Accents and their effects

How come I find Dr Phil's accent nice to listen to but Dubya's terrible?

>>Bubbler, what I'm referring is the general liberal tendency to ask the government for everything, including protecting them against themselves, and the tendency to assume that the general person, first, doesn't know what they want, and second, cannot be trusted to really make decisions for themselves, rather than actually seeking to determine ones destiny for oneself, both on an individual level than on a collective level.

I wholly agree. <Shivers> Could it be we're on the same page?

Well, mind you that while I may have similar views with one, such as this, that does not mean I necessarily *go in the same direction with* such views, in practice. I am not a liberal, and I am not a big-L Libertarian or "anarchocapitalism" either; just because I am strongly anti-statist does not mean I am pro-free market in the least, one must remember (just in case you are thinking this).

I don't think Dr. Phil's accent would cause anyone to believe he's ignorant or reactionary or a religious fundamentalist, because he's obviously none of those. However, I don't like him because I don't like his type of TV program generally.

Frances,

<< How come I find Dr Phil's accent nice to listen to but Dubya's terrible? >>

(1) They aren't the same; and

(2) One person sounds sensible and the other doesn't.

Ack, that should be "anarchocapitalist" above.

Travis, you assume too much. I always say (or write), or at least strive to say (or write), exactly what I mean. You need not concern yourself that I'm holding back some thoughts. Although, I am entirely confused by your being anti-free market AND anti-statist. In your ideal world, what/who runs the economy?

P.S. One must not always address one as "one" in discussion. That is what "we're" having, right?

Deborah - true, there is a bias in my mind to sensibility but maybe its just the tone of voice or the fact that W does more press releases that are broadcast and it sounds unnatural

Frances:

It might have something to do with the fact that George Bush is not "really" Texan - he comes from an old, rich New England family, and that's where he was educated. When he first ran for Congress in the 70s, he lost, in part, because he was painted as a rich New Englander.

Lazar and anyone else - would the fact that his father (and presumably) have an impact on W accent, being not from Texas?

Surely it would, children from parents who don't come from an English speaking background carry some accent when speaking English, so I was wondering if translocation across the US or having parents not from the state where they settle and their children would have some impact.

"Surely it would, children from parents who don't come from an English speaking background carry some accent when speaking English"

Do you mean really little children who really haven't been in school that long yet? Because at least here it's very common for kids to be the first generation born in the US, with immigrant parents, but the kids have no trace of their parents' accent in their speech, speaking English like everyone else. In terms of native-English speakers and parents' influence on kids...I think the kids will generally speak similarly to their parents, at least until the teen or even pre-teen years, when fitting in is so important and subconscious linguistic imitation a crucial part of that. I have a friend here whose parents are originally from the UK, and he said in his early years he spoke like them (he said they have a Scouser accent) even tho he was born and raised in San Diego. By this point he sounds like any other San Diegan.

A less extreme example of moving around is my parents, who were born and raised in California, altho we as a family didn't move here till I was 11, having lived in a couple different states (including Texas). Apparently I never picked up any specifically Texan forms (I should point out, tho, that in Dallas where I lived, non-Texan accents were quite common, maybe even the norm in some situations), as when we moved to California, people here found it hard to believe I had come from Texas because they said I had "no accent" (of course I now know that everyone has an accent, they just meant I sounded like them). Having spent all my adolescence here in California, my speech has shifted somewhat from the California English of my parents' generation (arguably somewhat closer to GenAm, tho they have stuff like the "cot-caught" merger too, so it's GenAm modified) to some of the more recent patterns associated with young people here (the presence of the California Vowel Shift in my speech, as I've mentioned in other posts), something which probably wouldn't've happened if we hadn't moved here.

Anyone else have any multi-state or even multi-country experiences growing up? I'd be interested seeing what the implications could be on different people's accents depending on where they lived, how long they were there, whether they moved while little or older, etc.

Kirk:

One important reason immigrant children end up speaking "just like anyone else" is indeed the socializing effect of the public school system.

However, the English-speaking children of non-English or second-language English speaking parents HAVE contributed to the creation of unique English accents and dialects.

Case in point: Irish English where Gaelic speakers brought both idioms and phonetics with them into English from their first language. Generations on, even though their descendants are now mostly only English speaking, these Gaelic borrowings have crystallized into the particular dialects of English spoken in Ireland.

I think Indian English deserves far more attention in this regard. The evolution of Indian English as a branch of the language in its own right is fascinating.

JJM - words/vocabulary as such don't seem to be readily adopted by mainstream culture here (unless it is food vocab) but it is quite common for children of Southern European parents to either have "woggy" accents or embellish a "wogginess" to their accents whilst around their peers.