What’s in an accent?

Those of you live in North America and in the United Kingdom are perhaps most familiar with varying accents with which English is spoken, where the same words are pronounced in different ways, making them almost unfathomable to unexposed ears.

I was surprised when Australian colleagues refused to accept that they, like me, have an accent, an Australian one. I even argued with examples: two noticeable Australian pronunciations are Mate, (whcih sounds like MITE to others) and H (some Aussies pronounce it as HAACH), but failed to convince them.

To native speakers accent is something that others have and, sometimes, a cause to cachinnate. The truth, however, is that everyone has an accent, as it is simply a way of pronouncing words and only mutes can possibly have no accent.

Research conducted at the University of Chicago shows that a foreign accent undermines a person's credibility in ways that the speaker and the listener do not consciously realise. As an accent makes a person harder to understand, listeners are less likely to find what the person says as truthful, and the problem of credibility increases with the severity of the accent, the research found (Why Don't We Believe Non-native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility).

Elocution lesions are reported to be increasingly used by job seekers and professionals in Britain, where in a tight job market people are trying 'to lose their accent', to be employed or to progress further ahead in their careers. Accent reduction courses are becoming common for foreign medical professionals, miners, pilots (Elocution lessons: Who wants to speak the Queen's English?).

Job seekers trying to acquire a clear, easy to understand accent or more appropriately 'trying to lose' their accent is understandable. So it is, when settlers to a new region try to gain the local tone, expressions and social etiquette to earn a livelihood and to assimilate in their adopted region, even though, they may not know the full story, origin and derivation of a certain pronunciation or usage.

But can one accent be considered better than others or be used to discriminate? In Pygmalion, a play written by George Bernard Shaw exactly hundred years ago, in 1912, Henry Higgins successfully trains a Cockney girl to attain an upper-class accent, when British society was highly class driven.

The world has moved on from that type of snobbishness, businesses now use heavily accented call centre operators to service native speakers. As long as professional expertise is sound, nobody seems to care much about the accent of their doctors, lawyers, plumbers or electricians.

However, as I read in British newspapers that accent could still make a difference in one's career aspirations, to whatever extent that may be, I remain curious.

Interestingly, every language has its own take on 'accent'. Bengali spoken in our region is diverse and includes many accents, especially when compared to West Bengal – tone, dialect and accent vary even within a city, Dhaka for example. Which Bengali accent is preferred or sweeter? Is a particular Bengali accent now being considered classier?

We Chittagonians, in addition to Bengali, speak a local tongue (in fact, a distinct language), and we are known to have an accent when we speak 'Shuddhyo Bangla', proper Bengali, which amuses others.

Urdu, the spoken language of Muslims regardless of where in India they live, has many accents; the contrast is most significant between southern (Bangalore/Madras) and northern (Delhi/ Lucknow) speakers, which is also considered to be the tongue of the upper echelon.

Snobbery aside, eloquent speakers are favoured in any walks of life. Who wouldn't love to hear softer, nicer sounds? Indeed it is quite a skill to 'loose an accent'.

Recent on-screen 'losing of accent' is convincingly displayed by Meryl Steep, an American, in her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady and by Hugh Laurie, a Briton, in the popular American drama series House M.D. performing as US hospital doctor.

Yet, to have an accent is as normal as having a limb. In an increasingly globalised, and we would like to think, an equal community, accent should not matter as long as what is said is clear and can be understood without difficulty.

Accent is a verbal badge that can identify places where one grew up and lived – a nice distinctive feature, one would have thought. To see it still defining one's socio-economic status, prestige and perceived authority or knowledge base is disappointing, but is likely to continue.

For whatever reason, if you wish to change your accent, regular polls are conducted to help you pick the sexiest accent of the time!

I doubt it is going to be Received Pronunciation, or more commonly known as Queen's/King's English, but never let snobs to turn prejudice on yourselves, even when you try to learn to speak in a neutral accent that is preferred.

——————————-
Irfan Chowdhury writes from Canberra, Australia.