so in my April Fool's Day video wait did
you not see that video okay well it's
actually not all that important for this
video but it still wears a watch but in
that video I made a parody of some of my
favorite small to medium sized
educational YouTube channels however two
of those creators are more or less
somewhat known for speaking with a
particular accent which kind of makes
impersonating someone a bit more
challenging
seriously I spent a weeks washing up and
adding videos to try to get her accent
right so what exactly are accents why do
some people talk differently even
despite having grown up speaking the
same language when talking about accents
there is certainly a lot to unpack for
one accents can hold a huge range of
preconceived stereotypes like how
British accents often sound civilized
her classy southern accents sound nice
but less and educated New York accents
sound rude Minnesotan accents sound
Canadian and how Australians all
basically sound like Steve Irwin to some
people for this reason you can imagine
that many linguists might be reluctant
to talk about accents when talking about
how people in New York and New South
Wales talk differently from those in
regular York and current South Wales so
that is actually because these groups
have different accents because they
speak different dialects of the English
language itself one thing that I learned
while researching this video which
really surprised me is the fact that
there are actually three different types
of accents the first are regional
accents these are everything from
British accents to New York accents to
Australian accents regional accents are
the easiest to confuse with dialects but
they are still different as a basic rule
of thumb a dialect is an entire segment
of a language where pronunciation
vocabulary phonology and even grammar
can be different whereas an accent just
refers to pronunciation basically a
dialect will care about how you spell
the word Tyre whereas accents only
really care about how strongly you
pronounce a last car sound in the word
dialects are basically the next level
down on the tree from full-on languages
but still a step up from accents put a
Brit and American and an Australian in a
room together and even though they won't
be talking the same way all joking aside
they'll understand each other perfectly
fine unless it comes down to a few
selected local slang terms but that can
happen anywhere the second type are
foreign accents these are definitely not
to begin
he is with dialects as they are
basically why you retain when you learn
a second language
if you've ever talked with someone whose
native language wasn't the language you
were speaking at the time they most
likely had some kind of accent since we
all grew up speaking radically different
languages with crazy different
phonologies this often leads to people
essentially speaking a foreign language
likely with their native language
por ejemplo cuando to my OS hablando en
espanol to probablemente no pienso que
era me primera lingua
I never even figured out how all my ARS
properly so if you hear a Turkish person
struggling to see the what instead
sounds just remember that you probably
can't really say that you know sounds
very easily either the third type are
class accents which kind of come me
off-guard when I found out about them
but it does make sense matter of fact it
plays pretty much perfectly into why
many of us consider some accents to
sound smarter or more prestigious than
others
now this isn't merely the stereotype of
accents sounding more posh than others
so much as certain accents kind of
actually being more posh another's some
accents are often associated with the
working class as they came up from
working class people think Bernie
Sanders is strong New York accent as he
was born into a working-class family in
nineteen forty one we should not have a
grotesque level of wealth inequality in
which three billionaires now own more
wealth than the bottom half of the
country someone born around that time in
place but to a much wealthier family
probably wouldn't be speaking with that
strong of an accent
however because accidents especially
regional accents here in North America
often have somewhat of a more negative
connotation attached to them it is said
that many in the younger generations are
starting to lose their accents this
isn't quite so true across the board but
it is more so in some regions that being
said things like New Yorkers being
portrayed in movies across the board as
thugs and criminals has an exactly done
wonders sort of preservation of their
accent there is also the prevalence of
the general American accent especially
in media as a kind of neutral dialect
for the entire continent the most
famously over-exaggerated instance of
this is the infamous newscasters voice
which doesn't sound like it comes from
anywhere in America because it is not
supposed to if you want to learn more
about why TV news anchors talk this way
check out awesome McConnell's video on
the stop
the general American accent is
especially popular in American and
Canadian media as it is intended to be
queer and easy for everyone to
understand something I should really be
working more on in my videos general
American isn't really an American accent
so much as a lack of any regional
accents that's just supposed to be
generally American it's supposed to
sound like you don't have an accent at
all even though technically speaking
without necks and it's kind of like
writing without cotton it's next cent
that's not supposed to have a southern
twang or New York SWAT val
just something for the whole continent
easily understand and relate to my
accent as is the case with most
Americans is more or less like general
American but there are still a few
regional isms in my speech because I'm
actually from somewhere well granted I
did grow up somewhere else so I guess
I'm not truly from anywhere specific in
the States but okay next topic
nevertheless accents are inherently
regional which of course has made them
famously convenient for actors even if
they clearly don't speak was the accent
their character does when done right it
can add authenticity to the character if
it's even noticeable at all when done
not so right though well best-case
scenario your performance becomes a
laughingstock on toward it for the next
two weeks when an actor is imitating one
specific person though like Meryl Streep
with Margaret Thatcher or even myself
with Jade from up in Adam and Emma from
DSM one of you linguist they are
imitating what is known as an idiot in
idiolect goes more specific than an
accent or dialect as it refers to person
specific pronunciations and mannerisms
something I probably completely failed
in this is actually something I kept in
mind for all six of the creators i
impersonated even the Americans since
people are their own specific things and
often don't like being placed in
specific boxes all the while placing
everyone else in specific boxes everyone
of course has a different way of talking
in idiolect can therefore refer to not
just how the person in question says a
word but what they say even more
specifically than what their dialect
tells them to say for example saying
yard sale or garage sale or rummage sale
are all dialectal things whereas my late
grandpa Jack calling them garbage sales
was an idio Actos thing basically it's
like your own personal accent people
also change your accents all the time
whether it be to try to fit in better
with a group or to try to avoid
preconceived stare
types or depending on the specific
situation as these changes don't even
have to be permanent
some people do change directions
permanently some people just switch
between two different accents depending
on whatever situation they find
themselves in some people just prefer to
stick to their own accent and some
people just shouldn't try accents thank
you as always for watching this video
and I hope it helped teach you a bit
about what accents really are and how
they work if you enjoyed this video
please give it a like share it and
consider supporting the channel on
patreon if you are able to to help us
all learn something new every Sunday