Do you think an Accent makes a person superior?

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I live life by the philosophy that all people are equal, no matter what. I don't think the fact that I have an English Accent makes me any better than the rest of the people that I interact with. It makes me different, which is cool, but it doesen't make me superior.

Do you think that people who have Accents are superior to people who don't have accents?

I agree, everyone should be seen as equal. I don't see why people who have accents are superior to people that do not.

I have a Boston or you can say "southern New England accent." The "r" at the end of words isn't prononunced like it really should be it the end of words.

I don't believe mine is as "bad" as others from the Boston area, but most of you would probably pick it up rather well. There are many people I lived around, especially in my extended famiy that have very strong Bostonian accents.

You may have heard some of the people in Boston... this past week at the Democratic National Convention at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts.

Last edited by Tom_FL_MA on 07 Nov 2004, 3:55 am, edited 2 times in total.

I hate my accent. up north they think I sound posh, down south they say I've got an accent (in a 'you sound common/northern' way). I've got teased up here because they thought I was posh. I want desparately to change my accent.

No, but some accents make people SOUND superior.

Mich

I pick up on accents like flys stick to garbage.

Though not many people I see have accents.

the only accent I really don't like is the "southern drwawwwlll"... It just seems like they are being lazy and drowing all their words together.

I'm all about efficient and effective communication. all that extra crud is useless. (manners are good whey they are useful)

I don't really care for the Southern Drawl either. I know that it must sound shallow for a person with any type of Accent to say that about aonther Accent, but I really don't like the Southern Drawl.

Certain accents are linked to negative stereotypes. Rednecks, for example. I needn't go further there.

I like crisp, concise enunciation because otherwise, it's just hard for me to pick out words. English accents are cool.

It's bad when a chinstroking snob is speaking with an accent -- now there's something I cannot stand

I am not saying I don't understand at all; but can you describe how you think some accents make people sound superior?

eh.. i think what mich means , correct me if im wrong, is that sometimes accents sound exotic , for lack of a better word, and it just makes the person kind of sound better than everyone else cus its something new and different (but in a good way). for example at my school last sem there were a couple british girls and i was enchanted with their british accent, i just love the way a british accent sounds, although i cant usually understand half of it, and anyway i thought the girls would be really neat, fun, awesome people just because of their accent, like i didnt know them but i kinda thought 'hey they have an accent they must be *fill in positive adjective here* i never talked to them, though. i guess thats as bout as best as i can explain anyway. no i dont think anyone's superior to anyone else but i agree w/ mich's assessment.
Kate

That's a good question. One time, at day camp, I was in this playhouse with a younger boy. We started playing a game where he had to be smart and I had to be stupid. He said, and I quote: "I'm so smart I have an English accent." Then he started talking in his version of one. I joined in and started talking in a hillbilly accent. After the game was over, we started talking in our normal voices again.

If you still don't understand what I mean, lay on your bed and think long and hard about it. I guess it could mean anything. Kind of like the fortune "you will step on the soil of many countries." THAT could mean anything. But I think it means "you will go somewhere and get to step on soil from different countries."

Mich

Everyone has an accent.

But really, I don't think it makes people superior or inferior. I think though that accents associated with rich people end up getting typecast as superior or snobbish (depending on who you're talking to) and accents associated with poor people end up getting typecast as inferior or more real, and accents associated with people in the middle often get classified as people who have no accent or normal. I don't like that, but it happens, it doesn't mean it's true though.

Another person who loves English accents here - I think a lot of people still respect the BBC voice, including the British themselves!

Of course what ultimately matters is making oneself understood.

I personally don't think an accent makes a person superior, maybe a little more distinguished as they say but not superior, though I think people form an image of someone that could be superior based on it.

I personally find any accent that entails a deviation from proper enunciation to be unattractive.

Oh boy... Usually when somebody around my parts has a foreign accent, people think they're from another country and try to diss them. We NYC teens have a word for immigrants, 'FOB' which means 'fresh off the boat' and is derogatory. People with accents usually get treated worse than folk without.
I have what is called a 'hip hop' or 'Ebonics' accent. It makes people think I'm poor and uneducated, and I hate that! I think my mom was fired from her job several years ago because she had a foreign accent because she is an immigrant. People with accents are no worse than people without.

Origionally I was going to say no,

but people seem to have these ideas about accents. I'm still going to say no, as people that think they're "posh" are no better than anyone else. Better off maybe, but not better.