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I Killed My Southern Accent and a Piece of Myself With It
JezebelMy voice screamed out my class status and everything I was trying to leave behind, I thought. Now I want it all back.
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The farther you are from home, the more likely people will notice your way of speaking is different than theirs. Which of course leaves you more likely to pick up on the quirks and cadences of their voices, even if they claim to have “no accent.” (As if there’s such a thing.)
These accents, noticed or not, can signal things we’re eager to share or hide, celebrate or play down. If anything, speaking differently than those around you is a sign of bravery and adventure—of a story that sits beneath subtle variations in pronunciation and word choice. We’ve gathered some of these stories here, from the plight of losing your accent to the mismatch between voice-activated technology and non-American voices. Read on to explore how our ways of speaking can connect, reveal, and betray us.
Image by Serhii Vakulenchyk / Getty Images
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American Tests
LongreadsIn her quest to become truly American, Jakki Kerubo discovers what it means to belong in a place.
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When Did Americans Lose Their British Accents?
Mental FlossThe absence of audio recording technology makes “when” a tough question to answer. But there are some theories as to “why.”
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Moses Speaks Spanglish
The RevealerBilingual and torn between identities, this writer imagines Moses as a proto-Latinx figure.
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Voice Is the Next Big Platform, Unless You Have an Accent
WIREDIt’s super funny that Alexa can’t understand my mom—until we need Alexa to use the web, drive a car, and do pretty much anything else.
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What Makes Us Subconsciously Mimic the Accents of Others in Conversation
The ConversationWe often imitate styles of speech we hear—what’s known as ‘linguistic convergence.’ But a researcher wanted to see if we alter our speech based on the mere expectation of how someone will sound.
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7 of the Best Dialect Quizzes
SlateIf you’re feeling particularly nationalistic, or just want to see how consistently you speak like your friends and neighbors, here are all the dialect...
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‘I’ve Lost My Identity’: On the Mysteries of Foreign Accent Syndrome
MIT Press ReaderWhat is it that makes individuals suffering from FAS sound like foreign speakers of their native language?