Accents are everywhere and it’s become normal to label them as we please. When people think of a British accent they automatically think of it as “sophisticated”. However, how do these accents actually affect society?

For as long as we can remember accents and dialect have existed everywhere around the world, especially in a place such as the United States which is filled with a variety of races and cultures.  La Joya Community High School itself has students coming from all different kinds of cultures. A majority of which are bilingual. The accent that a person has can impact how people see them. When someone meets a person who has a British accent, they get a different reaction in comparison to them meeting someone who has a southern accent. Think about how different accents are portrayed on television, they have a huge impact on the characterization of a person.

 A student majoring in Linguistics at ASU, Karina Alonso, described her point of view when asked if she thinks an accent can characterize a person.

She responded by stating “Definitely.  Although the person characterizes the accent, not the other way around because if you think about it we place our own accents because that’s the phonological system we have; how I can suddenly create another accent. Like, making my accent thicker or I can also make it in a way where it sounds more standard”.

If an accent can characterize a person, can it also be a bad thing? We’ve heard many words that end with “ism” such as racism however not many people know of the word “Linguicism”. Linguicism is discrimination to a person based on their dialect, language or accent. An example of this can be when people say that only a certain kind of people can speak “real” English. Linguicism can really affect the way people are treated and looked upon in society. Socioeconomic variation, Age Variation, Gender Variation and Ethnic Variation are all influences to the perception of accents.

In this way an accent can affect a person in a negative way but just like everything else there is always a positive side to it. Think about how many people out there say things like “I like your accent”. Although it may seem a little weird the fact is the more things people like about you the easier it is for you guys to get along, not to mention some accent are seen as incredibly charming in society. Places such as Hollywood take them into account when wanting to make a certain role appear a certain way.

When asked if “The perception of accents has changed over the years?” the student of ASU explained the change overtime.

“Where should I start” she said “the perception of accent is always changing. I’ll give an example, if we were to think back in the day when the world wasn’t as globalized, then foreign accent would mark an individual but nowadays even if we hear a foreign accent it’s not as marked. When I say “marked” I mean that it just sounds out of the ordinary. Nowadays we have people that are “marked” but it’s not seen as strange as it was before.”

Overtime perception along with the accents themselves have changed. And it’s really important to know how these accents make us appear to society as a whole whether it be in a negative way or a positive way. The final question given to the student attending ASU was

“What is your perception of accents in society?”

She responded it with this statement “I think they are one of the greatest influences in society that many people forget about.” Accents are everywhere although many people don’t pay much attention to them. They impact us a lot more than we think.