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> 84 percent of white speakers were correctly identified as white, and 77 percent of black speakers were correctly identified as black. Why is this? For peopl
by Xcelerate 14y ago
> 84 percent of white speakers were correctly identified as white, and 77 percent of black speakers were correctly identified as black.
Why is this? For people who are born in America, I don't understand why some would sound different than others. How can you possibly tell race just by listening to someone's voice, unless there are anatomical differences?
- chewxy 14y agoEbonics : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebonics Yes, you can make a pretty good guess because of intonations, glottal stops, timing, and etc. They're generally tied with the communities (for example, I'm Asian, and though I have spoken English my entire life, people can still tell by the slight off-ness of my accent)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- moultano 14y agoAmerican culture isn't uniform. There are many dialects that correspond to cultural and historical boundaries.
- rachelbythebay 14y agoIt's not just one country in terms of language. There are lots of little variances here and there which provide certain signals. For instance, the big freeway is just "101" around here. However, in Southern California, the same route is frequently called "the 101". They tend to use "the" in front of the numbers for whatever reason. There are many of these things which can give you some insight on someone's background. Is it soda? Or pop? Or "coke" as a generic term? Do you use "hella" or "wicked" as a modifier, as in "hella cool" or "wicked fast"? There's the whole "ya'll" thing, and don't forget "all ya'll". Are you "fixin'" to do something? How about "ain't" and "busted"? This is just word choice. There are all sorts of different ways to pronounce the same words, too, and those also give you some idea of where someone might be from.
- teeray 14y agoMy first trip to the west coast afforded me some strange looks when I dropped "pissah" into a sentence.
- defrost 14y agoIt's not so much race that's being picked, it's linguistic culture or speaking patterns; it just happens that this correlates well with the notion of race in America. The United Kingdom and Ireland have this kind of cultural picking by ear down to a fine tuned art - identifying an Irish builder that's spent a decade with cockneys or a Welsh lesbian that attends a Scottish knitting circle is a matter of course.
- azernik 14y agoBlack people in the US aren't just a racial group - they're also an ethnic group who (usually) speak a very distinct dialect of English.
- jaggederest 14y agoExtremely tongue in cheek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhrQ4AdCSQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEhrQ4AdCSQ Somewhat less tongue in cheek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_WC9PM6S0Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_WC9PM6S0Q
- andrewfelix 14y agoThe same way you can tell someone is from the west as opposed to east. Cultural idiosyncrasies.
- InclinedPlane 14y agoThere are racial accents in addition to regional accents. Sometimes they are subtle, but humans are good at identifying subtle patterns.