Dr Anand Sastry
Recently, I came across an interesting definition of the word ‘Accent.’
In sociolinguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.
An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside (a regional or geographical accent), the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class (a social accent), or influence from their first language (a foreign accent).
In simple words, an accent is a way of pronouncing a language. It is therefore impossible to speak without an accent.
Differing tones
Accents typically differ in quality of the voice, pronunciation and distinction of vowels and consonants, stress, and prosody.
Although grammar, semantics, vocabulary, and other language characteristics often vary concurrently with accent, the word ‘accent’ may refer specifically to the differences in pronunciation, whereas the word ‘dialect’ encompasses the broader set of linguistic differences. Often ‘accent’ is a subset of ‘dialect.’
Differing behaviours
The reason behind languages developing different accents is the human nature.
In all sorts of ways, we behave like those we mix with.
We are members of social groups, and within our social group we like to behave in similar ways and show that we belong. We do this in language as well as in other ways (such as our dressing and eating habits).
I have had many interesting experiences with accents and dialects.
My mother was a great storyteller and a reasonably popular writer of short stories in Kannada in the 1970s and 1980s and wrote plays for All India Radio.
Differing dialects
As my sister and I were growing up, our mother would tell us interesting stories of her sisters who lived in different parts of India and how her nephews and nieces had developed various accents and interesting dialects.
Whenever all of us met in Bangalore during our school holidays, there was an interesting display of accents and dialects in our day to day conversations.
Here are a few examples to explain the matter.
‘Little England’
We had older cousins who lived in Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) near Bangalore and studied in Anglo-Indian schools. It was a small mining town and KGF was owned more than a century by John Taylor and Sons Company, a British Mining Firm.
It was well known for its colonial ambience and was often called ‘Little England,’ due to its British and Anglo-Indian population.
My uncle was a Chartered Accountant in KGF and the family lived a luxurious lifestyle in a sprawling bungalow with a beautiful garden and domestic helpers.
My cousins were well-mannered and spoke impeccable English.
Popular ‘Inglish’
They had an interesting accent and at times spoke an interesting dialect, a mixture of Telugu and English.
I once heard a cousin saying, “Tap Turn Chesi, Water Drink Cheyyi” (Turn on the tap and drink water)!”
We had cousins who lived in Maharashtra. They spoke with a Marathi accent.
My sister and I were probably influenced by North Kanara and later Goan culture, and could have developed an interesting Konkani with an accent and prolonged nasal twang (!) unknowingly.
Some of our cousins lived in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with distinct Tamil and Telugu accents respectively.
Gidday Mate!
Several years later, when my wife and I moved with our daughter to New Zealand, the process of acculturation was gradual.
Interestingly, a part of this process was inadvertently picking up the Kiwi way of speaking English and use of colloquial terms in our day-to-day conversations.
Here are a few examples:
‘Sweet as’ (meaning great), ‘Pressie’ (present), Cuzzie or Cuz (cousin), Heaps (lots), Bro (brother of friend), Good on Ya Mate (well done).
During the process of acculturation, I became fascinated with accents and dialects and their development. I was curious to understand why and how the British, Irish and Scottish accents transformed into American, New Zealand, Australian and Canadian accents over the years.
Old & New dialects
I learnt that the British colonists established their first permanent settlement in Virginia, in 1607, sounding like their countrymen back home.
By the time the first recordings were done of the British and American accents three centuries later in 1800s, the accents and dialects of the Old World and the New World had dramatically changed.
Over time the so called ‘Received Pronunciation’ gradually changed to American accent.
Linguists speculate that the Native Indian accent could have also played a role in shaping the American accent.
The Australian English began to diverge from British English after the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788. The British English morphed into Australian English due to the intermingling of early settlers from a variety of dialectical regions of the British Isles and developed into a distinct variety of English. Some elements of Aboriginal languages have also been adopted by Australian English.
Similarly, the most distinctive influences on New Zealand English have come from
Australian English, English in Southern England, Irish and Scottish English, ‘the Received Pronunciation’ and Maori ( spoken by the indigenous population) .
It has indeed been an interesting journey for me from North Canara to Goa to NZ, from “Nevuu Hengiddiri” to “Tu Koso Asa” to “How are Ya Mate!”
Dr Anand Sastry is Director, Area Mental Health Services and Clinical Head, Acute Adult Mental Health Services at Counties Manukau Health. He is also Facilitator of the ‘Mindfulness Workshop’ of Art of Living.
