New research is revealing our secret attitudes about accent.
Our brains show different patterns when listening to people with different accents, and it impacts our judgments on how credible or trustworthy we find the speaker. But why do we have different accents? And why would we change the way we talk around other people?
Linguist Daniel Midgley puts his laconic drawl to use on this week’s Talk the Talk.
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Listeners’ Brains Respond More to Native Accent Speakers
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101116205650.htm
Foreign Accents Make Speakers Seem Less Truthful to Listeners
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100719164002.htm
Empathy Correlates With Lighter Accent
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090810104931.htm
A bit about Estuary English, if you’re curious.
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/estuary/whatis.htm
And an article from a non-linguist about how accents are disappearing. The author bemoans the loss of some accents, but I think they’re still here, just changed.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3811397.ece
