https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The Barrow-in-Furness accent is very different from the rest of Lancashire and Cumbria because of an intense mixing and rapid population change in the late 1800s, says new research by Lancaster University, which used the voices of Victorian speakers to inform the study. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-voices-victorians-northern-accent.html Social Sciences Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:30:01 EST news688908319 Taylor Swift is one of the biggest pop singers in history, influencing millions of fans with her music. Thanks to years of recorded interviews, she is also influencing how we understand the ways that people adopt accents and regional dialects. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-tracking-evolution-taylor-swift-dialect.html Social Sciences Tue, 23 Sep 2025 11:00:04 EDT news677748662 Twangy voices are a hallmark of country music and many regional accents. However, this speech type, often described as "brassy" and "bright," can also be used to get a message across in a noisy environment. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-loud-noise-brassy-bright-voice.html Other Tue, 29 Jul 2025 11:00:08 EDT news672903534 We all need to learn how to place trust in others. It's easy to be misled. Someone who doesn't deserve trust can appear a lot like someone who does—and part of growing up in a society is developing the ability to tell the difference. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fake-accent-youre.html Social Sciences Wed, 02 Jul 2025 12:35:04 EDT news670678501 From the moment we are born (and even before that, in utero), we tune into the languages around us. This includes the accents they are spoken in. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-children-link-accents-intelligence-age.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:11:03 EDT news665151061 Can your accent make you sound aggressive? Exeter City football manager Gary Caldwell thinks so—he blamed his Scottish accent for his being sent off the pitch for the second time this season. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-scottish-accents-aggressive-linguist.html Social Sciences Mon, 07 Apr 2025 13:03:04 EDT news663249782 Imagine that you invite a friend, a non-native speaker of your own language, round for dinner. While cooking, you get distracted and the food ends up burnt to a crisp. Once the smoke detector stops shrieking, your friend might crack a joke to puncture the tension, something along the lines of "Wow! I didn't know you were such a good cook!" https://phys.org/news/2025-03-foreign-accents-subconsciously-interact.html Social Sciences Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:24:04 EDT news662207041 Women with foreign accents, particularly Russian speakers, are perceived as less employable, according to a new study from The Australian National University (ANU) published in the Australian Journal of Linguistics. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-disadvantage-women-foreign-accents-employable.html Social Sciences Tue, 11 Mar 2025 10:43:03 EDT news660908581 Research led by the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, raises serious concerns about bias in the UK criminal justice system due to negative stereotyping of accents. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-brits-associate-class-accents-criminal.html Social Sciences Fri, 17 Jan 2025 00:00:02 EST news656241347 One of the more unexpected plot twists on the latest series of the BBC's "The Traitors" was contestant Charlotte revealing that despite being from London, she was putting on a Welsh accent to seem more trustworthy to her fellow contestants. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-traitors-trustworthy-welsh-accent-sociolinguist.html Social Sciences Sun, 12 Jan 2025 11:30:03 EST news655720201 Speaking with a foreign accent mitigates the impact of making grammatical errors, depending on the personality type of the listener, a study has found. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-foreign-accents-people-bad-grammar.html Social Sciences Thu, 31 Oct 2024 12:11:58 EDT news649595506 As anyone who has looked for a job can tell you, finding one isn't the easiest process. This experience can be even more challenging if you're new to a country and speak with what is perceived to be a "foreign" accent. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-accent-bias-impact-person-job.html Social Sciences Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:50:08 EDT news645709801 In the UK legal system, a barrister's job is to present formalized legal arguments in court and at tribunals. Training to become one, therefore, involves considerable focus on oral skills. It is considered important that barristers have the ability to speak "eloquently." https://phys.org/news/2024-05-people-barristers-posh-accent-discrimination.html Social Sciences Mon, 13 May 2024 12:56:04 EDT news634823761 The phenomenon of behavioral mimicry is well known among social scientists. We mirror the posture, movements and speech of our interlocutors at some unconscious level, but also as a means of trying to identify or communicate more clearly with them. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-outsiders-stereotypes-southern-speech-outweigh.html Social Sciences Tue, 23 Jan 2024 14:55:29 EST news625244127 "Why isn't it a beautiful thing?" a puzzled Sharath Keshava Narayana asked of his AI device masking accents. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-ai-software-softening-accents-problematic.html Social Sciences Thu, 11 Jan 2024 12:30:04 EST news624198601 Immigrants are critical to the Canadian economy, but their talents are under-utilized due to language and accent discrimination, as immigrants often come from non-English or French speaking countries. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-benevolent-sexism-undermines-asian-women.html Social Sciences Thu, 14 Dec 2023 15:50:02 EST news621780267 When it comes to how we talk, accents are often the thing people focus on first. We love to do impressions, and certain accents even have an impact on what we buy. But what exactly is an accent, and how does one develop? https://phys.org/news/2023-11-qa-accents-linguist.html Social Sciences Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:54:03 EST news620571241 In a 2019 sketch from the US late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), the actor James McAvoy plays a Scottish air traffic controller attempting to help a US brand integration manager (Mikey Day) land a plane in distress, because the pilot has been knocked unconscious. The fact that Day's character is not a pilot only partly explains why the mayday call is not a success. McAvoy lays on thick Glaswegian, in both accent and vocab, and none of the Americans on board understand a word he says. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-kinds-english-accents-empathy-learningand.html Social Sciences Sat, 04 Nov 2023 13:00:01 EDT news618227483 Cockney and received pronunciation (Queen's English) were once spoken by people of all ages, but they are no longer commonly spoken among young people in the south-east of England. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-cockney-queen-english-young-peoplehere.html Social Sciences Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:49:58 EDT news617885393 A collaborative study between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech has found the classic Southern accent is undergoing rapid change in Georgia. The instigator? Generation X. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-speech-classic-georgia-accent-fast.html Social Sciences Thu, 07 Sep 2023 14:14:06 EDT news613314840 Canada's workforce is made up of people from around the world, and many workers speak English as a second language. A new study shows that the success of workers in an organization is impacted by a combination of accents, gender stereotypes, and perceptions of ability. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-accents-gender-candidates-affect-hiring.html Social Sciences Tue, 25 Apr 2023 09:34:03 EDT news601634041 The way a person speaks is an intrinsic part of their identity. It's tribal, marking a speaker as being from one social group or another. Accents are a sign of belonging as much as something that separates communities. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-people-accents-dont-linguistic-expert.html Social Sciences Fri, 31 Mar 2023 12:29:03 EDT news599484541 In Boston, there are reports of people pronouncing the letter "r." Down in Tennessee, people are noticing a lack of a Southern drawl. And Texans have long worried about losing their distinctive twang. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-accents.html Other Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:01:04 EST news590162461 Have you found yourself altering how you speak when you find yourself in a more formal situation? Do you tone down your accent or stay away from words that may only be known in the area you are from? If so, you may already be experienced in code-switching. https://phys.org/news/2022-12-code-switching-pressure-people.html Social Sciences Wed, 07 Dec 2022 11:10:05 EST news589633216 People from minority groups who speak with 'non-standard' accents face discrimination in job interviews, researchers from The University of Queensland have found. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-reveals-accent-discrimination-hiring.html Social Sciences Thu, 24 Nov 2022 04:54:01 EST news588488037 New research co-authored by a UTM professor shows that children may exhibit signs of accent-based biases as early as age five. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-children-biases-accents.html Social Sciences Fri, 07 Oct 2022 11:20:03 EDT news584360401 If elementary school children are accustomed to many regional and foreign accents because they hear them frequently in their linguistic environment, then it is easier for them to learn new words from other children who speak with unfamiliar accents. This is shown by the research results of Assistant Prof. Dr. Adriana Hanulíková and Helena Levy from the German Department at the University of Freiburg. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-exposure-accents-children-words.html Social Sciences Thu, 29 Sep 2022 09:18:03 EDT news583661882 Accentism—discriminating against someone because of their accent—has a long history in the U.K., where the way someone speaks is often an easy way to tell their social class. People with working-class accents are frequently criticized and encouraged to speak "properly." This is true even for people who have achieved fame or success in the media or politics. https://phys.org/news/2022-09-posh-spice-posher-working-class-accent.html Social Sciences Thu, 15 Sep 2022 11:13:55 EDT news582459229 People form judgements about others from the way they speak, yet listeners are often unaware of their deeply embedded "implicit" biases. https://phys.org/news/2022-06-reveals-prejudice-people-northern-english.html Social Sciences Thu, 16 Jun 2022 11:10:07 EDT news574596605 Everyone has an accent. But the intelligibility of speech doesn't just depend on that accent; it also depends on the listener. Visual cues and the diversity of the listener's social network can impact their ability to understand and transcribe sentences after listening to the spoken word. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-exploring-diverse-social-networks-accent.html Social Sciences Tue, 24 May 2022 13:37:04 EDT news572618221