Popular children’s cartoon Peppa Pig is changing the way American children speak, according to parents in the US.
In what is being deemed “The Peppa Effect”, the rise in popularity of the pre-schooler show in the US during the pandemic has seen children adopting English accents and changing American-English phrases to British ones.
As reported in The Wall Street Journal, one mother from California recalled her child speaking to her in a British accent, with her daughter asking: “Mummy, are you going to the optician?”
During lockdown, her child had watched many episodes of the hit children’s show, which is now regularly topping viewing rankings around the world.
One parent, Dominique Parr, posted a video to TikTok of her daughter Hazel, 3, repeating lines from the show. The clip went viral, garnering over 10 million views and receiving support from parents whose children were adopting a similar accent.
According to Parrot Analytics Ltd., Peppa Pig is one of the world’s most in demand cartoons, reaching the second most in-demand spot on their charts for the past twelve months, just behind SpongeBob Square Pants.
In a statement, the owners of Peppa Pig Entertainment One Ltd. said: “Young Peppa fans see her as a friend…and, as we do with friends that we admire, pick up some of their characteristics. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” it added.
At the height of the pandemic last year, Amazon Prime Video made Peppa Pig – along with a further selection of its family friendly content – free to stream after schools were closed to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.
