Accent (linguistics)

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In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language. Accents can be confused with dialects which are varieties of language differing in vocabulary and syntax as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or social status.

Phonology

Development

Main article: sound change

Children are able to take on accents at a fast rate; children of traveling families, for example, can change their accents within a short period of time. This generally remains true until a person's early twenties,^[1] after which, a person's accent seems to become more entrenched.

All the same, accents are not fixed even in adulthood. An acoustic analysis by Jonathan Harrington of Queen Elizabeth II's Royal Christmas Messages revealed that the speech patterns of even so conservative a figure as a monarch can continue to change over her lifetime.^[2]

History

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As human beings spread out into isolated communities, stresses and peculiarities develop. Over time these can develop into identifiable accents. In North America, the interaction of people from many ethnic backgrounds contributed to the formation of the different varieties of North American accents. It is difficult to measure or predict how long it takes an accent to formulate. Accents in the USA, Canada and Australia, for example, developed from the combinations of different accents and languages in various societies, and the effect of this on the various pronunciations of the British settlers, yet North American accents remain more distant, either as a result of time or of external or "foreign" linguistic interaction, such as the Italian accent.^[3] It has been theorized that the accents of certain groups in the USA today resemble the English spoken by the settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries more than it does the English spoken by most British today.

In many cases, the accents of non-English settlers from Great Britain and Ireland affected the accents of the different colonies quite differently. Irish, Scottish and Welsh immigrants had accents which greatly affected the vowel pronunciation of certain areas of Australia and Canada.^[3]

Social factors

When a group defines a standard pronunciation, speakers who deviate from it are often said to "speak with an accent". People from the United States would "speak with an accent" from the point of view of an Australian, but people from Australia may also "speak with an accent" from the point of view of an American. The concept of a person having "no accent" is meaningless, although a variety used in formal settings, such as BBC English, is sometimes informally designated as "accentless".

Groups sharing an identifiable accent may be defined by any of a wide variety of common traits. An accent may be associated with the region in which its speakers reside (a geographical accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language (when the language in which the accent is heard is not their native language), and so on.

Prestige

Traditionally certain accents carry more prestige in a society than other accents. This is often due to their association with the elite part of society. For example in the United Kingdom, Received Pronunciation of the English language is associated with the traditional upper class.

Legal Implications

Kentucky's highest court in the case of Clifford vs. Commonwealth held that a white police officer, who had not seen the black defendant allegedly involved in a drug transaction, could, nevertheless, identify him as a participant by saying that a voice on an audiotape "sounded black." The police officer based this "identification" on the fact that the defendant was the only African American man in the room at the time of the transaction and that an audio-tape — contained the voice of a man the officer said “sounded black” selling crack cocaine to a white informant planted by the police.^[4]

Cultural factors

Acting and accents

Main article: Acting and accents

In Hollywood, a common sign of great acting is the ability of an actor to imitate a foreign accent. Actors usually perfect this through exposure, which allows the brain to appreciate the subtle nuances that make the accent unique.

Criticism of perceived correct accents can include being considered inaccurate by speakers and aficionados of this accent. The perception or sensitivity of others to accents means that generalizations are passed off as acceptable, such as Brad Pitt's Jamaican accent in Meet Joe Black.

See also

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Accent

• Foreign accent syndrome
• Non-native pronunciations of English
• Regional accents of English
• Variety (linguistics)
• Accent reduction
• Language change
• Human voice

Notes

References

• Bragg, Melvyn (2003). The Adventure of English, 500AD to 2000: The Biography of a Language. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-82991-5. 
• Milroy, James; and Lesley Milroy (2005). Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English, 3nd ed., London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-17413-9. 
• Wells, J C. 1982. Accents of English. (3 volumes). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Wells's home pages also have a lot of information about phonetics and accents.]

External links

• Sounds Familiar? — Listen to regional accents and dialects of the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
• The Speech Accent Archive (Native and non-native accent recordings of English)
• Wells Accents and Spelling
• I don't have an accent! by Karen Stollznow
• FAQ about Accents

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