Why Do We Have So Many Accents?
What makes us sound so different from each other – even when we’re speaking the same language? Listener Amanda’s question takes us all over the world… and inside our mouths.
Why do we have so many accents - even when we’re speaking the same language? What's happening in our brains and mouths to make us sound so different from each other? This week’s question from listener Amanda takes CrowdScience to Glasgow in Scotland: home to one of the most studied - and distinctive - accents of English.
Along the way we visit a voice coach to try and learn a Texan accent, use ultrasound to see what different sounds look like inside our mouths and find out how a brand new dialect was formed when many accents collided in New Zealand.
Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at [email protected]
Presenter: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Producer: Cathy Edwards
New Zealand Mobile Unit recordings courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
(Image: A mouth screaming white letters. Credit: Thinkstock)
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How to speak like a Texan
Duration: 01:51
Broadcasts
- Fri 31 Mar 201719:32GMTBBC World Service except News Internet
- Sat 1 Apr 201722:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 1 Apr 201723:32GMTBBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Mon 3 Apr 201702:32GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 3 Apr 201704:32GMTBBC World Service Online, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Mon 3 Apr 201705:32GMTBBC World Service South Asia
- Mon 3 Apr 201706:32GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & East Asia only
- Mon 3 Apr 201713:32GMTBBC World Service Australasia
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CrowdScience
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