Can one detect racial identity from speech?

MollyB   Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:13 am GMT
Regarding English, can one detect racial identity from speech?
Skippy   Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:00 pm GMT
This is an interesting question. In my experience, people from the South are much more adept at this than others.

My friend Paul did an impression of some woman he ran into and, just from his impression of her, I could tell she was black. My friend Jaro, who is black (from Westchester, NY, so definitely upper middle class, he does not speak AAVE), said he couldn't tell.

All I have is that little anecdote, but at least in the US it seems that one can tell if a speaker is black or, to a degree, Hispanic and sometimes even Native American.
Guest   Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:05 pm GMT
No, of course not, as the so-called "races" have nothing to do with how one speaks. However, it is possible to detect certain cultural groups that have a particular accent such as detecting AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) or some Spanish influenced varieties of English, such as Chicano English. New York City also has some other cultural accents. Note that most of these groups do not actually speak these dialects, but rather somewhere in between the dialect and Standard English with some traces of one of these dialects. Also, many groups (particularly those that speak African American vernacular English) can code switch between a rather standard form of the language (although usually with a few traces) and the full fledged dialect.
furrykef   Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:36 pm GMT
Race doesn't dictate the accent you speak with (cultural factors notwithstanding), but it does dictate the voice you're born with. Black people do have different voices from white people. Sometimes they overlap such that a particular voice could belong either to a white or a black person, but I don't think it's that common. After all, if they have different skin color, different eye color, different hair pattern, and different facial shape, why should we necessarily expect their voices to sound the same?

A black person's voice is typically deep, but not necessarily... for example, Chris Rock's voice isn't deep at all, but it's still definitely identifiable as a black person's voice, and it still would be if he didn't speak with an AAVE accent. I can't really explain why, there aren't really any good words to describe vocal quality.

I don't mention other races because I'm less familiar with them in this area. Many of the Asian and hispanic people I know in real life have accents because they were born in other countries, so it's a bit difficult to judge what the voice would sound like without the accent. It's certainly possible for them to be indistinguishable from white people in voice, and I suspect that, with native accents, they generally are, but their voices might or might not have different general tendencies than white people's voices.

- Kef
Guest   Mon Jul 14, 2008 4:06 pm GMT
I can detect Oprah's accent as mixed. Oh yup she is so mixed.
Her accent is so mixed.
Guest   Mon Jul 14, 2008 6:04 pm GMT
I first heard Jeremiah Wright's voice on radio, and immediately got the impression that he was African-American.
Guest   Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:48 pm GMT
<<it is possible to detect certain cultural groups that have a particular accent such as detecting AAVE (African-American Vernacular English) >>

And what would be the name of that "certain cultural group"?
JohnnyC   Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:47 am GMT
And what would be the name of that "certain cultural group"?

Jewish biker gangs.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:10 am GMT
Here in the UK you can pretty much tell that a person is black (mostly of Caribbean origin) simply by listening to the voice and without seeing them, as on the radio. That applies mostly to the average West Indian/Caribbean street wise guy of the "ghetto" variety, and not your highly qualified, professional and well educated black person who may wll speak in an English English RP. Don Warrington comes to mind here - he's a black WI/C actor who sounds almost excessively "posh".

The famous black TV newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald* is less "posh", even though his accent is very clearly cultivated English English RP, but if you listen very carefully you can detect traces of his West Indian origins in his voice (he is from Trinidad I believe but I may be wrong without checking him out) even though he las lived in the UK for yonks...he's been on TV ever since I was in my cradle and most probably long before I was a mere foetus.

Sir Trev has been knighted - dubbed a Sir - by The Queen for services to broadcasting.
MollyB   Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:49 am GMT
<<That applies mostly to the average West Indian/Caribbean street wise guy of the "ghetto" variety, and not your highly qualified, professional and well educated black person who may wll speak in an English English RP. >>

So, in Britain, people with West Indian/Caribbean accents are not highly qualified, professional and well educated, right?
Guest   Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:16 am GMT
**So, in Britain, people with West Indian/Caribbean accents are not highly qualified, professional and well educated, right? **

Linton Kwesi Johnson?
Guest   Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:45 pm GMT
Ainsley Harriot.
Damian in Edinburgh   Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:55 pm GMT
***So, in Britain, people with West Indian/Caribbean accents are not highly qualified, professional and well educated, right? ***

Wrong. Please read my post again only this time a wee bit more carefully.
Elbart089   Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:02 pm GMT
Afro-Americans (not the ones immigrated from Africa, but rather the descendants of the slaves brought to America) seem to have a certain way of speaking through which you can recognize them almost immediately.
Guest   Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:09 pm GMT
***Please read my post again only this time a wee bit more carefully.***

Read it again and it still sounds like you believe there are only two types of West Indian/Caribbean people.