Published September 22, 2018
Can your dialect be affecting your authority and how people see you?
Grace Kahn
It is said that the first, most noticeable attribute of a person is how they talk. People tend to judge others very quickly and the way you speak is immensely important in the way people view you.
Accents play a large part of this. Accents stem from idiolect which is the way you talk based on parts of both your stable and master identities (personality, ethnicity, origins, social class, etc.). You might not think that any of these aspects of your life affect how people see you but you’d be mistaken. Having grown up in the southern United Stated, I have experienced the judgment of people based on how I talk. In the south, I was told by others around me that my accent didn’t sound right because I had a very subtle southern accent. When I moved to Abu Dhabi again, people said my accent didn’t sound right, but the complete opposite of what people back home said to me. My accent was too southern for them.
In most places, southern accents are viewed as less intelligent. This is somewhat due to the fact that people accept others with similar accents and look down on those who don’t. In a study in the U.S, children (5-6 years of age) from Chicago were shown recordings of southern, Tennessee and Chicago accents. When asked which one they would rather be friends with, almost all the children chose the Chicago accents. The same has been found for those in other countries such as England, where the southern accents are looked down upon (Fields, 2012). It’s become as common as air to discriminate against other accents.
While people are proud of their accents and nationality, lots of people with accents actively try and get rid of them for more respect in their jobs. “Newscaster voice” and “Pilot Voice” are terms used to talk about plain accents in certain industries. It is more professional as a pilot or a newscaster to not have an accent. Due to this, many take classes to learn how to hide their accents and code switch easily when in professional situations to give them more power and authority. Despite this, I think it is important for people to be proud of their accents and where they come from. With the increasing push for neutral accents in the hopes of authority, people should be able to have the same authority with whatever accent they choose to use.
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