Accent (sociolinguistics)

{{Short description|Distinctive way of pronouncing a language}} {{About|a way of pronouncing a language that is distinctive to a country, area, social class, or individual|the prominence of a single syllable or word|Stress (linguistics)|the symbols on top of letters|Diacritic|other uses|Accent (disambiguation)}} {{Use American English|date=October 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Sociolinguistics}}

In sociolinguistics, an '''accent''' is a way of pronouncing a language that is distinctive to a country, area, social class, or individual.<ref name="OAM">{{cite book |title=The New Oxford American Dictionary. Second Edition. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-517077-1}}</ref> An accent may be identified with the locality in which its speakers reside (a regional or geographical accent), the socioeconomic status of its speakers, their ethnicity (an ethnolect), their caste or social class (a social accent), or influence from their first language (a foreign accent).<ref name="Lippi-Green">{{Cite book|last=Lippi-Green |first=R. |year=1997 |title=English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-11476-9}}</ref>

Accents typically differ in quality of voice, pronunciation and distinction of vowels and consonants, stress, and prosody.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Dictionary of Language and Linguistics|last=Crystal|first=David|publisher=Blackwell|year=2008|location=Malden-Oxford}}</ref> Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word "accent" may refer specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word "dialect" encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. "Accent" is often a subset of "dialect".<ref name="OAM" />

==History== As human beings spread out into isolated communities, stresses and peculiarities develop. Over time, they 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 form. Accents from Canada, South Africa, Australia and the United States for example, developed from the combinations of different accents and languages in various societies and their effect on the various pronunciations of British settlers.<ref name="FAQ">{{Cite web|access-date=10 April 2016 |url=http://linguist.emich.edu/ask-ling/accent.html |publisher=LINGUIST List|title=Ask a Linguist FAQ: Accents |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008000501/http://linguist.emich.edu/ask-ling/accent.html |archive-date=8 October 2008 }}</ref>

Accents may vary within regions of an area in which a uniform language is spoken. In some cases, such as regional accents of English in the United States, accents can be traced back to when an area was settled and by whom. Areas like the city of New Orleans in Louisiana that are, or at one point in time were, semi-isolated have distinct accents due to the absence of contact between regions. Isolated regions allow dialects to expand and evolve independently. Social and economic factors can also influence the way people speak.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Etter|first=Sarah|date=29 August 2005|title=Probing Question: How Did Regional Accents Originate?|url=https://news.psu.edu/story/141216/2005/08/29/research/probing-question-how-did-regional-accents-originate|website=Penn State News}}</ref>

==Development== {{Main|Sound change}} {{Expand section|date=September 2010}} During the early period of rapid cognitive development in a child's life, it is much easier to develop and master foreign skills such as learning a new (or first) language. Verbal cues are processed and silently learned in preparation for the day the vocal system is developed enough to speak its first words (usually around 12 months). Before infants can identify words, they just hear "sounds" that they come to recognize. Eventually neural pathways are established in the brain that link each sound with a meaning. The more frequently a word is heard, the more its connection is solidified and the same goes for accents. There is no "standard" accent for the child to practice; as far as they are concerned, the accent they hear from their parents is not the "right" way but the only way. Eventually children graduate from the conscious act of recalling each word, and it becomes natural, like breathing. As children grow up, they learn vocabulary of the language they are immersed in, whether assisted by parents or not. However, their first few encounters with words determine the way they will pronounce them for the rest of their lives. This is how accents are cultivated in groups as small as towns and as large as countries; it is a compounding effect. Though it is possible to develop a new accent or lose an old one, it is difficult because the neural pathways created when learning the language were developed with the "original" pronunciations.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kiester|first=Edwin|date=1 January 2001|title=Accents are Forever|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/accents-are-forever-35886605/|website=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>

Children are able to take on accents relatively quickly. Children of immigrant families, for example, generally have a pronunciation more similar to people native to where they live compared to their parents, but both children and parents may have an accent noticeably differing from local people.<ref name="Flege">{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.wocn.2005.05.001|last=Flege |first=James Emil |author2=David Birdsong|author3=Ellen Bialystok|author4=Molly Mack|author5=Hyekyung Sung|author6= Kimiko Tsukada |title=Degree of foreign accent in English sentences produced by Korean children and adults |journal=Journal of Phonetics |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=153–175|year=2006}}</ref> Accents seem to remain relatively malleable until a person's early twenties, after which a person's accent seems to become more entrenched.<ref name="FAQ" />

Nonetheless, accents are not fixed even in adulthood. An acoustic analysis by Jonathan Harrington of 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Harrington |first=Jonathan |title=An Acoustic Analysis of 'Happy Tensing' in the Queen's Christmas Broadcasts |journal=Journal of Phonetics |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=439–57 |year=2006 |doi=10.1016/j.wocn.2005.08.001|citeseerx=10.1.1.71.8910 }}</ref>

==Non-native accents== Accents of non-native speakers may be the result of the speaker's native language. Each language contains distinct sets of sounds. At around 12 months, human infants will pick out which sounds they need to learn their language. As they get older, it becomes increasingly harder to learn these "forgotten" sounds. A prime example of this can be seen between German and English: the "w" and "th" sounds, like in the English words "wish" and "this" respectively, do not exist in German (the closest sounds are "v" because a German “w” is rendered as a “v”, and "z" because the “th” sounds do not exist in German). As a result, many English-speaking Germans pronounce "wish" as "vish" and "this" as "zis". A similar disjunction occurs in German-speaking native English speakers, who may find it difficult to pronounce the vowels in German words such as "schön" (beautiful) and "müde" (tired).<ref>{{Cite web|last=Birner|first=Betty|date=1999|title=Why do Some People Have an Accent?|url=https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED426604.pdf|publisher=Linguistic Society of America, Washington, DC}}</ref>

An important factor in predicting the degree to which the accent will be noticeable (or strong) is the age at which the non-native language was learned.<ref name=Scovel2000>Scovel, T. (2000). "A critical review of the critical period research." ''Annual Review of Applied Linguistics'', 20, 213–223.</ref><ref name=Piske>Piske, T., MacKay, I. R. A., & Flege, J. E. (2001). "Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: A review". ''Journal of Phonetics'', 29, 191–215.</ref> The critical period theory states that if learning takes place after the critical period (usually considered around puberty) for acquiring native-like pronunciation, an individual is unlikely to acquire a native-like accent.<ref name=Scovel2000/> This theory, however, is quite controversial among researchers.<ref name="Mahdi">{{Cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Mahdi|first=Rahimian|title=Accent, intelligibility, and identity in international teaching assistants and internationally-educated instructors |publisher=University of Manitoba |date=2018 |hdl=1993/33028 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Although many subscribe to some form of the critical period, they either place it earlier than puberty or consider it more of a critical window, which may vary from one individual to another and depend on factors other than age, such as length of residence, similarity of the non-native language to the native language, and the frequency with which both languages are used.<ref name=Piske/>

Nevertheless, children as young as 6 at the time of moving to another country often speak with a noticeable non-native accent as adults.<ref name=Flege/> There are also rare instances of individuals who are able to pass for native speakers even if they learned their non-native language in early adulthood.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bongaerts|first1=Theo|last2=van Summeren|first2=Chantal|last3=Planken|first3=Brigitte|last4=Schils|first4=Erik|year=1997|title=Age and ultimate attainment in the pronunciation of a foreign language|journal=Studies in Second Language Acquisition|volume=19|issue=4 |pages=447–465|doi=10.1017/S0272263197004026}}</ref> However, neurological constraints associated with brain development appear to limit most non-native speakers' ability to sound native-like.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Long|first=Michael H.|year=1990|title=Maturational constraints on language development|journal=Studies in Second Language Acquisition|volume=12|issue=3 |pages=251–285|doi=10.1017/S0272263100009165|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3C0E1658F007F775F7E0DE03D62925DD/S0272263100009165a.pdf/div-class-title-maturational-constraints-on-language-development-div.pdf}}</ref> Most researchers agree that for most adults, acquiring a native-like accent in a non-native language is near impossible.<ref name=Scovel2000/>

==Social factors== When a group defines a standard pronunciation, speakers who deviate from it are often said to "speak with an accent".<ref name="Mahdi" /> However, everyone speaks with an accent.<ref name="Lippi-Green"/><ref name=Matsuda>{{cite journal|last=Matsuda|first=Mari J.|authorlink=Mari Matsuda|year=1991|title=Voices of America: Accent, antidiscrimination law, and a jurisprudence for the last reconstruction|journal=Yale Law Journal|volume=100|issue=5 |pages=1329–1407|doi=10.2307/796694|jstor=796694 |hdl=10125/67583|hdl-access=free}}</ref> People from the United States would "speak English with an accent" from the point of view of an Australian, and vice versa. Accents such as Received Pronunciation or General American English may sometimes be erroneously designated in their countries of origin as "accentless" to indicate that they offer no obvious clue to the speaker's regional or social background.<ref name="Lippi-Green"/>

Accents are an important dimension of social identity, both individual and communal, due to their ability to identify group or community belonging.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Sung |first=Chit Cheung Matthew |date=2016-08-01 |title=Does accent matter? Investigating the relationship between accent and identity in English as a lingua franca communication |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0346251X16300537 |journal=System |language=en |volume=60 |pages=55–65 |doi=10.1016/j.system.2016.06.002 |issn=0346-251X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> One's accent can showcase their class, religion or sexual orientation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=McCrocklin |first1=Shannon |last2=Link |first2=Stephanie |date=2016 |title=Accent, Identity, and a Fear of Loss? ESL Students' Perspectives |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2582 |journal=The Canadian Modern Language Review |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=122–148 |doi=10.3138/cmlr.2582 |s2cid=147527541 |issn=0008-4506|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Being understood=== Many teachers of English as a second language for example neglect teaching speech and pronunciation.<ref name="Georgetown">{{Cite book |last=Alatis |first=James E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R8jZ62kA9akC |title=Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics (GURT) 1996: Linguistics, Language Acquisition, and Language Variation: Current Trends and Future Prospects |date=1996-08-15 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |isbn=978-1-58901-853-2 |language=en}}</ref> Many adult and near-adult learners of second languages have unintelligible speech patterns that may interfere with their education, profession, and social interactions.<ref name=Georgetown/> Pronunciation in a second or foreign language involves more than the correct articulation of individual sounds. It involves producing a wide range of complex and subtle distinctions which relate sound to meaning at several levels.<ref name=Georgetown />

Teaching of speech/pronunciation is neglected in part because of the following myths: * Pronunciation is not important: "This is patently false from any perspective."<ref name=Georgetown /> Speech/Pronunciation forms the vehicle for transmitting the speaker's meaning. If the listener does not understand the message, no communication takes place, and although there are other factors involved, one of the most important is the intelligibility of the speaker's pronunciation.<ref name=Georgetown/> * Students will pick it up on their own: "Some will learn to pronounce the second language intelligibly; many will not."<ref name=Georgetown /> Inadequate instruction in speech/pronunciation can result in a complete breakdown in communication.<ref name=Georgetown /> The proliferation of commercial "accent reduction" services is seen as a sign that many ESL teachers are not meeting their students' needs for speech/pronunciation instruction.<ref name=Georgetown />

The goals of speech/pronunciation instruction should include: to help the learner speak in a way that is easy to understand and does not distract the listener, to increase the self-confidence of the learner, and to develop the skills to self-monitor and adapt one's own speech.<ref name=Georgetown />

Even when the listener does understand the speaker, the presence of an accent that is difficult to understand can produce anxiety in the listener that he will not understand what comes next, and cause him to end the conversation earlier or avoid difficult topics.<ref name=Georgetown /> "In speech the perceptual salience of the accent overrides other measures of competence and performance," wrote Ingrid Piller.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Piller |first=Ingrid |date=2002 |title=Passing for a native speaker: Identity and success in second language learning |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9481.00184 |journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=179–208 |doi=10.1111/1467-9481.00184 |issn=1360-6441|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Intelligibility of speech, in comparison to native-like accent, has been experimentally reported to be of greater importance for the second language speakers. As such ways of increasing intelligibility of speech has been recommended by some researchers within the field.<ref name="Mahdi" /> A strong accent does not necessarily impede intelligibility despite common perceptions.<ref name=":1" />

===Prestige=== Certain accents, particularly those of European heritage, are perceived to carry more prestige in a society than other accents, such that some speakers may as a result consciously adopt them.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=12 May 2008|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/PhonProcess/accents.html|publisher=Indiana University|title=Accents| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080614210049/http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/PhonProcess/accents.html| archive-date=14 June 2008 | url-status=live}}</ref> The same can be said about the predominance of Southeastern Brazilian accents in the case of the Brazilian variant of the Portuguese language, especially considering the disparity of prestige between most ''caipira''-influenced speech, associated with rural environment and lack of formal education,<ref>{{cite web|first=Ataliba T.|last=de Castilho|title=Saber uma língua é separar o certo do errado?|trans-title=Is knowing a language really about separating right from wrong?|website=Museu da Língua Portuguesa|url=http://www.poiesis.org.br/files/mlp/texto_16.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222082936/http://www.poiesis.org.br/files/mlp/texto_16.pdf|archivedate=22 December 2012|lang=pt}}</ref> together with the Portuguese spoken in some other communities of lower socioeconomic strata such as ''favela'' dwellers, and other sociocultural variants such as middle and upper class ''paulistano'' (dialect spoken from Greater São Paulo to the East) and ''fluminense'' (dialect spoken in the state of Rio de Janeiro) to the other side, inside Southeastern Brazil itself.<ref>{{cite web|title=Preconceito Lingüístico: O Português do Brasil apresenta uma unidade surpreendente|trans-title=Linguistic prejudice and the surprising unity of Brazilian Portuguese|website=Lendo|url=http://www.lendo.org/preconceito-linguistico-o-portugues-do-brasil-apresenta-uma-unidade-surpreendente/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021055958/http://www.lendo.org/preconceito-linguistico-o-portugues-do-brasil-apresenta-uma-unidade-surpreendente/|archivedate=21 October 2012|lang=pt}}</ref>

The goal of linguistics with respect to accents is to catalogue them and to track, explain, and, occasionally, predict their evolution. In the process, linguistics recognizes that the assignment of differing levels of prestige, aesthetic merit, and/or "standardness" by different sectors of society to different accents influences the evolution of those accents. However, linguistics, at least in its ideal form, does not itself participate in making those normative assessments and comparisons. In turn, it does not pass judgment about whether societally performed normative judgments are accurate, in part because doing so would require the independent performance and articulation of normative judgments when setting and promulgating standards against which to assess normative judgments by sectors of society.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Edwards|first=John|year=1999|title=Refining our understanding of language attitudes|journal=Journal of Language and Social Psychology|volume=18|pages=101–110|doi=10.1177/0261927X99018001007}}</ref>

===Accent stereotyping and discrimination=== Negative perceptions of accents, the basis of which may relate to the speaker's social identity, can manifest as stereotyping, harassment or employment discrimination.<ref name=":0" />

Researchers consistently show that people with non-native accents are judged as less intelligent, less competent, less educated, having poor English/language skills, and unpleasant to listen to.<ref name="Gluszek">{{cite journal|last1=Gluszek|first1=Agata|last2=Dovidio|first2=John F.|year=2010|title=The way they speak: Stigma of non-native accents in communication|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review|volume=14|issue=2 |pages=214–237|doi=10.1177/1088868309359288 |pmid=20220208 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bradac|first=James J|year=1990|chapter=Language attitudes and impression formation|editor=H. Giles & W. P. Robinson|title=Handbook of Language and Social Psychology|pages=387–412|location=London|publisher=John Wiley|isbn=0-471-92481-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bresnahan|first1=Mary Jiang|last2=Ohashi|first2=Rie|last3=Nebashi|first3=Reiko|last4=Liu|first4=Wen Ying|last5=Shearman|first5=Sachiyo Morinaga|year=2002|title=Attitudinal and affective response toward accented English|journal=Language and Communication|volume=22|issue=2 |pages=171–185|doi=10.1016/S0271-5309(01)00025-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Cargile|first1=Aaron C.|last2=Giles|first2=Howard|year=1997|title=Understanding language attitudes: Exploring listener affect and identity|journal=Language and Communication|volume=17|issue=3 |pages=195–217|doi=10.1016/S0271-5309(97)00016-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nesdale|first1=Drew|last2=Rooney|first2=Rosanna|year=1996|title=Evaluations and stereotyping of accented speakers by pre-adolescent children|journal=Journal of Language and Social Psychology|volume=15|issue=2 |pages=133–154|doi=10.1177/0261927X960152002}}</ref> Not only people with standard accents subscribe to these beliefs and attitudes, but individuals with accents also often stereotype against their own or others' accents.<ref>{{cite book|last=LaBelle |first=Suzanne |chapter=Language standardi[s/z]ation |title=Language, Society & Power |year=2011 |editor=A. Mooney |editor2=J. Stilwell Peccei |editor3=S. LaBelle |editor4=B. Engøy Henriksen |editor5=E. Eppler |editor6=A. Irwin |editor7=P. Pichler |editor8=S. Preece |editor9=S. Soden|pages=187–205|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-57659-8}}</ref> Research demonstrates that an average listener is adept at detecting an accent typical of a language differing from their own.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Derwing |first1=Tracey M. |last2=Munro |first2=Murray J. |date=2009 |title=Putting accent in its place: Rethinking obstacles to communication |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S026144480800551X/type/journal_article |journal=Language Teaching |language=en |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=476–490 |doi=10.1017/S026144480800551X |s2cid=146247120 |issn=0261-4448|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Accents have even found to be more impactful on perception of babies than known perceptual dividers like race, religion, or sex. In a ''PNAS'' study, babies were told to choose a toy from two recorded speakers with varying characteristics. Ahead of all variables tested, including race and gender, recordings speaking with an accent native to the child were selected at a considerably higher frequency.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spelke|first=Elizabeth|date=9 June 2007|title=The Native Language of Social Cognition|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|volume=104|issue=30|pages=12577–80|doi=10.1073/pnas.0705345104|pmid=17640881|pmc=1941511|bibcode=2007PNAS..10412577K|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Unlike other forms of discrimination, there are no strong norms against accent discrimination in the general society. Rosina Lippi-Green writes,

<blockquote>Accent serves as the first point of gate keeping because we are forbidden, by law and social custom, and perhaps by a prevailing sense of what is morally and ethically right, from using race, ethnicity, homeland or economics more directly. We have no such compunctions about language, thus, accent becomes a litmus test for exclusion, and excuse to turn away, to recognize the other.<ref name="Lippi-Green" /></blockquote>

In the English speaking world, speakers with certain accents often experience discrimination in housing and employment.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Zhao|first1=Bo|last2=Ondrich|first2=Jan|last3=Yinger|first3=John|year=2006|title=Why do real estate brokers continue to discriminate? Evidence from the 2000 Housing Discrimination Study|journal=Journal of Urban Economics|volume=59|issue=3 |pages=394–419|doi=10.1016/j.jue.2005.12.001}}</ref><ref name=Rubin>{{cite book|last=Rubin|first=Donald L.|year=2002|chapter=Help! My professor (or doctor or boss) doesn't speak English|editor=J. N. Martin, T. K. Nakayama, & L. A. Flores|title=Readings in Intercultural Communication: Experiences and Contexts|pages=127–137|location=Boston|publisher=McGraw Hill|isbn=0-7674-2716-5}}</ref> For example, speakers who have foreign or ethnic-minority accents are less likely to be called back by landlords and are more likely to be assigned by employers to lower status positions than those with standard accents.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=de la Zerda|first1= N.|last2= Hopper|first2= R. |date=1979|pages= 126–134 |url = https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637757909375998 |title = Employment interviewers' reactions to Mexican American speech|volume= 46|journal =Communication Monographs|issue= 2|doi= 10.1080/03637757909375998|url-access= subscription}}</ref> In business settings, individuals with non-standard accents are more likely to be evaluated negatively.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Tsalikis|first1=John|last2=Ortiz-Buonafina|first2=Marta|last3=La Tour|first3=Michael S.|year=1992|title=The role of accent on the credibility and effectiveness of the international business-person: The case of Guatemala|journal=International Marketing Review|volume=9|issue=4 |pages=57–72|doi=10.1108/02651339210017136}}</ref> Accent discrimination is also present in educational institutions. For example, non-native speaking graduate students, lecturers, and professors, across college campuses in the US have been targeted for being unintelligible because of accent.<ref>{{cite journal|first=Akbar|last=Marvasti|year=2005|title=U.S. academic institutions and perceived effectiveness of foreign-born faculty|journal=Journal of Economic Issues|volume=39|pages=151–176|doi=10.1080/00213624.2005.11506784}}</ref> Second language speakers have reported being discriminated against, or feeling marginalized for, when they attempted to find a job in higher ranking positions mainly because of their accents.<ref name="Mahdi" /> On average, however, students taught by non-native English speakers do not underperform when compared to those taught by native speakers of English.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fleisher|first1=Belton|last2=Hashimoto|first2=Masanori|last3=Weinberg|first3=Bruce A.|year=2002|title=Foreign GTAs can be effective teachers of economics|journal=Journal of Economic Education|volume=33|issue=4 |pages=299–325|doi=10.1080/00220480209595329}}</ref> Some English native-speaker students in Canada reported a preference for non-native speaker instructors as long as the instructor's speech is intelligible. This was due to the psychological impacts such circumstances has on the students requiring them to pay closer attention to the instructor to ensure they understand them.<ref name="Mahdi" />

Studies have shown the perception of the accent, not the accent by itself, often results in negative evaluations of speakers. In a study conducted by Rubin (1992), students listened to a taped lecture recorded by a native English speaker with a standard accent. They were then shown an image of the "lecturer", sometimes Asian-looking, sometimes white. Participants in the study who saw the Asian picture believed that they had heard an accented lecturer and performed worse on a task that measured lecture comprehension. Negative evaluations may reflect the prejudices rather than real issues with understanding accents.<ref name=Rubin/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Rubin|first=Donald L.|year=1992|title=Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates' judgments of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants|journal=Research in Higher Education|volume=33|issue=4 |pages=511–531|doi=10.1007/BF00973770}}</ref>

===Legal implications=== In the United States, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on national origin, implying accents. However, employers may claim that a person's accent impairs their communication skills that are necessary to the effective business operation.<ref name=Matsuda/> The courts often rely on the employer's claims or use judges' subjective opinions when deciding whether the (potential) employee's accent would interfere with communication or performance, without any objective proof that accent was or might be a hindrance.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nguyen |first=Beatrice Bich-Dao |year=1993 |title=Accent discrimination and the Test of Spoken English: A call for an objective assessment of the comprehensibility of nonnative speakers |journal=California Law Review |volume=81 |issue=5 |pages=1325–1361 |doi=10.2307/3480920 |jstor=3480920 }}</ref>

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 European American informant planted by the police.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://journals.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/92/2016/10/18-JREJ-185.pdf |title="Sounding Black" in the Courtroom: Court-sanctioned Racial Stereotyping |first=Lis |last=Wiehl |volume=18 |journal=Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal |pages=185–210 |date=Spring 2002 |access-date=31 March 2026 }}</ref>

===Acting and accents=== Actors are often called upon to speak a language variety other than their own. For instance, an actor may portray a character of some nationality other than their own by adopting into their native language the phonological profile typical of the nationality to be portrayed, in what is commonly known as "speaking with an accent".

Accents may have stereotypical associations in entertainment. For example, in Disney animated films, mothers and fathers typically speak with White, middle-class American or English accents.<ref name="Lippi-Green" /> On another note, English accents in Disney animated films are frequently employed for one of two purposes: slapstick comedy and the portrayal of evil geniuses.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A891155 |access-date=28 April 2013 |title=Why Villains in Movies Have English Accents|orig-year=15 January 2003 |date=12 September 2011 |author=il viaggiatore |publisher=h2g2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819073646/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A891155 |archive-date=19 August 2011 |url-status=live |df=dmy-all }}</ref>{{Better source|reason=Appears to be self-published or user-submitted content.|date=April 2013}} Examples of this can be seen in characters from the films ''Aladdin'' (the Sultan and Jafar, respectively) and ''The Lion King'' (Zazu and Scar, respectively), among others.

==References== {{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading== * {{Cite book|last=Bragg|first=Melvyn|author-link=Melvyn Bragg|title=The Adventure of English, 500AD to 2000: The Biography of a Language|year=2003|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|location=London|isbn=978-0-340-82991-2}} * Giles, H., & Coupland, N. (1991). ''Language: Contexts and Consequences''. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. * Lindemann, S. (2003). "Koreans, Chinese or Indians? Attitudes and ideologies about non-native English speakers in the United States." ''Journal of Sociolinguistics'', 7, 348–364. * Lindemann, S. (2005). "Who speaks 'broken English'? US undergraduates' perception of non-native English." ''International Journal of Applied Linguistics'', 15, 187–212. * {{Cite book|last=Milroy|first=James|author2=and Lesley Milroy|title=Authority in Language: Investigating Standard English |year=2005|edition=3rd|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=978-0-415-17413-8}} * Moyer, A. (1999). "Ultimate attainment in L2 phonology: The critical factors of age, motivation and instruction." ''Studies in Second Language Acquisition'', 21, 81–108. * Scovel, T. (1988). ''A Time to Speak: A Psycho linguistic Inquiry into the Critical Period for Human Speech''. Cambridge, England: New bury House. * Wated, G., & Sanchez, J. I. (2006). "The role of accent as a work stress or on attitudinal and health-related work outcomes." ''International Journal of Stress Management'', 13, 329–350. * 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== {{Wikibooks|Accent}} * [http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html Sounds Familiar?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912081632/http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/index.html |date=September 12, 2016 }} – Listen to regional accents and dialects of the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website * [http://www.soundcomparisons.com 'Hover & Hear' accents of English from around the World], and compare them side by side. * [http://accent.gmu.edu/ The Speech Accent Archive (Native and non-native accent recordings of English)] * [http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/accents_spellingreform.htm Wells Accents and Spelling] * [http://www.humanaccents.com humanaccents.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116024308/https://humanaccents.com/ |date=January 16, 2021 }} – a summary of research on non-native accents and extensive accent bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Accent (sociolinguistics)}} Category:Sociolinguistics Category:Phonology Category:Dialectology Category:Linguistics terminology