Perceptual Dialectology
US Language Attitudes
Play videoLinguist on a train asks people about their language attitudes and what regions they think speak more correctly.
Hearing Your Own Accent
A video of someone doing a "Baltimore Accent Test," and saying the phrase "Aaron earned an iron urn." After saying it out loud they seem amazed and say, "We really talk like that?" Their friends also say the phrase, while someone in the background comments on its unintelligibility. It speaks to how difficult it is for us to hear our own accents. [Published on 12-04-2019]
Dialects of the English Language
Play videoThis video is an example of the various dialects of the english language, based on speech communities and certain language ideologies. Jamila Lyiscott is a "tri-tongued orator". Race/ethncity have a lot to do with the way in which people speak, as well as where same one was raised. Jamila is an example of these language ideologies, and how perceptions made of the way one speaks may not always be informative to who they are.
Is New York losing its most famous accent?
A short video on the "disappearing" New York City accent. [Published on 08-18-2017]
Trying American
Play videoIn this scene Daphne shares her frustration with how people react to her accent. This demonstrates how different accents and dialects index social identity, eliciting feelings and reactions sometimes unwanted by the speaker. These interactions may influence future discourse practices.
How English Sounds to Non-English Speakers
Play videoThis video is representation of the theory of anthropological practice by showing how body language can be used to show both intentions and motives in a social environment. A couple, speaking what sounds like English have a common dinner date, but something goes wrong. The ability to notice something is wrong, even though the spoken language is not real, shows that the practice of natural, and probably learned body language are obvious to those of the culture and those familiar to it. Body language does not have a written code, it is ever fluid, and it is likely you understood everything minus the exact details of the fight in this skit.
People Around The World Try An American Accent
Play videoIn this video, people from different countries do their impression of the English language in the United States. Many of them project different language ideologies according to the accent they sound out, whether it be: Southern, Minnesotan, New York, or a Wisconsin accent. With their impressions they link their cultural ideologies with what they say. For example, one guy does an impression of a Wisconsin accent and while projecting his best impression he talks about cheese, a cultural item often associated with the state.
Weird Ways People Talk
Play videoThis video entitled, "Weird Ways People Talk," attempts at humor by mocking several different North American dialects of English. In so much that he can faithfully articulate English off the standard variant, he creates a divide between certain mocked groups and raises the so-called standard on a pedestal. In a similar light to mock-Spanish, these variants he mimics can be the origins of stereotypically thought.
"Why Explaining 'The N-Word' To Non-Black People Is So Damn Exhausting"
Article on Cultural Perceptions of the N-Word. Deals with which groups have responsibility or control over a word (and if they can have this control). This also shows lay-person perspective on key socio-linguistic issues. [Published on 05-09-2017]
British Villains -Tom Hiddleston en Jaguar F-Type Coupé
Play videoThis Jaguar car commercial adds to an ideology that an English accent sounds villainous. Indexically and through performativity the actor, Tom Hiddleston, describing how to successfully sound "villainous". This commercial is a part of a series featuring other British actors describing how to sound "villainous".
"Eumaeus", from Ulysses, p.508-509
" - A beautiful language. I mean for singing purposes. Why do you not write your poetry in that language? Bella Poetria! It is so melodious and full. Belladonna. Voglio.
Stephen, who was trying his dead best to yawn if he could, suffering from lassitude generally, replied:
- To fill the ear of a cow elephant. They were haggling over money...
- Sounds are impostures, Stephen said after a pause of some little time, like names. Cicero. Podmore. Napoleon... Shakespeares were as common as Murphies. What's in a name?"(Joyce, 508-509 Gabler Edition).
Bloom displays a typically 'folk' attitude towards language (see Preston 2002, "Language With an Attitude"), attributing qualities that inhere to the sounds and words of language itself - in this case viewing the sounds of the Italian language as "melodious and full". Stephen, who understands Italian, is able to take a more critical step back and question whether we can attribute meanings and qualities to the phonetic aspect of words and names, outside of the associations people come to build upon words such as the proper name 'Shakespeare'.
Do You Speak American?
Scholar and author, John G. Fought, focuses on how different dialect uses around the country affect the pronunciation of words and formation of speech patterns. Fought explains how the history of the United States has shaped language and has helped develop speech communities into what they are today. The media's role in what is considered "American" in regard to language is also described by Fought, touching on its key part in influencing specific dialect in different regions.
Dating a Latina
Play videoDating a Latina: Perception vs Reality.
This video is funny, some may be able to relate to it. This video exhibits Spanish, American English, and Code Switching.
Brit Language: Peter Sellers' Complete Guide to the British Aisles
Comic Peter Sellers does a wide-ranging parody of accents in Britain and elsewhere.
Do Pacific Northwesterners have an Accent?
A local NPR story (audio and text) on the Pacific Northwest Accent, profiling the research of Alicia Wassink and colleagues at the University of Washington. [Published on 12-11-2014]
Stereotypes of Variation within a Creole (TCE)
A non-Linguist self reflects on attending her "prestige" secondary school in Trinidad, noting auditory intonational and lexical differences that marks these girls. They also tend to speak closer to the (acrolectal) "Standard," marked as the more educated (prestige) style of discourse. [Published on 07-19-2010]
Louisiana Accents
Play videoA native of Louisiana demonstrates her understanding of the different accents in her home state, including the Cajun accent and the New Orleans accent.
Talk of the Town: Dontcha Hear the S.F. Lingo?
A local San Franciscan journalist makes a (not very linguistic) case for a unique San Francisco dialect.
The sexiest accents in North America
A 2013 article on nj.com reporting that the Jersey accent is one of the top five "sexiest" accents, according to a survey on cupid.com
eNCLLP: Charlotte
Play videoA clip from the documentary Voices of North Carolina on language in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bill Gates and the Pacific Northwest Accent
A blog post that includes a clip of Bill Gates, a native of Washington state, and attempts to dissect his Pacific Northwest accent.
Dude: Stanford Linguists Probe California Accent
Penelope Eckert and fellow researchers in California examine how English is spoken and perceived in different cities around the state in efforts to refute the stereotype that California English is accentless and homogenous.
Northern Cities Vowel Shift: How Americans in the Great Lakes Are Revolutionizing English
A 2012 Slate article on the Northern Cities Shift and the diversification of American regional dialects.