Why accents speak louder than words

A strong accent can lead us to make many assumptions about a person. We ask why, and the impact of these judgements. Linguistics experts Dr. Alex Baratta and Dr. Dominic Watt join Jelena Sofronijevic to explore whether RP has been replaced with a new “standard” accent, why some professions are still demanding flat accents…and if the Queen’s English is really dead.

• “Your accent is a flag or badge of your social standing." - Dominic Watt
• "We exist in an accentist society." - Dominic Watt
• “Right at the top of the social pinnacle we have people who more or less speak the same as each other. - Dominic Watt
• “Accent bias is more of an issue in certain professions, the reason is it goes back to certain perceptions.” - Alex Baratta
• “I think there’ll always be a perceived need to have a standard accent.” - Alex Baratta

https://www.patreon.com/bunkercast

Presented and produced by Jelena Sofronijevic. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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