You don’t need a degree in Linguistics to notice that people have accents - that is, specific ways of pronouncing* the words and sounds of a language, usually associated with a particular social group. Some accent features draw more attention that others; some, like Australian o, even get turned into memes. This cute lil comic is just the most recent example to come across my social media feeds.

I’m amused by the point the comic makes (“Australians sound so different!”) and the way it conveys this point (the unconventional aur spelling), but I’m also interested by the differences it obscures. A Hello said by an American and a hello from a Brit will actually sound quite different, in their o sound and in other ways (and it’s even more complicated than that: both Americans and Brits vary how they say their o's depending on where they are from within their respective regions!). What’s going on with all this accent variation - how can we characterize accent differences more accurately and helpfully, and why are some differences more noticeable or remarked-upon than others?

Here’s where the degree in Linguistics comes in handy! Linguists can gain expertise in fields such as phonetics (the study of how speech sounds are articulated, realized acoustically, and perceived), phonology (which deals with how those sounds pattern into larger units like words and sentences), and sociolinguistics (which examines how people use language in a way that reflects social structures and identity).

Linguistics majors at Georgetown have lots of opportunities to learn about accents in their coursework. In LING 001 (Introduction to Language), you’ll become acquainted with the tools linguists use to study language at all levels of structure, including the International Phonetic Alphabet, which allows us to capture fine-grained differences in sounds more consistently. In LING 215 (Sounds of Language), you’ll learn more about how a range of sounds across languages and dialects are articulated and how to actually measure these differences acoustically. LING 283 (Language and Society) will reveal some of the complex social reasons why people use (or avoid) certain accents or accent features, and the social meanings that attach to specific pronunciations. If you want MOAR ACCENT CONTENT beyond that, we’ve got other electives and higher-level courses to scratch that itch, such as LING 414 (Sociophonetics), LING 447 (American Dialects), and LING 481 (Sociolinguistic Variation) - as well as courses in other FLL departments (such as SPAN 396, Spanish Sociolinguistics) that can satisfy Linguistics elective requirements.

*It’s important to point out that signed languages (like American Sign Language) also have accents! In signed languages, the variation occurs in features like hand shape and position, rather than pronunciation of vowels and consonants.