364) Accent Awareness

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A coworker of mine (well, several) is from Australia. We were working in a small war room when another coworker looked up from what she was doing and asked whether she hears her own accent when she speaks, or if it sounded like we Americans were the ones with accents. While American English is notoriously "flat" and seemingly accentless, the Australian responded that she doesn't realize she's speaking differently than everyone else, and that we were the ones with the accent.

"What does it sound like to you?" we asked.

She proceed to mimic an American accent. The accent (not the imitation) sounded awful, completely crude and unrefined. Oh god, we said, that's what we sound like?

By the same token, the Australian said that whenever someone imitates her accent, she gets self-conscious and vows never to speak again. It got me thinking - does anyone hear their own accent and think, "Man, I sound awesome." Granted, an imitator is usually exaggerating in their effort to come across as authentic. Some of the ease and naturalness of the accent is lost. But there is some truth to it. Perhaps it's just startling to hear our accents, since we are usually unaware of them.

And have you ever noticed that people change the tone of their voice when imitating other languages? I grew up learning French and whenever my dad prompted me to say something, he'd always repeat me in a voice an octave higher than his normal one, his mouth delicately puckered. It's the same reason why people imitating German often resort to a deeper, guttural voice.

I'd love to come up with a study to differentiate and explain how we hear ourselves versus the way others do.



(Mini aside - the penultimate post!)