Areas like the city of New Orleans in Louisiana that are, or at one point in time were, semi-isolated have distinct accents due to the absence of contact between regions.
Verbal cues are processed and silently learned in preparation for the day the vocal system is developed enough to speak its first words (usually around 12 months).
An acoustic analysis by Jonathan Harrington of Elizabeth II's Royal Christmas Messages revealed that the speech patterns of even so conservative a figure as a monarch can continue to change over her lifetime.
A similar disjunction occurs in German-speaking native English speakers, who may find it difficult to pronounce the vowels in German words such as "schön" (beautiful) and "müde" (tired).
[9] An important factor in predicting the degree to which the accent will be noticeable (or strong) is the age at which the non-native language was learned.
Accents such as Received Pronunciation or General American English may sometimes be erroneously designated in their countries of origin as "accentless" to indicate that they offer no obvious clue to the speaker's regional or social background.
[2] Accents are an important dimension of social identity, both individual and communal, due to their ability to identify group or community belonging.
[18] Many adult and near-adult learners of second languages have unintelligible speech patterns that may interfere with their education, profession, and social interactions.
[19] Intelligibility of speech, in comparison to native-like accent, has been experimentally reported to be of greater importance for the second language speakers.
[21] The same can be said about the predominance of Southeastern Brazilian accents in the case of the Brazilian variant of the Portuguese language, especially considering the disparity of prestige between most caipira-influenced speech, associated with rural environment and lack of formal education,[22] together with the Portuguese spoken in some other communities of lower socioeconomic strata such as favela dwellers, and other sociocultural variants such as middle and upper class paulistano (dialect spoken from Greater São Paulo to the East) and fluminense (dialect spoken in the state of Rio de Janeiro) to the other side, inside Southeastern Brazil itself.
[24] Negative perceptions of accents, the basis of which may relate to the speaker's social identity, can manifest as stereotyping, harassment or employment discrimination.
[20] Researchers consistently show that people with non-native accents are judged as less intelligent, less competent, less educated, having poor English/language skills, and unpleasant to listen to.
Ahead of all variables tested, including race and gender, recordings speaking with an accent native to the child were selected at a considerably higher frequency.
Rosina Lippi-Green writes, Accent serves as the first point of gate keeping because we are forbidden, by law and social custom, and perhaps by a prevailing sense of what is morally and ethically right, from using race, ethnicity, homeland or economics more directly.
For example, non-native speaking graduate students, lecturers, and professors, across college campuses in the US have been targeted for being unintelligible because of accent.
[36] Second language speakers have reported being discriminated against, or feeling marginalized for, when they attempted to find a job in higher ranking positions mainly because of their accents.
In a study conducted by Rubin (1992), students listened to a taped lecture recorded by a native English speaker with a standard accent.
[33][38] In the United States, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on national origin, implying accents.
For example, in Disney animated films, mothers and fathers typically speak with White, middle-class American or English accents.
[2] On another note, English accents in Disney animated films are frequently employed for one of two purposes: slapstick comedy and the portrayal of evil geniuses.
[41][better source needed] Examples of this can be seen in characters from the films Aladdin (the Sultan and Jafar, respectively) and The Lion King (Zazu and Scar, respectively), among others.