Your accent… explained

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I come home saying, oh yeah, my dad and I took the boat out this weekend.

I really do say I parked my car and have a yacht.

I speak four languages fluently, Italian, French, Spanish and English,

but my Italian accent never went away.

So a couple weeks ago, I asked you for a favor.

We want your help with a show we're working on about accents.

Have you lost your accent or maybe you absolutely love yours?

Give us a call and tell us about it.

And oh my gosh, doll showed out.

I'm calling from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

I am from a very small town in rural Appalachia, the Chicago area.

From Florida.

Miami, Florida, Alabama.

I kid you not, we received the most calls we've ever gotten

with your questions and stories about accents.

I'm just a chameleon.

I can't stick to my accent guns when exposed to other people who talk in other ways.

They'd say, oh, well, you say daughter, but you have to say daughter.

You say water, but you have to say water.

Do you want to give me a call back?

I can try to get my mom on the phone to tell the story originally.

Thanks for good luck with the show.

You called in and now it's time for us to hold up our ends of the bargain.

I'm John Goenhill.

This is explained to me from Vox and this week is all about accents.

How we get them, why they change, and if you lose them, how you get them back?

Before we get into all that, where did the American accent come from in the first place?

If you went back to 1600, you know, 1650, a new world,

you would probably think, what the hell are you all saying around me?

Because I don't understand the thing.

Valerie Friedland is a sociolinguist and author of the book, why we talk funny?

The real story behind our accents.

We start our accent journey in America, really, with the first British colonists that came.

You know, it seems odd because you know there are other colonists that were here.

There were indigenous languages that were here, so that isn't the first language story of America.

But the most pivotal voices for establishing that original American accent

were those early British colonists.

So the original American accent was sort of one that had leveled the playing field

of many of the really salient noticeable British accent features.

But by, you know, the 1680s, we start to see a leveling of accents

so that while the feeder accents were British

and so there were certainly noticeable British features.

So for example, the ours would have been there with the exception of a few

ours that got dropped really early in words like burst and curse,

which became bust and cuss, right?

That's actually the origin.

Oh, that's why I say cusses.

Exactly. It's the British art dropping that came over early.

But so that would be something we shared.

So it didn't matter who you were, what class you were from,

what kind of job you occupied.

The speech was much more similar among people in America

or the new world at that time than it was back in Britain.

Okay, that's interesting that it was uniform

because we have so many regional differences now.

When did we see those pop up?

Think about the way that the Atlantic coast was settled, right?

At the very top you had people coming in from a lot from East Anglia

and southern Britain.

And then you had the Quakers from the North of Britain and the Scott's Irish

and the German in the Midland.

And then in the South, you actually had a lot of people also from southern Britain.

A lot of the Cavaliers, those that were loyal to King Charles I,

and they had a lot of indentured servants and a lot of enslaved people

that came with West African backgrounds.

So if you get a sense there of these three different dialect areas

getting established early by 1780, 1800,

that's really when we see enough generations have come through

and learn the patterns of this new world that they sounded very different from Britain

but also started to sound different from each other.

So in the New England area, what it was described as,

I mean, this is definitely not something I think most New Englanders

were love as a description, but it was described as a nasal whiny twang

at the time.

But it was also considered the most prestigious accent.

So there you go.

And then in the middle Atlantic colonies, they said words like off,

more like laugh, laugh.

And then in the South, of course, you had actually a lot of commentary

on similarity with the slaves' talk.

So there were a lot of comments on how some of the features of the people

that had been brought over from West Africa were influencing the speech,

particularly women and children there,

which I think goes to the idea that there was a lot of actual interaction

and interaction is really what determines what we sound like.

Yeah, I want to dig into the Southern accent a little bit more.

You know, it's so distinct.

It is so like kind of uniquely American,

even though it's different in different parts of the South.

How did we get that Southern accent?

Can you go into that a little bit?

Absolutely.

In fact, what we really see is the Southern accent

as sort of the y'all draw far instead of fire,

the merging of pins and pens.

All of that did not come around until after the Civil War.

So what it really did is brought together people towards a common sort of enemy

and also a common cultural experience that bonded their speech

in ways that we find is really conducive to new accent formation.

It's also that the infrastructure of the South changed during the reconstruction period.

Anytime we see a change in the infrastructure,

a change in the economy, a change in the transportation networks in an area,

we generally see a change in the way they sound as well.

That New England accent, that Southern accent,

that gets a lot of the shine.

But real briefly, what are we hearing in the Midwest and Out West?

Because I think those are the parts of the country where some people are like,

oh, these aren't accents, but they are, right?

The Midwest and West are quite interesting because, you know,

they were all a little later.

So the coastal colonies were obviously earlier.

And the Midwest had a really unique blending because it was really,

it emanated from the Pennsylvania colony.

So that's really the heart of the heartland accent.

Over a third of the population of the Pennsylvania colony was the Scots Irish.

And another third were Germans.

You know, when you think about the Chicago accent at De Bears,

that is actually very German influence accent.

There were already a lot of Scandinavian settlers in that area,

Minnesota, same thing, the Minnesota accent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Again, that was heavily Scandinavian influence.

But by the time they get to the West Coast a century later,

they were American, right?

So it was American's resetting,

not that there weren't other countries that had immigrants come in.

But the vast majority were resetlers from an American dialect region.

So what you get there is already Americanized speech.

But truly, that's why we think of the Western accent as sort of being accent less

is because it had gone through so many cycles of leveling out

some of the more noticeable features from the East Coast by the time they hit it West.

Oh, as if.

So I moved around quite a bit growing up.

You know, I've lived in the Midwest.

Southwest and I've spent all of my adulthood in DC.

And I'm just wondering like, can you tell how much of these regional dialects

have I picked up?

I'm like, oh my gosh, what is my accent?

Just from like my quick and dirty assessment of your speech style.

One thing I'll notice is you do actually have a bit of the pen pen merger in your speech.

So you said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, pen and pen are the same to me.

Yeah, but that actually can be something that's more prevalent

in African American speech styles.

So that's something.

So if you look at what standard African American English used as the model right southern speech

was actually the model because up to 1900,

over 90% of African Americans lived in the South.

And it's not until the great migration of the 20th century between like 1917 and 1970

that we get this mass shift in sort of living patterns were then about 50%

of African Americans moved to urban centers,

predominantly in the North and also Los Angeles.

And Washington DC was a big area for that.

And you also have quite a bit of vocal fry in your speech.

Yeah, yeah, I'm a girl.

I'm a millennial lady.

I love it.

But that's also something that was studied in African American speech in the Washington DC area.

As well as in white women's speech there too.

It was prominent.

So, yeah, not calling you out.

I love vocal fry, but it's definitely something I hear in your voice there.

And there's also the more southern intonation pattern that I hear in your speech as well.

So I would say while you don't sound southern per se,

you sound mostly more southern than none than any other accent that I can pick up.

Oh, that's so fascinating.

The different ways we talk are so cool.

And over time, they evolve.

That's next.

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We're back with more explain it to me. I'm JQ.

Our accents carry a lot of history and a ton of information about who we are.

That's what Nicole Holiday studies at UC Berkeley.

She's what's called a sociophone attrition.

I study how speech sounds operate in society.

The easiest way to understand that are my elevator pitches usually.

You call your bank or whatever, and you get a mental picture of the person you're talking to,

the customer service person. They're age, they're gender, they're race, maybe where they're from.

And you do that immediately, one sound, and you can sometimes make that kind of picture.

But there's something physical in it. There's something about the voice itself

and something about the way that you hear the voice.

So what we do is study how you're able to make that kind of judgment,

and then what it means socially.

Our identity is reflected in the way that we sound.

And so some of that we have control over the way that we want to be perceived by others,

but not entirely.

Okay, what kind of societal things influence how much or how little of an accent we have?

Yeah, so this is like an intro to linguistics test question.

So I'm going to ask the students, like, all right, what are the ways that language can vary

between individuals or groups?

And then the answer is any way that people can vary sort of sociologically.

So we think a lot about region, because that's very obvious to us,

but gender, sexuality, race, class, all kinds of stuff, right?

Any sort of social variable that we're talking about,

I can give you an example of how the sound's vary within any place,

if we look at the difference between white and black speakers.

I'm not saying this is true for every person.

I'm saying maybe it's true for 80% of people in a community that you see these kind of differences.

One that's obvious is looking at the R sound.

So R is really important in American English historically.

The stereotypical like Boston accent, the park, the car, and Harvard yard has packed the car and have a yard.

That's an R phenomenon.

And we know that patterns of our listeners, so when you don't pronounce your R,

when it's at the end of a syllable, have been changing over the last hundred years

in places like New York and Boston, indeed.

But New Yorkers got more R-Full, so they started to say park the car, white New Yorkers faster than black New Yorkers.

So if you talk to older black people in New York, they're so likely to say, like,

not quite like that because it's not my accent, but white people the same age are more likely to say park the car.

So you can see those kind of differences that are both regional and ethno-linguistic,

like, you know, by ethnicity over time.

So we heard from people who described that thing that happens when you're with certain people,

like, you know, you go home for Christmas or you got a drink or two in you and that old accent comes back.

Why when I go to school up north, my accent kind of just assimilates and it's closer along to my school members?

And then when I'm home, it's like full blown.

I have a Southern accent.

I'm on spring break right now and I'm home and at the minute someone comments on my accent, I change it.

It goes immediately back.

So when you're in a situation where you have lowered your inhibitions,

like, if you're really tired or something like that, less control,

then the way that you sound naturally is going to be coming out more and more obvious.

So that's why people will notice it, for example, in that case.

But there's also this phenomenon of, like, convergence or accommodation.

So even people who are not talking about the way that they used to sound,

but, like, if you say, oh, I went to England and I came back sounding a little British,

like, it could be an affectation and they're just being annoying and bragging about their vacation.

But it could also be that when you talk to people from a different place,

they move towards you and you move towards them.

And this can be, like, you know, your vowels got a little more aww versus aww or something like that.

When you go to one place because you're meeting in the middle and that actually facilitates effective communication

when you sort of meet your listener halfway and they meet you halfway.

You know, I think it's natural to want to fit in when you're younger,

when you're making your way through life.

But then you grow up or you become established.

And I think, you know, there are some people who have let their accents go

or even got rid of them on purpose who are, like, dang, I really miss that.

I, as you can tell, have a fairly distinct southern country Appalachian accent.

I've lived in this out my whole life.

And it's been a huge part of who I am and what people notice about me first,

which used to be sort of a sort of shame, but now I take a lot of pride in it.

But I've noticed through my life that many others have that it's really disappearing

and lots of people are losing their southern accents.

So I'm really curious about what can be done to preserve these cultural pieces.

So the first thing I would say is if you're worried about it, you're unlikely to lose it.

So people lose their ways of sounding because of social pressure,

but also when they choose.

So we have some research on people that move away versus people that stay in their communities

basically saying that the more positive orientation you have to where you're from,

the more likely you are to continue to sound local in that way.

Second of all, like, yeah, being, it's the exact same thing we say to people

and they say, like, oh, I want to learn Spanish and we're like, yeah, move to Mexico.

Yeah, being in the, yeah, being in the, there's no substitute for being in the place.

However, you know, staying in contact with people, even, you know, on the phone,

on zoom, whatever, um, visiting when you can, like, that kind of stuff is good.

I wouldn't say so much like the media because first of all, nobody in the, in the media

is like sounding the way that they naturally sound when you're doing something scripted.

That's not the, like, the, the most authentic version.

But also the way that we construct our, our language happens in interaction with other people.

So, um, I think we have this idea that, like, if we just watch enough movies,

we'll sound like that person or whatever. There was a very interesting thing

during the pandemic where a lot of American kids were watching Peppa Pig.

Okay, George and me will show you how.

Oh, yeah!

The parents were saying, like, my kids said, I love being a British accent.

No, your kid's not developing a British accent.

They're, like, imitating Peppa Pig.

That car is kind of weird.

What do we need to get for spaghetti?

Tomatoes.

But they don't, that kid does not sound like that.

Because it's temporary and it's something that they absorb through the media.

But it's not something that happened in interaction.

So, if you're trying to, you know, maintain your original way of sounding,

I would say talking to people is probably the best way.

What do you say?

Thank you very much, Peppa.

Coming up, how to stop worrying and love your accent.

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It's explained to me, I'm JQ,

and I told y'all earlier that we got a ton of calls about accents.

It seemed like it hit an herb.

I mentioned that to our sociophone addition Nicole Holiday,

and she was like,

of course it did.

It's so deeply entrenched,

the way that we sound,

deeply connected with our family,

with all of our experiences as kids,

with who we want to be in the world.

But also we live in this complex sociological universe,

where we know that other people don't necessarily

feel about us,

or about where we're from,

the way that we feel about that place.

And so we feel this kind of tension,

like, you know, I want to be authentic to myself

by sounding the way that I sound,

but I also know that out here in the world,

the way that I sound is not necessarily accepted in all situations.

So it creates a sort of like conflict within us

between being ourselves and being who we want to be in the world.

To me, the main word from Central Jersey Shore is W-A-T-E-R.

Like the way someone says water tells you everything you need to know.

This is a listener named CC Joyner.

A C-E-R, but I go by CC.

I've taken a little bit of all the places that I've lived

and made this like ridiculous accent.

So born and raised in Jersey,

so definitely have some Jersey words,

use them.

But then I went to college in Florida,

a Tampa Florida,

which doesn't really have much of an accent,

but definitely some southern like essences.

And also I think like just getting

tidbits from other people that I met.

Like my first college roommate was from Kentucky.

Then I lived in New Orleans.

And what's wrong with accents?

In college, CC majored in communications.

I thought I was going to be Oprah.

I mean, they're still time.

I was in a class and our professor,

this is the early odds.

So you got to remember where we were at the world, right?

My professor was basically just went down the line

and talked to many of us about like how our accents

were not going to make us marketable.

Especially if we were thinking about going into television radio,

but really even just professionally.

Like you cannot talk like that.

So that was the first time I was like,

whoa, this accent is strong.

And I made a conscious effort

because I was like, well, I want to make it.

Let's just talk about Jersey.

Like then Jersey had this like total like everyone hates it.

Or like it's just intrigued by it.

Or things were weird.

What's your nickname?

Snookie?

Snooker.

Snooker.

Snookies.

But why no work are you in?

Waste management consultant.

And so it's like, I don't want this.

How's this going to help me in life?

Yeah, how did that make you feel to hear him be like,

okay, so that accent it's got to go.

First off, I was like, what accent?

Like what are you talking about?

Like I don't have an accent.

I was like blown.

I'll be honest.

I want people to like me.

I want to be likable.

I don't want people to cut me off.

Like in their perceptions about me,

people already think so much about you.

By the way, you look.

So I'm not trying to get no exes equipped.

I'm going to come here non regional.

I don't need you to know where I'm from.

Yeah.

Did you try to get rid of your accent?

How did you go about that?

What did that version of you sound like?

So the funny thing was during this time,

I have something called graze disease.

So my voice got really raspy.

It was actually low key kind of sexy.

And people told me I should go into radio.

So this was at that time.

I was trying to get rid of it.

So I can't even do it.

It was like, because it was like really low and like raspy.

And I would have to talk really slowly to make sure

that I didn't like going to my accent.

And that's not sustainable.

Yeah, you know, it's funny.

One of my best friends, she always says like,

I'm from Jersey.

We pump our fists.

We do not pump our gas.

Yeah.

And I just wonder what's your relationship with your accent now?

How do you think of it now?

I like her.

She gets me where I need to go.

She starts good conversations.

She makes me, people are interested.

They want to hear things.

Everyone thinks they know something about me before.

I like that.

And so like I think of just my relationship with my accent is like,

we're in this together.

I also do love.

One thing I love about my accent is all the different things I've picked up.

Because I think like not to be poetic.

But I feel like it's like a love letter to my life.

I use Yiddish terms.

And I use terms I've learned in New Orleans.

And I've now North Carolina.

Oh, that's a whole other accent.

Right.

And but I think it's like a little love letter to my life

and to everything that makes me me.

Well, my accent now, I think it's a mixture of what I learned in Argentina.

We learn British English.

But also with some Italian accent,

because the Spanish that we speak in Argentina is heavily accented towards Italian,

because of the immigration.

So it's not the Spanish that you would actually hear in Spain or Mexico.

My name is Patricia.

What is that?

And I am from Argentina.

I came to the United States over 30 years ago.

Patricia came for a PhD program at UCLA and she stayed.

I do Latin American history.

That's my specialty.

One of the first things that happened when I started in grad school was that I realized my fellow grad students

they were making fun, laughing or, you know, giggling every time I would say certain words.

They used to call me the short lady.

I'm five feet tall, maybe five feet short.

The short lady with an accent.

When I realized that, I tried to fix the accent.

And then as soon as I got a full-time job at CSUN,

I decided that I was going to also fix my height.

So I started wearing stilettos to school.

So I was hoping not to be the short lady.

The short professor with an accent.

It was really hard.

It was me practicing at night, at home, memorizing.

For example, when I was teaching assistant, memorizing the lectures and the ways to pronounce it.

So it was me with dictionary, reading, you know, phonetics and trying to understand how to pronounce it.

It was so much work.

There were so many levels of insecurities added to that.

It was painful.

And then about 10 years ago, she decided to drop that new accent and the stilettos.

She was done with fighting to fit in.

I think two things changed.

First was, you know, getting to full professor thinking, okay, I made it.

It's not only, I not only got tenure, but I made it all the way up.

So that really helped me with my self-esteem as an academic.

But also, we brought my daughter home.

And I didn't want to fake anything.

You know, consciously, I made a decision to just stop faking it.

Because it felt that I was a poster, right?

I mean, I didn't want to feel like that.

Do you ever wish you would have, like, come to embrace it sooner?

Oh my God, yes.

I wish I had never tried to fake it.

Because it was a painful experience.

But, you know, I guess I'm the result of those efforts, too.

So, in a sense, it's part of me embracing who I am right now.

Don't change your accent.

It is who you are.

And your accent, in a sense, is part of, you know, what you are bringing into the world.

Because it is the result of your, you know, where you are born and your experiences

and your whole identity.

Just if somebody gives you a hard time,

just that means that person is not worth your time or your accent.

So, I would say just, you know, keep it, embrace it, and just be who you are.

That's it for this week.

Thanks to the University of Georgia's John Forest.

Also, thanks to each and every one of you that called in and shared your story with us.

You really helped make this show.

Speaking of which, we've got another assignment for you.

And this one might be more of a challenge.

So, the world is kind of a bummer right now to put it mildly.

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Are there ways that you're staying optimistic?

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This episode was produced by Ariana Asputru.

It was edited by Jenny Lotton, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch,

an engineer by Patrick Boyd.

Our executive producer is Miranda Kennedy,

and I'm your host, John Colen Hill.

Thank you so much for listening.

Talk to you soon.

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