LL-L "Accents" 2005.02.24 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 24.FEB.2005 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Gary Taylor <gary_taylor_98 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Accents


Hi Ron and all

you wrote

"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."

I tend to be inclined to think that it is to do with stereotyping. Living in
Germany but not being German I've heard a lot of different German accents,
without having the prejudices about different regions which native Germans
have. For me the nicest German accents are the southern ones (I live in
Berlin) - and yes this includes Schwäbisch, which no German outside of
Swabia seems to like. I don't necessarily find them easier to understand,
they just sound somehow more pleasant. Sachsen dialects are also fairly
pleasing, again going against what the majority of Germans would say. I
don't however find the North German accent (when speaking High German)
particularly pleasing - sorry. I also know people who have lost their Berlin
accents and now speak 'accentless' High German. I think it's probably bias
here, but I much prefer the Berlin accent to the 'accentless' one. (Of
course I am making generalisations here - there are other factors such as
who's speaking the different dialects which will also make a difference).

Coming from London, the majority of Brits (at least outside of London) don't
really like my accent. However being here in Germany, when I've spoken to
Germans in English they always say how nice my London accent is - and to
hear a compliment from a German should not be taken lightly...

When I was at uni in England one of my lecturers asked the fairly
international group which languages they considered beautiful and which were
ugly and it was interesting to see what people thought. Germans tend to like
Dutch - I (sorry really don't want to offend huge swathes of Lowlanders)
personally don't find Dutch too attractive - too many g/ch sounds which
automatically to my ears sound ugly. The Swedish people in the group tended
to think that Finnish was ugly - again, I differed, I find Finnish somehow
'cute' (not meaning to be patronising), and thus pleasant. I think
practically the whole group agreed though that Italian was a beautiful
language - possibly because of it's sing-song feel???

Anyway, just a few thoughts


Gary :)

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

Hi, Gary, and thanks for the above!

> and yes this includes Schwäbisch, which no German outside of
> Swabia seems to like.

Hmmm ...  I wasn't aware of that.  At least when I was growing up most
people considered Swabian accents amusing in a "cute," "provincial" sort of
way, particularly the "unusual," drawn-out diphthongs (like [ai:] and
[au:]).  Much of this applied to Allemannic in general, I thought.

> The Swedish people in the group tended to think that Finnish was ugly -
again, ...

Again based on associations, prejudices, I guess.  Most other people tend to
not have any particular mental "godd"- or "bad"-type images of Finns, only
associate the language with "outlandish," very long written words containing
"weird" digraphs like <ää>, <öö> and <yy>.

>  think practically the whole group agreed though that Italian was a
beautiful
> language - possibly because of it's sing-song feel???

This could be based on preconceived ideas too, at least in part -- singing
(opera), _bella Italia_, etc.

However, there appears to be a tendency for people to prefer languages in
which syllables of the type CV predominate (C = consonant, V = vowel).  This
is the syllable structure (as still very well preserved in certain African,
Australian and Polynesian languages) that some have tried to argue is the
"basic," or "original" type, other types being derivatives, contractions
(CV+CV > CVC, CV+CV+CV > CVCC, etc., also CV+CV > CCV, etc.).  There seem to
be indications that this tendency toward contraction and thus toleration of
rhymes of the types VC, VCC, VCCC, etc., having developed (e.g., German
_gabala_ > _Gabel_ 'fork', _giwâti_ > _Gewand_ 'dress', 'attire',
_anabetâri_ > _Anbeter_ 'worshipper').  Syllable-final and word-final
consonants tend to be perceived as being "harsh," "severe," "abrupt," etc.,
especially where these final consonants are not liquids (/l/, /r/) or nasals
(/m/, /n/, /N/) or at least continuants (/v/, /f/, /s/, /z/).   Of course,
this is perceived as being more unpleasant among speakers of languages that
are closer to the supposed CV ideal (e.g., Finnish, Italian, Spanish,
Japanese, Tungusic, Polynesian).

I don't want to appear "holier than thou" when I say that I have never ever
come across a language or accent that I find unpleasant to hear.  I truly
believe that such perceptions are mostly connected with images of the
speakers' communities, histories and cultures, as well as to attributed
"national characters," and their perceived relationships with the listeners'
communities.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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