bibliographic query about meanings and ideologies of accent

[Alan Rumsey]

Related to the current discussion of accent on this list, but arising 
from another source, I have a query about writings on the meanings / 
ideological refractions of 'accent'. I am asking this on behalf of a 
bright Thai student who has done good work on pop music in Burma that is 
composed and performed by singers from the Shan region who pronounce  
and sing in Burmese with a Shan (northern-Thai-like) accent. This is 
apparently a big factor in their reception by 'mainstream'  Burmans, who 
find it 'simple', 'cute', etc. The student is looking for theoretical 
frameworks in terms of which to understand this. I am going to refer her 
to Irvine and Gal's marvelous stuff on iconization, fractal recursivity  
and erasure, but can any of you refer me to work that has been 
specifically on 'accent' within that framework, or another 
anthropologically sophisticated one? (A huge among of variationist 
sociolinguistics has of course been about 'accent' in some sense, but 
tends to under-interpret it from an anthropological viewpoint).

Thanks in advance for your help on this one.

Alan

Alan Rumsey
Senior Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT 0200
Australia
http://rspas.anu.edu.au/people/personal/rumsa_ant.html