Accents are a sociolinguistic feature of human diversity and settlement This article is about the pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of people relative to another group. For the term used to describe a stress on a syllable, see Stress (phonology). In linguistics, an accent is a pronunciation characteristic of a particular group of people relative to another group. Accent should not be confused with dialect (q.v.), which is a variety of language differing in vocabulary and syntax as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or class. Image File history File links Two_young_girls_at_Camp_Christmas_Seals. ...
Image File history File links Two_young_girls_at_Camp_Christmas_Seals. ...
In linguistics, stress is the emphasis given to some syllables (often no more than one in each word, but in many languages, long words have a secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary stress, as in the words cóunterfòil or còunterintélligence. ...
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ...
Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...
A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language. ...
For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ...
Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
History of accents
As human beings spread out into isolated communities, stresses and peculiarities develop. Over time these can develop into identifiable accents. In America, the interaction of people from many ethnic backgrounds contributed to the formation of the American accent. It is difficult to measure or predict how long it takes an accent to formulate. Accents in both America and Australia are derived from the British parent accent, yet the American accent remains more distant, either as a result of time or of external or "foreign" linguistic interaction, such as the Italian accent.[1] It could also be argued that the American accent is more fairly consistent with the manner in which English was pronounced by people from Britain - most especially people from Western parts of England - during the 1600s and early 1700s which presumably may not yet have been fully non-rhotic. Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa (particularly among whites of British settler descent) are more fairly recent transplants to their destinations so their accents are more-or-less in sync with the way English is spoken in Britain. Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ...
Image File history File links Nuvola_apps_edu_languages. ...
This article or section cites its sources but does not provide page references. ...
Generative linguistics is a school of thought within linguistics that makes use of the concept of a generative grammar. ...
In linguistics and cognitive science, cognitive linguistics (CL) refers to the currently dominant school of linguistics that views the important essence of language as innately based in evolutionarily-developed and speciated faculties, and seeks explanations that advance or fit well into the current understandings of the human mind. ...
Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and logical modeling of natural language from a computational perspective. ...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
In linguistics and semiotics, pragmatics is concerned with bridging the explanatory gap between sentence meaning and speakers meaning. ...
Unsolved problems in : Note: Use the unsolved tag: {{unsolved|F|X}}, where F is any field in the sciences: and X is a concise explanation with or without links. ...
Efforts to describe and explain the human language faculty have been undertaken throughout recorded history. ...
Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ...
A linguist in the academic sense is a person who studies linguistics. ...
In many cases, the accents of non-English settlers from Britain affected the accents of the different colonies quite differently. Scottish and Irish immigrants had accents which greatly affected the vowel pronunciations of certain areas in Australia and Canada.[1]
General discussion
 America is a melting pot for accents and cultures from around the world. When a standard language and pronunciation are defined by a group, an accent may be any pronunciation that deviates from that standard. However, accent is a relative concept, and it is meaningful only with respect to a specified pronunciation reference. For example, people from New York City may speak with an accent in the perception of people from Los Angeles, but people from Los Angeles may also speak with an accent in the perception of New Yorkers. Americans hear British people speaking with an accent and vice versa. Thus the concept of a person having "no accent" is meaningless. As phonologists are fond of saying, "a person without an accent would be like a place without a climate." Download high resolution version (3000x2401, 1921 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Download high resolution version (3000x2401, 1921 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
A standard language (also standard dialect or standardized dialect) is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. ...
New York, NY redirects here. ...
Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ...
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. Geography (from the Greek words Geo (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning Earth, and graphein (γÏαφειν) meaning to describe or to writeor to map) is the study of the earth and its features, inhabitants, and phenomena. ...
Social status is the standing, the honour or prestige attached to ones position in society. ...
This article or section should be merged with ethnic group Ethnicity is the cultural characteristics that connect a particular group or groups of people to each other. ...
Caste systems are traditional, hereditary systems of social stratification, enforced by law or common practice, based on classifications such as occupation, race, ethnicity, etc. ...
Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...
“Native Language†redirects here. ...
Accents and age Children are able to take on accents at a fast rate; children of traveling families can change their accents within a short period of time. However after maturity the accent we have is fixed and though it may have influences, or grow diluted it usually stays the same regardless of time. Accents are not fixed; they change over time. Usually this happens naturally, and often unconsciously. Accents can be expected to change until we are in our early twenties.[2]
Sensitivity to accents
 Airports are a place for great concentration of accents The perception of an accent is entirely relative, and a direct result of exposure to different cultural and ethnic linguistic groups. In the urban multicultural societies where a plethora of accents exists, the sensitivity of the average person to accents and geographical identification is much higher. Thus through interaction the general discernment between closely related accents is more profound. While in more remote locations, the difference between a Jamaican accent and a Trinidadian accent would be less profound. Accent perception and degree of amalgamation on the part of the listener is thus a function of their exposure. Airport workers who deal with many accents have a high degree of accent discernment and some may be even able to identify not only national accents but regional accents within 'specific communities.'[citation needed] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 230 KB)The shopping center-like corridor between Departure Areas 1 and 2 at Zurich International Airport, Kloten, Switzerland. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 230 KB)The shopping center-like corridor between Departure Areas 1 and 2 at Zurich International Airport, Kloten, Switzerland. ...
Perception and accents 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 Queen and the upper class. Received Pronunciation is regarded as the official accent of the United Kingdom; like other official accents, it does not have to be representative of the majority of population. However, an official accent can also be viewed as the most widely spoken accent in a group. An example is General American English, the accent, defined somewhat less rigidly than RP, that is spoken by most elements of American English in America. Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ...
Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
Certain European accents applied to speaking English are sometimes regarded by native English speakers as being "sexy". The French accent is an example. Different expression of an accent can be perceived as conveying a comical or joyous emotion. With the perception American culture to be on the rise in much of the world many youths in the developing world seek American accents as an instrument of success. In these countries, a Western accent may be quickly associated with tourists and thus economic prosperity. This article very generally discusses the customs and culture of the United States; for the culture of the United States, see arts and entertainment in the United States. ...
Imitation and accent switching
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 Jamaican accents are often perceived as 'unique' In the UK the popular Indian and Jamaican accents are often imitated. The same may be true for Spanish-accented and African-accented English in the United States, or the Italian accent and its associations. In Western societies, foreign accents can be a source of great curiosity. Imitation in some senses, for example imitating an Indian accent, may be perceived as racist, while imitation of a Jamaican accent by a youth might be more acceptable. People of African and Caribbean ancestry who are native to the West often switch between accents to create emphasis, for example to quote a famous proverb they might switch to a local tone to give it stress, or they may use their heritage accent for verbal abuse. This is also a form of social identification, cultural rootedness and authenticity. This is less common among Asian people born in the west as they usually switch not between accents, but between languages for emphasis. Image File history File links Circle-question. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...
World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...
West Indian redirects here. ...
Foreign accent A foreign accent is one that marks someone as a non-native speaker of a language. It arises when the phonology of one language, typically the person's native language, influences his pronunciation of a second language. Research has suggested various ages after which this becomes more likely[citation needed] (see Critical Period Hypothesis). Phonology (Greek phonē = voice/sound and logos = word/speech), is a subfield of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language (or languages). ...
AGE may refer to: advanced glycation endproduct A.G. Edwards, brokerage firm. ...
The Critical Period Hypothesis refers to a long-standing debate in linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire language is biologically linked to age. ...
The perception of a foreign accent by native speakers may carry with it positive or negative connotations. When the connotations are negative, non-native speakers with a foreign accent may endeavor to suppress and eliminate it. However, foreign accents are notoriously difficult to eliminate without very extensive training, and there is much individual variation in the ability to eliminate a foreign accent.[citation needed] Many speakers choose to live with their foreign accents as long as these are not heavy enough to interfere with communication (that is, as long as their accents leave the phonemes of a language clearly distinguishable to native speakers).[citation needed] This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Accents and Demographics
Accents and Race According to some reports people can identify a persons ethnic group within a society by their accent, e.g. African-American people in America, British-Caribbean people with British accents. Some people have criticized this claim as a form of racism as it makes assumptions based on linguistic stereotypes. Kentucky's highest court in the case of Clifford v. 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.[3]
Accents and Class There is a social class relationship between "heaviness" of an accent within a society with accents of the educated society being almost always more intelligible to most speakers of the language independent of geography.[citation needed] This must not be confused with class related dialect, but more degree of clarity in word articulation and stresses due to pronunciation and most importantly similarity to the written form due to greater literacy. In some regions where accents are not part of everyday life people with "unique" accents require films to be subtitled. Very "heavy" accents, even regional accents are subtitled to make the content comprehensible to a wider audience. Heaviness is almost always determined by the divergence from the written form. Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. ...
H Dropping A case in point is h-dropping. Millions of English speaking people do not pronounce /h/ consistently: they omit it most or all of the time. Jamaicans are known for this trait "aff" for "have" "im" for "him." Examples are words such as honest and hour; but the H is present in harm and house, to reflect the prestige pronunciation that does distinguish harm from arm.[1]. As with most languages English speakers will try to avoid sentence structures which involve ending a word with similar vowel the next word begins with. An example would be "an example". "An" is used instead of "a" to avoid confusion between the beginning of "a" and the beginning of "example". When English speakers drop the H before a vowel they almost always switch from "a" to "an".
Acting and accents
 In Hollywood imitating accents is a sign of acting skill. 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. Classic examples of this are "Gandhi," the more recent "Blood Diamond," Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa," Denzel Washington in "Cry Freedom," and Don Cheadle in "Hotel Rwanda." Image File history File links The world-famous Hollywood sign. ...
Image File history File links The world-famous Hollywood sign. ...
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Gandhi (1982) is a multi-award-winning biopic film about the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (often known as Mahatma Gandhi), who was leader of the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. ...
Blood Diamond is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed and produced by Edward Zwick. ...
Mary Louise Streep, mostly known as Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is a two-time Academy Award-winning, six-time Golden Globe-winning, two-time SAG-winning, Grammy Award-nominated and BAFTA Award-winning American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. ...
Out of Africa is a memoir by Isak Dinesen (the pseudonym of Danish Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke), first published in 1937. ...
Cry Freedom is a feature film directed by Richard Attenborough, set in the late 1970s, during the apartheid era of South Africa. ...
Don Cheadle (November 29, 1964) is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ...
Hotel Rwanda is a historical drama film that shows the quiet heroism of one man, Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), during the Rwandan Genocide. ...
Criticism of this is that the perception of an accurate foreign accent are rarely considered accurate by the speakers 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."[4] Another example of this is Denzel Washington in "Cry Freedom." Most Americans were impressed with his imitation but few South Africans would have seen it as an accurate South African accent. Another example of this is African-American imitations of Jamaican accents which are perceived as comical by actual Jamaicans. In recent cinema Angelina Jolie attempted a Greek accent in the film Alexander that was said by critics to be distracting.[5] In 2000 Pitt played the role of an gypsy Irish boxer in the gangster movie "Snatch." An accent teacher was employed purely to help Brad Pitt (Mickey) speak "Pikey." Renée Zellweger perfected her English accent so successfully for Bridget Jones Diary that even co-actor and English native Hugh Grant was surprised to hear her natural American accent. William Bradley Brad Pitt(born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. ...
Meet Joe Black is a 1998 remake of the 1934 film, Death Takes a Holiday, starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. ...
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. ...
Cry Freedom is a feature film directed by Richard Attenborough, set in the late 1970s, during the apartheid era of South Africa. ...
Angelina Jolie (born June 4, 1975) is an American film actress, a former fashion model and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. ...
Irish Travellers are a nomadic or itinerant people of Irish origin living in Ireland, Great Britain and the United States. ...
Professional boxing bout featuring Ricardo DomÃnguez (left, throwing a left uppercut) versus Rafael Ortiz Boxing, also called prizefighting or pugilism is a sport and martial art in which two participants of similar weight fight each other with their fists in a series of one to three-minute intervals called...
Snatch is a 2000 film by British writer-director Guy Ritchie. ...
Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an Academy Award-winning American film actress. ...
Bridget Joness Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. ...
Hugh John Mungo Grant[1] (born September 9, 1960) is a Golden Globe-winning British actor. ...
Conversely, British actor Hugh Laurie in the starring role of television series "House" has adopted an American accent so successfully that many do not realize that he is not American-born. Hugh Jackman's American accent in the movie The Prestige was right on. Many Americans probably did not realize he was Australian because of it. Another example of this is Joely Richardson in the TV series, "Nip/Tuck." Gary Oldman has become known for playing eccentrics and for his mastery of accents.[6] James Hugh Calum Laurie OBE (born June 11, 1959) is a Golden Globe-winning British actor, comedian and writer. ...
House, also known as House, M.D., is a critically-acclaimed American medical drama television series created by David Shore and executive produced by Shore and film director Bryan Singer. ...
Hugh Michael Jackman (born October 12, 1968) is an Australian film producer, film and stage actor, known for playing Wolverine in X-Men and its sequels, and his Tony Award-winning performance in The Boy from Oz. ...
The Prestige is a novel by British writer Christopher Priest. ...
Joely Richardson Joely Richardson (born January 9, 1965 in the U.K.) is a British actress, who was born into a theatrical family. ...
Nip/Tuck is an Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning American television medical drama series created by Ryan Murphy for FX Networks. ...
Gary Oldman (born Leonard Gary Oldman on March 21, 1958 in New Cross, London, England) is an Emmy Award-nominated, BAFTA Award-winning English film actor, writer and director. ...
Stereotypes of Accents in Films Notably, in Disney films from the 1990s onward, English accents are generally employed to serve one of two purposes: slapstick comedy or evil genius.[7] Examples include "Aladdin" (the Sultan and Jafar, respectively), "The Lion King" (Zazu and Scar, respectively), "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (Victor the Gargoyle and Frollo, respectively), and "Pocahontas" (Wiggins and Ratcliffe, respectively - both of whom happen to be played by the same actor, American David Ogden Stiers). It has been claimed that the usage of certain accents in Hollywood sci-fi, such as "Star Wars" and "Star Trek," have been used to symbolize inferior beings.[8] Zazu as a target of Simba and Nalas ridicule during the song scene I Just Cant Wait to Be King Zazu sings Morning Report, a song scene added to the Platinum Edition DVD of The Lion King released in 2003 Zazu is a fictional hornbill who first appeared...
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (also known as The Bells of Notre Dame in some countries) is a 1996 animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures. ...
Pocahontas is the thirty-third animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. ...
David Ogden Stiers (born October 31, 1942) is an American character actor, voice actor and musician, most noted for his role in the television sitcom M*A*S*H, and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone. ...
See also Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition that usually follows a severe brain injury, such as a stroke or a head injury. ...
This article is becoming very long. ...
Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...
A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently. ...
Accent reduction, also known as accent modification, is a systematic approach to reducing or eliminating a foreign accent. ...
Language change is the manner in which the phonetic, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features of a language are modified over time. ...
Further reading - Accents: A Manual for Actors- Revised and Expanded Edition
- Foreign Dialects by Lewis Herman
- FAQ about Accents
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.]
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, FRSL, FRTS (born 6 October 1939, in Wigton, Cumberland) is a British author and broadcaster. ...
External links Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ...
Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is a wiki for the creation of books. ...
Footnotes - ^ a b "Australian Accents". "Ask a Linguist".
- ^ "Accent changing". "Ask a Linguist".
- ^ "Race, Racism and the Law". "Courtroom: Court sanctioned Racial Stereotyping, 18 Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 185-210, 185-188 (Spring, 2002)(179 Footnotes) ".
- ^ "Jamaicans accent on TV". "Jamaicans.com".
- ^ "Angelina Jolie accent". "about".
- ^ His ability to transform himself physically and his command of accents has allowed him to play a broad range of characters and a number of historical figures, including, in addition to those above, 'Lee Harvey Oswald' (JFK (1991)) and 'Ludwig Van Beethoven' (Immortal Beloved (1994)). "Gary Oldman accent". "IMDB".
- ^ "Why Villains in Movies Have English Accents". January 15, 2003
- ^ They claim the Neimoidians have an Asian accent. Well, many of my relatives come from Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc., and none of them sound remotely like the Neimoidians. "Racism in Star Wars and Star Trek". "http://www.stardestroyer.net".
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