Problems with accent

In some societies, a “standard” accent is defined that carries particular prestige in that society; it may or may not be an accent that is widely spoken within the society, and sometimes its prestige comes solely from its association with a specific real or theoretical group within the society.

**PUT ON BOARD “RP” = RECEIVED PRONOUNCIATION

In the United Kingdom, for example, the so-called Received Pronunciation (or RP for short) of English is established as the most prestigious accent, although only about three percent of the people within the UK actually speak with that accent. This is the accent of the British aristocracy and upper classes.

People want to sound like those they admire. Many English speakers admire British culture and history and try to imitate the RP accent in particular. I have even heard it in the English of a number of people from other countries who study abroad. They have an extraordinarily thick British accent for non-native speakers.

Often the standard accent is simply the most widely spoken accent in a group; that is, the one that is least likely to be perceived as “different". An example is General American English, an accent (defined somewhat less rigidly than RP) that is spoken to a greater or lesser extent by many native speakers of English in North America.

The General American accent is not thought of as a linguistic standard in the sense that Received Pronunciation (RP) has historically been the standard, prestige variant in England, but its speakers are perceived as " accentless" by most Americans.

General American is also the accent generally taught to individuals from other countries learning English as a second language in the United States, as well as outside the country to anyone who wishes to learn " American English." And, in general, this is the accent that I speak with.

Accents, in particular, also show up often in different socio-economic classes. This is very obvious in the English, Liverpool and Cockney accents, but also in the street speak of the lower classes and working classes in the major cities of the U.S. People all react differently to these accents. If you don’t speak the working class street accent in a bar in the U.S. where this is more common, someone might actually laugh at you.

Some foreign accents are considered " sexy, " such as French-accented English. With American culture perceived to be on the rise in much of the world many youths in non-Western cultures seek to assimilate American accents as a sign of social status. In these countries a Western accent may be quickly associated with social and economic success.

Again, pronunciation seems in general to be more sensitive to regional and social differences than grammar and vocabulary so we make a distinction between accent and dialect, with accent referring to nothing but pronunciation and dialect referring to every other aspect of language.