by interactions, not by watching.

Levi did concede that children might learn the occasional word or quirky way of pronunciation (yes, including “to-mah-to” and “zeh-bra”). But the ‘Peppa Effect’ is, well, small.

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Let’s Just Laugh at it All — And Maybe Watch Less

Don’t worry, it’s not an invasion.

And if it was, you Americans are winning. After all, everything from SpongeBob SquarePants to the Simpsons to the endless re-runs of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, we British have grown up with the American vocabulary. We know our trashcans from our fanny packs.

But we don’t have American accents.

In fact, the UK is still incredibly diverse in its accents — at least 40 dialects, and maybe many more accents — and some so thick and heavy that we can barely communicate amongst ourselves sometimes (with a bit of a South Wales accent, some of my occasional words and phrases — and accent — aren’t always understood by my English counterparts, and vice-versa).

But regardless, no American accent. So rest assured, one cartoon is unlikely to change your child’s accent. It’s just a small peppering of words they’ll pick up on and, well, if they do visit the UK they’ll know to ask for ‘sweets’, when ‘Father Christmas’ coming, and please us all by pronouncing tomato (that’s ‘to-mah-to’) correctly.

So are you worried about the #PeppaEffect? Do you change the channel, or turn off the screens entirely?

And maybe, just maybe laugh at it all, and watch a little less?

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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