On Accents

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Every single person on the planet speaks with an accent; every single person on earth speaks a dialect.

If you look at a map of how dialects spread in the US over time, they all originated on the East Coast, with early immigration patterns directly influencing their development (i.e. Southeastern English in New England, Ulster Scots in Pennsylvania and parts of Virginia, etc.). As the US expanded, these populations fanned out westward and dialects got mixed, diluted, reconstituted, etc. There are very distinct dialects to be found all over the US, but particularly in the West, people aren't so attuned to their subtleties.

I've spent the bulk of my life in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington, which have relatively similar dialect features. Things like upspeak (where statements sound almost like questions...Also prominent in Australian English) and certain vowel raising (e.g. "good" sounding almost like "gid") frequently appear in my speech. I also do more speaking with a creaky voice (aka "Courtney Love speech") than most people, and this is thought to be a trait particularly common among young people in the Pacific Northwest.

Linguists frequently like to point out that the idea of TV flattening out everyone's accent is a myth. In fact, some American accents are actually becoming more distinct, not less. However, there was an interesting study recently by the University of Glasgow that asserted that the spread of "Jockney" (i.e. working-class Glaswegian dialect with some adopted Cockney features) was being influenced by young people watching London-based TV shows. However, I would still argue that TV isn't the big influence people think it is. People in locations as diverse as California, Illinois, and Michigan have all been polled as stating that people on the national news "speak just like we do", which is definitely not the case.

I could go on and on about this, as I happen to be doing an MA in linguistics and I'm particularly drawn to issues concerning sociolinguistics, but it's late. Linguists love dialects and we are at pains to point out that the way someone speaks has no bearing on his or her intelligence: African American Vernacular English (aka "Ebonics") has very clear grammatical rules, some of which are actually more sophistocated than those of Standard American English, they just happen to be different rules. The same could be said about the dialects of people from South Boston, the Blue Mountains, or Hawaii. Unfortunately, in the quest for greater economic prosperity, most people don't seem to be so enlightened. In a study from the 1970s of English in New York City, a group of business leaders were selected to listen to random samples of New Yorkers and assess what jobs they were qualified for based on the way they talked. When one woman spoke a short sample including 10 examples of the letter "R", she was given a score of 70 % likelyhood of getting a well-paying secretarial job. Later, the same woman's voice appeared again reading the same sample, but this time not pronouncing one of the Rs. Her score plunged to 35%.

[chrisoff]

Incidentally in response to the southern accent thing. I have a thing for Emily Proctor (West Wing, CSI: Miami). I reckon about 30% of that is her accent. Not entirely sure why, but I definitely would not find her as appealing without it.

[tuaz]

....

Unfortunately, in the quest for greater economic prosperity, most people don't seem to be so enlightened. In a study from the 1970s of English in New York City, a group of business leaders were selected to listen to random samples of New Yorkers and assess what jobs they were qualified for based on the way they talked. When one woman spoke a short sample including 10 examples of the letter "R", she was given a score of 70 % likelyhood of getting a well-paying secretarial job. Later, the same woman's voice appeared again reading the same sample, but this time not pronouncing one of the Rs. Her score plunged to 35%.

Why only 1 of the Rs? Why not all?

I'm guessing that the implication reached was that they were prejudiced, and that 1 dropped R caused them to think she came from what was stereotypically a less-accomplished/-privileged background.

But there's another possibility: could some of the listeners have given her a poor score precisely because she was inconsistent in her accent, thus giving them the impression she was putting on a false accent, and pretending to be someone she was not? Maybe they just didn't like fakes - I know I don't. What happened when the same woman dropped all her Rs?

I don't like people where I live consciously (self-consciously?) putting on fake American or other accents.

I'm not referring to people who move into and live in a different place for so long that they begin to speak like the locals there - that's understandable. And kids tend to naturally pick up the accents of the people around them.

However, I have some doubts about adults - whose home accents are already crystallized - who move to a different place, and in months, they discard their original accents and speak with their new accent even to people from their original home (so it's not a case of speaking to the locals with their accent to make sure they understand you).

It all seems very wanna-be to me, as if they aren't comfortable and proud of who they are.

[jbarter]

Doo mayaat, we bayant gotten naccent.

Is there a site anywhere that gives recorded examples of American regional accents/dialects? I remember finding one once that gave examples of English ones. I must go see if I can find it again.

[Tyler]

However, I have some doubts about adults - whose home accents are already crystallized - who move to a different place, and in months, they discard their original accents and speak with their new accent even to people from their original home (so it's not a case of speaking to the locals with their accent to make sure they understand you).

It all seems very wanna-be to me, as if they aren't comfortable and proud of who they are.

Maybe you ought go live in another dialect region and see for yourself how easy it is to slip into another accent.

After moving to Canada several years ago, I was very aware of my Utah accent because of how different I sounded to myself from everyone else.
It wasnt until I moved back to the US a few years later that I even noticed that i had an accent, however whenever I would call home to speak with my family after about six months in Canada, they would comment on how I was picking up the accent.
I insisted until the day I returned that I sounded all the same as I always did, but lo and behold, when I moved back here I noticed that I did indeed pick up a distinct western Canadian accent that I still speak with to this day (so they tell me; it all sounds normal to me).
I've been as far north as the Northwest Territories and as far south as Mar del Plata, and over the pond to the UK, and everywhere I've been people speak as they are comfortable speaking, whether they realize it or not.
I speak spanish with a distinct Cordoba Province accent. I didn't develop that intentionally, it came naturally and is comfortable for me to speak that way rather than correct it's idiosyncracies and speak 'properly.' I speak French like a Quebecois because it's more comfortable than trying to mimic the sing-songy Parisian French.
If people discover a way of speaking they find more comfortable, consciously or subconsciously, they will use that mode or dialect in their speech.
I think you are underestimating people based on your own personal bias (i.e., the way you see yourself projected onto these other people).

[jbarter]

Is there a site anywhere that gives recorded examples of American regional accents/dialects? I remember finding one once that gave examples of English ones. I must go see if I can find it again.

Here it is.
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/

[Jack]

So the other day, a lovely man from New Jersey (and the father of a friend of mine) asked me where I was from. I said I was from Columbia, SC, and he looked mildly surprised and declared, "Well you have no accent at all!"

My obvious response was "Thank you very much." I'm pretty sure I glowed, it made me so happy. I love it when people from other regions tell me I don't have an accent. Because if some podunk hillbilly says "May-un, y'all ain't gots no accent a'tall!" I am not flattered. But when a dude from New Jersey can't detect my southern upbringing, I call that capital-V Victory.

He then proceeded to tell me that he has seen people positively offended at being told they lack a southern accent. I'm completely mystified by that.

Discuss.

I am offended by this for reasons I think the man you met would understand and agree with.

[fearfaoin]

Congratulations, my wife and I get the same thing. We both grew
up in cities that had a high Yankee influx, and went to school in
another such city, so I think that helped. Also, neither of our
families have thick accents. Neither of us get offended, though
I'm ususally just interested rather than pleased.

My father used to go on business trips in upstate NY, and people
kept saying he was from South Carolina, even after he had infomed
them it was actually North Carolina. Apparantly, it was all South
to them...

Incidentally in response to the southern accent thing. I have a thing for Emily Proctor (West Wing, CSI: Miami). I reckon about 30% of that is her accent. Not entirely sure why, but I definitely would not find her as appealing without it.

Surely the tight clothing has nothing to do with it... I honestly
don't think she sounds all that southern (she's from Raleigh).
I wonder if they were pushing her for a Floridian accent
There's a girl from Kentucky on the radio here who sounds
exactly like Emily Proctor on CSI Miami, so I'm assuming
Emily's done the mid-western vocal training, then put just
a little Southern back in.

You should watch the West Wing episodes she was on. I seem
to remember she played up the Southern a bit more on there...

[chrisoff]

You should watch the West Wing episodes she was on. I seem
to remember she played up the Southern a bit more on there...

It's being repeated from the start on one of our channels just now

Which is good because I can't really watch CSI: Miami anymore. Caruso and his one liners and sunglasses trick has ruined it for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sarYH0z948

[peeplj]

You really gotta be careful about faking an accent you don't really know.

'Round these parts, if you try to talk like us and you don't know how, we think you're just one of them goofy Northeners out on a lark and we don't pay ya no nevermind; I told ya that to tell ya this: don't go down in south Louisiana and try to fake no Cajun accent. You may think you want to do dat, but you don't: you pissin the wrong pot down dere, methinks somebody done goan handa ya gutsa garters.

Sky-western crooked? Purt'near.

Word.



--James

P.S. I actually have nothing but good memories of my time in Louisiana with the one exception that it rains just about every day....I started feeling like I was going to melt. Cajuns are wonderful folks and they definitely know how to cook!!!!!

[djm]

My favourite was a girl at a publisher's in Tennessee that I would have to talk to every once in a while. She would say, "Oh, right," a lot on the phone, but with her accent it came out as, "Oh, rat. Yeyass, ah knooooooow. Oh, yeah, rat, yeah,: etc.

djm

[Wanderer]

I don't have much of a southern accent, though it can really come out at times. Most of the time, though, when I meet someone new in town, I get that "Whar y'all frum?" since I don't have a heavy twang

[Innocent Bystander]

When I was in the U.S. (a long long time ago) there was an awful lot of "I just love your English Accent! Where are you from?"

"Ireland."

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Here are a couple of good websites for US accents:
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/ameri ... ies/DARE/#

http://www.pittsburghese.com

The right/rat thing is a common feature of Southern Vowel Shift. There's also Northern Cities shift, common in Chicago, Buffalo, etc. the word /dæd/ would sound like "dad" to someone from Chicago and "died" to someone from Texas (or certain parts of Northern England for that matter).

People from the UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ are often amused when they come to the US and are treated with admiration and prestige on account of their accents. I think part of the reason is that American English doesn't really have a true "prestige accent" that's on par with British Received Pronunciation. (There was the old Boston Brahmin accent, which was based on RP, but it's pretty much dead now). Americans tend to think of all "British" accents as sounding prestigious, even when their speakers tend to be speaking with very downmarket working-class accents. What's funny about this is that there are "British" sounding accents in the US, but they no longer carry prestige in the public consciousness. Franklin Roosevelt was admired for his upper-class New York accent and JFK for his Boston accent, but these days people like John Kerry and Ted Kennedy have gone to great lengths to tone down their Boston accents in order to broaden their public appeal and hardly anyone still speaks with the old NY upper class accent anymore (the only two I can think of are William F. Buckley and the late George Plimpton).

[Walden]

I admit it. I have an accent.