Big Question Introduction

How does geography influence accent and social belonging?

Geography can have a profound effect on people and the way that they speak, act, feel and/or think. Many of these cases that we still see today stem back to times when travel and communication inhibited people from seeing people other than those located near them. This led to pockets like-minded persons coming together and creating their own identities. May it be the farming south or the urban north of America some two hundred odd years ago; the identities created were varied and could be either positive or negative.

                Certain regions promote different professions and livelihoods.  People yearning to live in a metropolitan area most likely won’t live in New Mexico, but rather a somewhere in the northeast; while a farmer wouldn’t live in the New York City because there is nowhere for crops will not flourish. This is why you can find people who have similar jobs and have similar mindsets.

                Sociolinguistics is a relatively new field studying something that people have been looking into for much longer. It is the study of how things such as geography, race, gender, ethnicity and social class speak and use language. This study combines sociology with linguistics to look at how society affects language, this shows the sort of affects that society (geography included) has on language. (Accent)

                It wasn’t until around 1930 that the western world deemed it necessary to create a field to explain how language is affected by society. Thomas Callan Hodson coined the term in 1939, officially creating the field of sociolinguistics. It was something that Japanese and Indian linguists had begun to look into, but Hodson was who brought it into the western world.

                Geography effects on social belonging doesn’t stem from sociolinguistics, but instead in psychology. Psychology is the study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. There are mental repercussions for just about anything, positive or negative, and where someone is from is not to be excluded.

                Psychology is a study that dates back to the great ancient civilizations. It helps us understand why people think and reason the way they do. It looks at many of the factors that have occurred to get a glimpse into their minds. One major thing is where they’re from; because in certain regions there are certain expectations that are to be met and people are expected to do certain things and breaking the mold or trying to show you’re different than the stereotype of your home can be a daunting task.

                The three focuses- geography, accent and social belonging- all are interconnected. They all have effects on each other; geography isn’t the only thing holding them to together. Accents that come due to the geographical positioning of a person when they learned to speak can be a major effect on how they view themselves or how others view them in society. One with a southern drawl is thought to be unintelligent, but really cannot tell you the intellect of a person; while one who speaks with a British accent is not guaranteed to be smarter than the average man. There are certain prejudices that come with certain accent and people from certain places; social belonging is something that can easily be affected.

                Geography has many sociolinguistic effects as well as psychological effects on people. It alters their speech, mindset, and image to others.  It is something that has a much broader effect on society and the individual than people realize, even now when the world seems so small, there are still variants from region to region.

Works Cited

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Gluszek, Agata, and John F. Dovidio. "The Way They Speak: A Social Psychological Perspective on the Stigma of Nonnative Accents in Communication." Personality and Social Psychology Review. Yale University. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://psr.sagepub.com/content/14/2/214.abstract>.

"H2g2 - Why Villains in Movies Have English Accents." H2g2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 15 Jan. 2003. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A891155>.

Haller, Kirsten M. "Dialectal Variation in the United States."Http://www.wesleyan.edu/psyc/mindmatters/volume01/article03.pdf. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

"Psychology." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology>.

"Sociolinguistics." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociolinguistics>.

Spolsky, Bernard. "History of Sociolinguistics." Http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/35389_5434_Wodak_Chap_01.pdf. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

"Untitled Document." Home | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Web. 29 Jan. 2012. <http://www.unc.edu/~gerfen/Ling30Sp2002/sociolinguistics.html>.