TESOL – Clearing Customs

Looks like my See ‘n Say needs a regional update.

When a woman from Nevada asked the folks at How to Do Everything, “How would a person moo in a British accent?” the hosts of the podcast looked to none other than Sir Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek and X-Men fame). He turned out to be a good choice, as discerning between cattle accents seems to be one of his areas of expertise. “In England,” he says, “we’re dominated by class, by social status, and by location.” And, according to Stewart, it’s the same for cows, too.

But while Stewart’s imitations of cows from West Oxfordshire, cows from Yorkshire, Cockney cows, urban cows, and well-bred cows were done with a mock earnestness, animal accents is a legitimate field of study. And there are no shortage of specialists—particularly in Great Britain—who take animal accents very seriously. Seriously indeed:

Goats say . . .

[Researchers] found that a goats’ “accent” changed as they grew older and moved in different groups, disproving claims that their voices were entirely genetic.

The team, from Queen Mary University of London, said their findings are the first to suggest that most mammals can develop an accent from their surroundings.

The findings have caused great excitement in the science community amid suggestions that “if goats can do it, maybe all mammals accents can be affected by their surroundings.”

(“Goats ‘Can Develop Their Own Accents,’” The Telegraph, February 16, 2012)

Dogs say . . .

The woof guide found Scouse and Scottish pets have the most distinctive growl—but there were differences in tone and pitch across the country.

Tracey Gudgeon, of the Canine Behaviour Centre in Cumbria, said: “It seems dogs are more able to imitate stronger, more distinctive accents than softer ones. It’s one of the ways they bond with their owner.” Idea for the research came with today’s re-release of 1955 Disney classic Lady and The Tramp on a special edition DVD.

The study even found some dogs have “posh” accents—just like Lady in the animated film. A delighted Disney spokesman said: ‘It seems we were right all along.”

(“Exclusive: Experts Say Dogs Growl with Regional Accents,” Mirror, February 13, 2006)

Cows say . . .

Cows have regional accents like humans, language specialists have suggested.

They decided to examine the issue after dairy farmers noticed their cows had slightly different moos, depending on which herd they came from.

Farmer Lloyd Green, from Glastonbury, said: “I spend a lot of time with my ones and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.

“I’ve spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds.”

(“Cows Also ‘Have Regional Accents,'” BBC News, August 23, 2006)

Apes say . . .

Gibbons have regional accents, a new study suggests. While not a sexy Southern drawl, these accents can help scientists identify the species of gibbon singing and where they are from.

“Each gibbon has its own variable song but, much like people, there is a regional similarity between gibbons within the same location,” lead researcher Van Ngoc Thinh, from the Primate Genetics Laboratory at the German Primate Center, said in a statement.

(Jennifer Welsh, “Singing in the Rain Forest: Gibbons Have Accents,” LiveScience, February 7, 2011)

Bats say . . .

Researcher Brad Law of the Forest Science Center found that bats living in the forests along the east coast of the state of New South Wales had different calls.

He said scientists had long suspected bats had distinctive regional calls—as studies have shown with some other animals—but this was the first time it had been proven in the field.

(“Australian Scientists Find Bats Have Regional Accents,” Reuters, September 13, 2010)

Whales say . . .

Dalhousie Ph.D. student Shane Gero has recently returned from a seven-week visit to Dominica. He has been traveling to the Caribbean island since 2005 to study families of sperm whales, usually spending two to four months of each year working on the Dominica Sperm Whale Project. One of the goals of this project is to record and compare whale calls over time, examining the various phrases and dialects of sperm whale communities.

When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as “codas.” Recent findings suggest that not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents.

(“Whales Have Accents and Regional Dialects: Biologists Interpret the Language of Sperm Whales,” May 12, 2011)

Dolphins say . . .

Dolphins on the east and west coasts of Scotland have different “accents.”

White-beaked dolphins use a complex system of tail slaps, whistles and clicks which were believed to be common among the species. But expert Olivia Harries said: “They use different clicks on the east coast than those on the west coast.”

(“Study Reveals Dolphins on Scotland’s East and West Coasts Have Different ‘Accents,'” Daily Record, November 9, 2013)

Birds say . . .

The [yellowhammer’s] song differs in terms of pitch and tone, especially in the final part, depending on where an individual bird is found. Birds can also add in various “phrases” to their song, according to their dialect.

Experts believe that dialects can be so thick they may hinder the chances of birds breeding with partners from other areas.

(Jasper Copping, “Britain’s Birds Boast a Colourful Array of Regional Accents,” The Telegraph, May 19, 2013)

City Birds say . . .

A group of scientists from Aberystwyth University studying the great tit’s dulcet tones have discovered that the birds sing their songs at a higher pitch in built-up areas to help them travel further. . . .

Researchers from the West Wales university, working alongside colleagues in Copenhagen, have found that it is the buildings that are changing the way birds sing in cities. . . .

“Our cities are packed with reflective surfaces, open spaces and narrow channels, which you just don’t get in woodland,” said researcher Emily Mockford. . . . “The higher notes mean the echoes disappear faster and the next note is clearer.”

(“Urban Birds Find Their Voice with a New Kind of Twitter,” Wales Online, December 13, 2011)

and Ducks say . . .

“Cockney” ducks from London make a rougher sound, not unlike their human counterparts, so their fellow quackers can hear them above the city’s hubbub. But their Cornish cousins communicate with a softer, more relaxed sound, the team from Middlesex University found.

(“Ducks ‘Quack in Regional Accents,’” BBC News, June 4, 2004)

So, what are the practical ramifications of all these findings? I’m not quite sure, but I have come up with one thing: Whenever you’re faced with that crucial question of our time, “What does the fox say?” you should reply, “That depends on where the fox is from.”

[photo: “See ‘N Say,” by Chris Murphy, used under a Creative Commons license]

I was recently wondering what kind of voice I’d like best on my GPS. I don’t really trust the computerized lady who currently gives me directions. She too often leads me down closed roads. If I had my choice (and by that, I mean if I were willing to pay for it), I’d like to have a nice, polite lady or gentleman from England telling me where to turn, and calmly repeating, “Recalculating,” with a proper British accent.

That got me to thinking about my response to people with “foreign” accents. Do my prejudices keep me from fully trusting non-native speakers of English? I would like to think, No, I’m a global citizen, and I don’t judge the truthfulness of what is said by how it is said. But research from the University of Chicago, published in 2010, suggests that I probably don’t know myself very well, and it all has little to do with prejudice.

Researchers Shiri Lev-Ari and Boaz Keysar conducted two experiments, testing their hypothesis that “processing difficulty,” or how hard it is to understand a spoken communication, plays a major role in judging the credibility of non-native speech. (The pair cite other examples of how “processing fluency” has been shown to influence believability, such as a phrase being chosen as more accurate because it rhymes, or judging a sentence more truthful because it is printed in an easy-to-read color.)

In the first experiment, Lev-Ari and Keysar had subjects listen to spoken trivia statements (e.g.: A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can) and then judge their truthfulness. Those speaking the statements were native-English speakers and non-native speakers with mild to heavy accents. In order to eliminate the effects of possible prejudice, the experimenters made it clear that the statements were not original to the speakers but that the speakers were simply reading out loud what had been given to them. As the researchers had predicted, the participants rated the statements spoken with an accent as less truthful, with the native speech producing the most credibility, and the heavily accented the least.

The second experiment furthered the results by testing whether the outcome would be affected if the participants were told up front that the exercise was studying the impact of accent on credibility. (In the first experiment, the subjects had been told that they were helping in the evaluation of “intuition in knowledge assessment.”) With this understanding, the participants tried to overcome the effects of processing difficulty, resulting in nearly identical rates of perceived truthfulness for statements spoken with native and mild accents. But when it came to heavily accented statements, even these enlightened participants rated them significantly less truthful.

So what does this tell us about communication between native and non-native speakers? First, difficulties in understanding play a major role in perceived credibility, even in the absence of prejudice. Second, even when we completely understand what is being said, an unnoticed difficulty in processing can impact our judgments of truthfulness. And third, a heavy accent can overcome even our best efforts at being fair and impartial.

This means that having no cultural prejudices (if that’s even possible) is not enough to eliminate unfair judgments. Maybe knowing this will give us a reason to show extra grace to the non-native speakers we encounter. And it can also help us better understand the inherent difficulties we face when attempting to communicate in another language: It’s just simply harder for our listeners to believe what we say when we say it with an accent. But we can take heart in this fact: It’s probably nothing personal.

(Shiri Lev-Ari and Boaz Keysar, “Why Don’t We Believe Non-Native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, June 25, 2010)

[photo: “Incredulous Me,” by Toby Keller, used under a Creative Commons license]

Tag: TESOL

If You Could Talk to the Animals . . . You’d Know They Have Accents, Too

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