LL-L "Accents" 2005.02.22 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 22.FEB.2005 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
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From:  Ian James Parsley <ian at ianjamesparsley.net>
Subject: Accents

Grietje,

No offence taken! In fact you are quite correct. The 'Ulster accent' (i.e.
Northern Ireland, but including most of the northwestern county of Donegal
in the Republic) is quite harsh-sounding to most ears, whereas the 'Southern
Irish' accent is usually seen as romantic and fun.

What can you do? :)))

However, I have not heard of this in UK call centres.
Certainly TV commercials often use Southern Irish accents (whereas Northern
Ireland accents are very rare), even for things that apply to the UK or even
to Great Britain only.

It appears, however, that in fact the Geordie (i.e. the area around
Newcastle upon Tyne) and Southern Welsh accents are preferred by UK
call-centre operators. Or Indian, but that's another matter...!

Best,
Ian P. (in Northern Ireland)

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Accents

Hey, Ian, Grietje, Lowlanders!

To get back to Sandy's initial question, is there actually something *in*
Northern Ireland accents that makes them sound strident, something
phonological?  Or, to repeat my proposal, is it just another matter of
mental association, such as "People of Northern Ireland are
aggressive/trouble/threatening, while people of the rest of Ireland are
friendly/fun/non-threatening"?  Of course, if I called it "prejudice" or
"stereotyping" instead of "mental association" no one would want to admit
it.  But, let's face it, we all have our simplified (= stereotyping) mental
associations with things, though most of us are careful not to allow them to
come to the fore.

To give you another example, a rather extreme one ... A woman that worked in
my vicinity in Israel simply could not stand being around German accents,
leave alone German language ... and I guess we don't need to get into the
reasons for this.  I had been warned and always made sure I stayed out of
earshot of her whenever I spoke.  However, once in a while the lady would
have to interact with community members that had immigrated there from
German-speaking areas during or after WW II, and she would either "freak out
quietly" or overcompensate by acting aggressively toward the speakers.  The
recipients of her gruff or aggressive behavior included a friend of mine, a
very lovely, mild-mannered and kind elderly German-born lady who wouldn't
harm a fly.  This really alarmed me at first, feeling protective of the
latter, but I came to understand that she and everyone else just worked
around it and didn't take it personally.  Of course, this goes also for the
post-war association with German accents in the British, American, Canadian
and French media, "weird" or "evil genius" being the best you could hope
for.  I don't think that the perceived unpleasantness has anything to do
with actual phonology.

Similar things happen right now in the popular media with Arabic language
and with Arabic (or made-up generic Middle Eastern) accents; they are
supposed to evoke something sinister, untrustworthy.  Apparently, this is a
big problem for lots of immigrants and probably means that people with such
accents are not exactly on the favorite list at call centers.

(Oh, and I noticed that there are no more Arabic announcements on the trains
at SeaTac Airport, just Japanese, Chinese and English ones ...)

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
(back in Seattle)

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