Pitzer in the News 2006-2007 Academic Year

Professor Carmen Fought Quoted in San Jose Mercury News

How accents define us
THOSE WHO SOUND TOO DIFFERENT FACE SOCIAL OR CAREER BARRIERS
By Mike Swift
Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:04/15/2007 01:30:10 AM PDT

[excerpt]

Preconceived notions

Americans categorize people by how their speech measures up to a dominant standard, say linguists, even though often the listener is really applying beliefs about race, gender, class, and culture - even religion.

"You don't have to have a foreign accent. If a blond woman comes up to you and starts talking to you in a strong Southern accent, tell me you don't have preconceptions," said Rosina Lippi, a linguist and the author of "English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States." "We all have these ideas of `good' and `bad' language, which are all wrong."

Linguists say objective English pronunciation is a myth. A person from Peoria, they say, does not speak better English than someone from Australia, Ireland, Alabama, Jamaica - or, perhaps, Taiwan.

But almost everyone stereotypes by accent.

"If somebody speaks with a heavy Mexican accent, that's viewed as a negative," said Carmen Fought, a sociolinguist at Pitzer College in Claremont. "But if someone speaks with a heavy French accent because they are from Paris, it's not viewed the same way."

What's really in play, Fought said, are stereotyped beliefs about France (the Louvre) and Mexico (illegal immigrants).