2009/02/07 New York
Hello
Social climbing
“Hello. This voice I speak with these days, this English voice with its rounded vowels and consonants in more or less the right place—this is not the voice of my childhood. I picked it up in college, along with the unabridged Clarissa and a taste for port. Maybe this fact is only what it seems to be—a case of bald social climbing—but at the time I genuinely thought this was the voice of lettered people, and that if I didn't have the voice of lettered people I would never truly be lettered.”
These are the first sentences of an interesting article by Zadie Smith in the NYRB.
Accent probably reveals class. An accent is always revealing. As a teenager I was fearful of speaking Dutch with a fancy accent, I was afraid that this fancy accent would reveal a lack of solidarity with the workers.
[ Add comment ]
23 comments 
And, my love, what is your accent revealing nowadays?
Do you envy the ones that speak with an upperclass, English accent? Or do you strive for a plain, American accent that offends no one.
Do you envy the ones that speak with an upperclass, English accent? Or do you strive for a plain, American accent that offends no one.
Mieke
Regarding accent: My goal is summarized in the great television series “Allo! Allo!”See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkz1ecxrQO4
Once, after Laura had asked me several times what she sounded like when she tried to speak my native language, I played her a short video featuring officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo.
Arnon
You are succeeding just fine.A friend of mine, who has an impecable standardized accent, once asked my why I always spoke like Bavo Claes (a famous Belgian newsanchor). I never even spoke with an accent when I was with friends.
I had to tell him we were raised that way, plus the fact that I didn't like the sound of accents. He asked me if I felt if it made me better than people with an accent and I didn't know. Once a teacher said "you should never learn to speak a dialect, for it is an other language and with all second languages you'll mix 'm up. It's better to speak one language flawlessly than to speak many crooked."
I am still fond of this teacher, but I do make an effort to speak with accents. I quite love the sound now. Escpecially the grammatical structures that come with it.
I had to tell him we were raised that way, plus the fact that I didn't like the sound of accents. He asked me if I felt if it made me better than people with an accent and I didn't know. Once a teacher said "you should never learn to speak a dialect, for it is an other language and with all second languages you'll mix 'm up. It's better to speak one language flawlessly than to speak many crooked."
I am still fond of this teacher, but I do make an effort to speak with accents. I quite love the sound now. Escpecially the grammatical structures that come with it.
I also change registers of speech, not because I care to be identified with this or that class, rather to be more comprehensible. Also because it enables me to dive deeper into others' realms. Capote does is with stories because it seems he couldn't change his intonation.
Accents in all their variety should be preserved
The more the better
Without accents no 'My Fair Lady' and no comedians
The more the better
Without accents no 'My Fair Lady' and no comedians
Dounia
Yes, monoculturalism. Boredom.otherwise, I meant.
Neria
Mono combined with culture is already a contradiction as I see it, so it's bound to fail.And yes, it's boring!
Oscar
Is officer Crabtree your favorite character in “allo! allo!”?Arnon
Yes, probably so. I also like Madame Fanny la Fan.Dounia
:) I don't know why, but the loss of languages troubles me most (shouldn't loss of flavours etc trouble me too?). I'm not a dictionary but I think a monoculture is a culture, but we both want many monocultures to persist while exchanging information with one another.After leaving my hometown I suppressed my slight accent /dialect for class reasons, too, as I didn't want people to recognize me having an East German working-class background when I moved to North Rhine-Westphalia. These days I try to get some "Plattdütsch" (Low German) back into my active vocabulary. Code-switching is a nice method to express familiarity and belonging.
Neria
I am not a dictionary eitherJuliane
Möse! Are you an Ossi?Dounia
Wonderful :) So you're ready to converse without a need to dominate anyone :)Arnon
Yes, I'm an Ossi. Sort of. I've been to young to be a Pionier (I was five years old in November 1989) but I have a proper Arbeiter- und Bauern-background and I know all those symbols (e.g. the Ampelmännchen) and comestibles (e.g. Vita-Cola) people like to mention in the course of the so-called "Ostalgie". It seems to be an essential characteristic of a genuine Ossi to be fond of Schlager Süßtafel or filterless Karo Cigarettes.My mother felt quite at ease with the GDR, and my father once said "Let's face it. If it were possible, you would take Honni back anytime."
Nonetheless, according to what most Germans have in mind when using the termin "Ossi" I'm not a proper one, that is to say someone speaking Sächsisch (the Saxon dialect).
Neria
When did I give an impression of wanting to dominate anyone for that matter??Juliane
If your father likes Honi you must be an Ossi.Dounia
You didn't! These days it's not a trait which should be left unacknowledged :)arnon
I think you've overcome your desire to appear as someone who is solidary with the workersNeria
You confuse me. But I always return a smile with a smile, so : )[ Add comment ]
