Sunday, July 5, 2009

What is a "Neutral" Accent?

I recently returned from a trip to India to explore the BPOs (that's "Business Process Outsourcing" for anyone new to the lingo), and met with a number of professionals (or at least people with an interest in either 1) accent training or 2) call centers or maybe 3) making money) ... in any case, they brought up the issue of acquiring a "neutral" accent, and it raised the intriguing question ... what IS a neutral accent and can it be acquired?

Most of us (including linguists, but probably anyone who takes time to think about the question) would agree that each of us has an accent. We could get into dialects like midwestern/southern/eastern accents (let's not), but even if we look at "world english" as a lingua franca, we all have accents - you can check them out on You Tube. Amy Walker is a great example of someone who has mastered 21 of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k

The question is how do we (the collective "we" worldwide) determine what a neutral accent is? My first response as a native American English speaker is to dispense with the /ae/ sound as in "apple" and let it sound more like an /a/ as in "honest" and to let the /r/ sound after the vowel soften and disappear, all the while not paying attention to where the mouth control comes from: (lips vs. jaw) and just let it happen.

The next question, though, is a little tougher, and that is: what role does vocabulary or word usage play in accent? The verbiage we use makes a difference in determining where we are from, and it's challenging to choose what verbiage to use.

When I was in India, they talked about "hill stations," which I could grasp the intent of (both from Hindi-only movies of people driving through mountainous regions and my own experiences of being taken to a "hill station" that was a hotel on top of a mountain), but I didn't know the exact translation. I found it referenced on several internet resources as either "a town at a higher elevation" (I don't think we have a term for that in the US), or a "mountain resort" - that I intuitively "get." The interesting take-away in terms of a "neutral" accent, however, is that if someone used this word, I wouldn't consider that person to be speaking in a neutral way. It sounds foreign to me, so perhaps "neutral" implies using only words that don't change in different cultures ... leaving us to ponder who is going to create such a list or resource. Last time I checked, it wasn't on the Webster's, Longman's or Oxford's resource list, and IF someone did create it, would anyone take it seriously?

In India in particular, of course, it makes sense to strive to find a "neutral" accent because the goal is not to teach people English ... (they already speak it), but rather to help BPO associates on the phones communicate with people in other English-speaking countries: Austalia, New Zealand, England, and of course, the US, as well as in all regions where accents differ. It's understandable, then, that a "neutral" accent is desirable - if we define it as one that any English speaker can understand in any one of these countries - but who's going to determine what that accent is (and is not) in a way that it can be easily and certifiably created and sustained? Is it even possible?

Comments welcomed!

8 comments:

  1. Some people think that those from the midwest have a "neutral" accent. Those from New England may disagree - thinking theirs is the only original American accent, and that all other accents are slovenly copies of their own. And what about the people from Seattle? I have heard them say that they have a neutral accent. Who decides what is "right", anyway?

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  2. There is nothing like so called “Neutral Accent”. Speaking English, influenced by Indian languages and calling that Neutral accent is ridiculous. Someday people from China, Japan, Philippines etc, if they start calling their English with their accent
    "Neutral" accent then who is going to decide what neutral accent is. I think that the term has been originated by some Indian people because there are several languages spoken with different accent in India and English is spoken almost everywhere. It is so distinct that one can easily recognize that where the person is from by just listening to their English. Because English is influenced by their own regional language accent. So, when some people from call center industry started expecting all Indian people to speak in one accent so they are not influenced by any regional accent and not able to be recognized like which region the person is from. That is how neutral accent was originated but that is only for people to be understood within India. To me, neutral accent does not make any sense but global English may.

    People from the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia are major native English speaking countries and if someone speaks English so that all these native speakers can understand it without any difficulties that could be called Global English even then we cannot call that so called Global Accent. Because even people in these countries will have some difficulties in understanding different dialect or accent. Who is going to decide it is Neutral Accent? To my mind, Global English makes more sense but for that “communicative competence” is required and again if someone is to be taught accent then it has to be country specific. Speaking English, influenced by Indian languages accent cannot be called Neutral Accent or Global Accent. I believe whatever language is spoken in the world, it sounds good when it is spoken in its own accent. I understand people will say even in the United States, we have different Accents or dialects but everybody has the same underlying pattern, flow or rhythm and people do not have to have communicative competence issues at all. Yes, some people from Washington or Central America say they have “neutral” accent. Again that term should be used only for one entire native country not for entire world.

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  3. There is nothing like so called “Neutral Accent”. Speaking English, influenced by Indian languages and calling that Neutral accent is ridiculous. Someday people from China, Japan, Philippines etc, if they start calling their English with their accent
    "Neutral" accent then who is going to decide what neutral accent is. I think that the term has been originated by some Indian people because there are several languages spoken with different accent in India and English is spoken almost everywhere. It is so distinct that one can easily recognize that where the person is from by just listening to their English. Because English is influenced by their own regional language accent. So, when some people from call center industry started expecting all Indian people to speak in one accent so they are not influenced by any regional accent and not able to be recognized like which region the person is from. That is how neutral accent was originated but that is only for people to be understood within India. To me, neutral accent does not make any sense but global English may.

    People from the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia are major native English speaking countries and if someone speaks English so that all these native speakers can understand it without any difficulties that could be called Global English even then we cannot call that so called Global Accent. Because even people in these countries will have some difficulties in understanding different dialect or accent. Who is going to decide it is Neutral Accent? To my mind, Global English makes more sense but for that “communicative competence” is required and again if someone is to be taught accent then it has to be country specific. Speaking English, influenced by Indian languages accent cannot be called Neutral Accent or Global Accent. I believe whatever language is spoken in the world, it sounds good when it is spoken in its own accent. I understand people will say even in the United States, we have different Accents or dialects but everybody has the same underlying pattern, flow or rhythm and people do not have to have communicative competence issues at all. Yes, some people from Washington or Central America say they have “neutral” accent. Again that term should be used only for one entire native country not for entire world.

    DK

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  4. If a "neutral" accent is the one most people understand, then a "neutral" accent is British, since most of the English speakers in the world were taught by British (or British taught) teachers.

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  5. I wonder if it is really possible to compile a "neutral" vocabulary. Since different words are used for the same thing in different countries or areas, won't successful communicators always have to learn and use the local vocabulary?

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  6. Well, neutral accent means globally understandable standard English. It does belong to India or US.

    Ref: http://www.neutralaccent.com

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  7. Addressing to the point made by Neutralaccent, first of all who is going to decide what is so-called “Neutral Accent”? Is there a specific book or set of rules for that? What may be a so-called “Neutral Accent or global accent” for you, may be a heavy accented English for others. For instance, let’s say the word “FAST” either fæst (US) or fɑst UK/ (using IPA) is correct but any other way it would be accented or wrong. It’s no-brainer. Is it?

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  8. I'd like to give a little perspective to the use of the term "neutral accent" across BPOs in India. I joined the BPO industry in 1999 and was trained on American accent for 3months. We listened to American speakers and tried to embibe their pronunciation, intonation pattern and idioms/slang. After 3months, when we went on calls, the customers said that we had a weird accent and asked which part of America we were from. I remember a colleague of mine whose first language was Bengali interchanged the s/sh sound. So, he would roll the r like the Americans, however; would ask the customer "may i have the shocial security number?". Likewise, another colleage from another north eastern state used to interchange the oo/uh sound. So would ask "can i poot the call on hold"? However; all of us were well trained to roll the r, say caaffee instead of cawfee, aesk instead of ask. After 6 months, we were sent back to training and the objective was to get rid of the put on American accent and get the sounds rights. Thats when the term "neutral"accent came into being. It is an accent which does not have an influence of the first langauge and is globally understood. None of the native English speakers(Americans, Australians, English, Canadians) will say fud for food Or bijness for business or pleyur for pleasure but a person from the north eastern states of India will have a tendency of interchaning the long n short vowel sounds and zh/z Or s/sh. Likewise, ppl from down south have a tendency to interchange s/z eg.liztening instead of listening etc..Therefore; when we hire people for BPOs now, there is a list of sounds that we check a person on. Some sounds are categorized as fatal which means that the person will take a long time to overcome the FLI. When we train people in BPOs, we tell the agents now that if you say ask or aesk, the native English speaker will understand you. Therefore; the neutral accent comprises of widely accepted pronunciation which could be either American or British. The emphasis is on clear articulation of sounds. Similarly, the agents are taught the idioms and slang specific to the culture;however; the clear objective is comprehension and not usage. I still remember my first day on OJT 10yrs ago when i asked for the customer and the gatekeeper said that he is 6 feet in the hole. Guess what, my response was when will he back from there and the gatekeeper said that honey you'll have to go up there to meet him. I thought 6 feet in the hole meant he was in the basement and since there is poor connectivity in the basement so may be the person cant take the call. After the call, my trainer called me and explained that it meant the person is dead. Not many understand when the a native English speaker says "he kicked the bucket". The natural response is "hope he didn't hurt himself badly". These days the emphasis is on these nuances because it is not the accent which leads to a communication breakdown as much as lack of cultural understanding.
    At the end of the day even the global customers understand and accept the fact that we cant speak like them and they are perfectly okay as long as they dont have a tough time understanding us and vice-versa.

    Regards
    Tina

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