Accent speaks louder than words

Accent - it's a distinctive way of pronouncing language,especially associated with a particular country, region or social class. Accent, however, apart from being an element of our identity, it may make also the foundation to the bias, prejudice or simply stereotypes. That is why there is a common tendency to eliminate, little by little, regionalisations in the language and to favorise its standard form as we tend to associate it unconciesly with this simple question: you are educated or not educated. This attitude might have developed through the globalisation that makes everything and everyone identical but also out of our natural fear from any kind of strangeness because, as the research shows, we trust more those who sound familiar.

For example, people with a New York accent are perceived as being rude, with a South American accent as pleasant but less educated and with a Brooklyn or Bronx accent as criminals. The same story is with British English, as Glasgowian accent is associated with violent people and working class, Birmingham accent characterises lazy and thick people similarly to the Liverpool one. However, in this accent diversity, there is one, the most trustworthy and prestigious accent, co called, RP (Received Pronunciation) or Queen's English. It is the accent of Standard English in UK, associated mostly with the language of elites and of those who have power, money and influences. That is why, in England, for exemple there is a high pressure to the academic lecturers, coming from the Northern regions to the Southern one, to force themselves to get rid of their region accent to sound more seriously.

Similar thing appears in the media where, for exemple, CNN reporters are obligated to complete a broadcast training where they learn the standard broadcasting English (pronunciation). It is crucial because the aim of the public television is to stay neutral, to be taken seriously but also to be understandable for everyone. So, in this case any individualisation in a language is not acceptable that is why all the reporter sound nearly the same because as one of the pronunciation trainer – Amy Caples, said: 'In this environment, to get a job and to be successful you have to sound like you were from nowhere'.

Another story is with politics. We would be perfectly sure that RP English (or any standard version of language) is the obligation here. However, in politics, as most of the politicians say 'accents are like fashions, they depend on social context and the time'. It actually depends on what they want to achieve or to emphasize in their campaign. That is why they manipulate thier accents to reinforce their power (as Margaret Thacher would do) or on the contrary to reduce their distance between them and the society to gain thier support (as Hilary Clinton do).

So what is the moral from this story? That we should develop a certian balance in using languages; we shouldn't make light of its standard form and to improuve it as much as we can but we shouldn't also resigne completely of our individual accent because it decides, in a way, of who we are and if we got rid of it, it would actually mean getting rid of some part of yourself.