1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,600 Speaker 1: Hey, this podcast includes an unbleeped swear word that's important 2 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:08,119 Speaker 1: to a story we tell, so if you've got kids 3 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,800 Speaker 1: or sensitive years around, you might want to save this 4 00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: one for later. Olivia Coleman, the impossibly talented British actress, 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:21,599 Speaker 1: worked with an accent coach to prepare to play the 6 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:24,960 Speaker 1: Queen of England, and the coach explained that to pronounce 7 00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: the word yes, as her Majesty would, Olivia should say 8 00:00:28,840 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: the word that's spelled E A R S, like the 9 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: things on the side of your head. Okay, this might 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,199 Speaker 1: work slightly better if you have a British accent, but 11 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it a go. Yes, yes, I love that, 12 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:50,519 Speaker 1: I love it. Okay, here's another language parlor trick may 13 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: be suited better for a new world accent. Say the 14 00:00:55,120 --> 00:01:00,720 Speaker 1: words rise up lights in quick succession, rise of lights, 15 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: rise of lights, and boom you're an Australian sand razor blades. 16 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: I am fascinated by accents and regional dialects, and I 17 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: think a lot of us are. We like knowing how 18 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:17,320 Speaker 1: other people swear, the kind of slang they fling around 19 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: that the American zucchini is the British Courgette that in India, 20 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:25,360 Speaker 1: the opposite of postponing something is to prepon it, to 21 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,040 Speaker 1: hear our own familiar language. The substrate of our thoughts 22 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: made new and novel is just a little electric thrill. 23 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: So how exactly our accents forged? Can they change? And 24 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: how might they affect the trajectory of our lives? You 25 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: are listening to deeply human and I am Dessa hereby 26 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:53,840 Speaker 1: asking the question why do you talk like that? My 27 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: name is John Ball. It rhymes with however you pronounced 28 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: the words l A w or or saw. That takes 29 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: into account than any different regional accents. So if someone 30 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,239 Speaker 1: is from the South, is John Bower, you know? Or 31 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,440 Speaker 1: if it's a New Yorkist, John Blow? All right? So 32 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: it rhymes with law and so. John ba is the 33 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 1: president of the Linguistic Society of America and a professor 34 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: at Washington University in St. Louis. Lawyers sometimes called John 35 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 1: to ask for his help in what's called linguistic forensics, 36 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: legal analysis of speech to help shed light on a crime. 37 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:34,200 Speaker 1: He's been asked to serve as an expert witness for 38 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,520 Speaker 1: more than one trial involving homicide, and, as he puts it, 39 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: a person's accent could be the difference between life and death. 40 00:02:42,040 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: Let's back up to a pivotal moment in his career. 41 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: In the nineties, he became particularly interested in an insidious 42 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: phenomenon now called linguistic profiling. So linguistic profiling occurs when 43 00:02:55,840 --> 00:03:02,119 Speaker 1: someone calls for goods or services over the telephone and 44 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: site unseen, the person who receives the call denies those 45 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:12,880 Speaker 1: goods or services based on stereotypes about the person's speech. 46 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: And this interest wasn't entirely academic. John himself was making 47 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:20,560 Speaker 1: calls looking for a new apartment, and in a few instances, 48 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:23,800 Speaker 1: when I showed up in person, I was told that 49 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: nothing is available. You know, and I'm African American. A 50 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 1: lot of people can't tell that from my professional voice. 51 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: And no one said, oh, I am so sorry. Had 52 00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: you sounded African American over the telephone, I would have 53 00:03:38,720 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: never given you an appointment, right, I mean that that's 54 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: a slam dunk lawsuit I win. So they would always 55 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:48,200 Speaker 1: come up with some other excuse. But you know, I 56 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: was suspicious, So he decided to run a formal experiment. Yeah, 57 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: I can modify my speech. So I grew up in 58 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,040 Speaker 1: l A you understanding the in the city, and in 59 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:04,320 Speaker 1: Los Angeles I had a lot of Mexican American friends, 60 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: So in the experiment I modified my own speech and used, Hello, 61 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,960 Speaker 1: I'm calling about the apartment you have advertised in the paper. 62 00:04:13,920 --> 00:04:15,880 Speaker 1: And I'd say Hello, I'm calling about the apartment you 63 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:19,359 Speaker 1: have advertised in the paper, or along coming about the 64 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 1: apartment you have advertised in the paper. The sentence was 65 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,159 Speaker 1: always the same, and John was always the person calling, 66 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 1: so the voice was the same. The only difference was 67 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:32,039 Speaker 1: the accent. As you might guess, the accent made a 68 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,159 Speaker 1: big difference. Landlords were screening out potential renters whose speech 69 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:40,320 Speaker 1: implied they were from minority communities, and as a general rule, 70 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,360 Speaker 1: the discrimination was worse in affluent neighborhoods. And it's international. 71 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 1: We've done these experiments in South Africa and Brazil, in France, 72 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,919 Speaker 1: and you know, every place that's an advanced industrialized society 73 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: has its own version of this. Linguistic profiling is also 74 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,640 Speaker 1: bigger than ray. Other research revealed that female voices calling 75 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:06,320 Speaker 1: to ask about an open executive position in a bank 76 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: were informed that it had already been filled, whereas mail 77 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 1: callers were more likely to be told it was still available. 78 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,320 Speaker 1: Gay men have also reported being denied goods or services 79 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: because of the way that they speak. Okay, quick self 80 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: interruption here to note that none of us speak in 81 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: exactly the same way at all times. The way that 82 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: you'd voice frustration at having been cut off in traffic 83 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,320 Speaker 1: by some ding dong in a miyata with flame decals 84 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: is not the same way that you'd voice frustration in 85 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: an all staff meeting. What's commonly called code switching, though 86 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: john Ball might more accurately call it style shifting, is 87 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: the way we change our speech based on context or company. 88 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: The ability to identify even really subtle details of dialect 89 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: has made John Ball a powerful expert witness and criminal court. 90 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,160 Speaker 1: In one particular case, a murder case, he was called 91 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:01,840 Speaker 1: in to analyze the recording of a phone call. If 92 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:04,719 Speaker 1: you're arrested and you go to jail in the United States, 93 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,880 Speaker 1: any phone call that you make can be recorded by 94 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 1: law enforcement, and anything you say during that phone call 95 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: can be used against you in a court of law. 96 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: A crucial bit of the prosecution's case centered on the 97 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,240 Speaker 1: content of a call in which the defendant spoke to 98 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: his cousin on a jailhouse phone. Both speakers were young 99 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: black men, and so his cousin thought that it would 100 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:33,159 Speaker 1: be to his advantage to have a speedy trial, and 101 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:34,920 Speaker 1: he asked him, He said, well, why don't you do 102 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: a speedy trial. The defendant's answer to this question, according 103 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,600 Speaker 1: to the prosecutor, was a smoking gun. The prosecutor produced 104 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 1: a transcript that said, why would I want a speedy 105 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: trial when I know I committed this ship And that 106 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: for the prosecutor was the admission of guilt that the 107 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: prosecutor needed in order to pursue the convict sction aggressively. 108 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 1: But when John heard the recording, he wasn't sure that's 109 00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: what the defendants said at all. He heard a totally 110 00:07:09,360 --> 00:07:12,320 Speaker 1: different sentence, which will explain in a moment, because a 111 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: particular vowel caught his ear. Both speakers were using what 112 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: scholars referred to as African American vernacular English, and John 113 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 1: wondered if the prosecutor just didn't know how to interpret it. 114 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:28,120 Speaker 1: Maybe the confession wasn't a confession at all. The prosecutor 115 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:31,440 Speaker 1: likely wasn't very well acquainted with a dialect used by 116 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,560 Speaker 1: the young man on trial. Our accents and patterns of 117 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 1: speech can vary dramatically, even for people who live very 118 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: near one another, and often those differences are perpetuated on purpose. 119 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:50,080 Speaker 1: People from Boston don't want to sound like people for 120 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:53,400 Speaker 1: New York. Right, If you're a Red Sox fan, you 121 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: don't want to sound like a Yankees fan. That is 122 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: Aaron Dinkin. He teaches socio linguistics at San Diego State University, 123 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: and he focuses on variations in American English dialects and 124 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:08,920 Speaker 1: how they change over time, features of linguistic variation, just 125 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:14,800 Speaker 1: get all of this subconscious social freight assigned to them, 126 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:17,800 Speaker 1: not just in terms of regional dialects, but also in 127 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: terms of gender and social class and ethnicity. That word 128 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: dialect describes all the features of a manner of speaking 129 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: a language, our pronunciation, rhythms, melodies, and the particularities of 130 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:36,760 Speaker 1: our vocabularies. So think of the British lift versus the 131 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:42,000 Speaker 1: American elevator, or the British adjective hinch versus the American honky, 132 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 1: the British fly tipper versus the American. Okay, admittedly, I 133 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: just learned that word this morning, and I think it's 134 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,240 Speaker 1: a person who dumps a lot of trash without paying 135 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:55,560 Speaker 1: for proper disposal. I'm not sure we have those in America. Well, 136 00:08:55,559 --> 00:08:57,400 Speaker 1: I'm sure we have people who do that, but I 137 00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: don't think we've given them a proper name, So the 138 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: just call them garbage scoundrels. Anyway, your accent is shaped 139 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: not only by where you're from, but by all sorts 140 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:10,440 Speaker 1: of super fine tuned markers. Aaron told me about this 141 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:14,319 Speaker 1: one study by a researcher named Suzanne Wagner that illustrates 142 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:16,920 Speaker 1: how a single vowel sound can serve as a hook 143 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:19,559 Speaker 1: on which all sorts of identities are home. So we're 144 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,800 Speaker 1: talking about the long eye vowel in words like fight 145 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: and price and rice. It has been found that statistically 146 00:09:30,360 --> 00:09:34,280 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, there is a change in the pronunciation of 147 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: that taking place where what was originally I as in 148 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:43,760 Speaker 1: fight and rice is changing more towards that I as 149 00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: in fight and rice. And it has been found that 150 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:53,400 Speaker 1: again statistically, not like a hard and fast distinction, but 151 00:09:53,440 --> 00:09:57,280 Speaker 1: just you know, on average, men are more likely to 152 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,200 Speaker 1: pronounce the vowel a little bit closer to A as 153 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:03,000 Speaker 1: in fight and rice, and women are more likely to 154 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: pronounce it a little bit less far along that curve 155 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,520 Speaker 1: and it sounds so brey right, so it got that 156 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: associated with it. But she found that that I pronunciation 157 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:21,320 Speaker 1: was a little bit more common among the girls who 158 00:10:21,400 --> 00:10:29,240 Speaker 1: were less invested in conforming to conventional femininity and who 159 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:34,720 Speaker 1: were more invested in like appearing tough, or the ones 160 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: who were more likely to get into fights, which is 161 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:44,080 Speaker 1: perceived as a masculine thing. And there was an ethnic 162 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 1: correlation as well, because for the most part, the more 163 00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: conventionally feminine girls in this neighborhood in South Philly were 164 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:59,240 Speaker 1: Italian American and the Irish American girls were more interested 165 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:07,320 Speaker 1: in seeming tough. Word broy freaking. This one vowel, even 166 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: just a little, really meant something. It meant something about 167 00:11:10,960 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: Irish roots versus Italian ones. It meant something about the 168 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: relative merit of trying to be fem versus trying to 169 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:18,880 Speaker 1: be tough, and the girls knew it. I read some 170 00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: of their research interviews. It was like two worldviews competing 171 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 1: for dominance in that little dot above a lower case I. 172 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,640 Speaker 1: The vowel change in South Philadelphia is a subtle one, 173 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:33,600 Speaker 1: but accents can diverge enough to cause confusion between speakers 174 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: of the same language. If I were watching a movie 175 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 1: whose character spoken like Scottish brogue or something, I'd probably 176 00:11:39,679 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: have to turn on the subtitles to track the action. 177 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:45,600 Speaker 1: Which brings us back to John Baw, the expert witness 178 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: in the murder case and the defendant speaking African American 179 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 1: Vernacular English on a call with his cousin. To study 180 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,160 Speaker 1: the roots of that dialect is to understand the extreme 181 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 1: pressures that forged it. The linguistic heritage of slaves in 182 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,800 Speaker 1: the United States is unique in comparison to every other group. 183 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:16,160 Speaker 1: Slave traders separated slaves whenever they could based on language. 184 00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:19,280 Speaker 1: Beginning in the slave factories on the West coast of Africa, 185 00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: people who spoke the same language were forcibly kept apart. 186 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:27,680 Speaker 1: If you don't share the same language, then you're less 187 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:31,400 Speaker 1: likely to be able to, you know, foment an insurrection. 188 00:12:32,400 --> 00:12:39,480 Speaker 1: So that explains why no African language survived the Atlantic crossing. Intact, 189 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: We've got lots of communities where Polish is spoken, or 190 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,760 Speaker 1: German is spoken, or Italian is spoken, but there's no 191 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: community where TWEE survived. And then it was illegal to 192 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: teach slaves to read and write African American vernacular English 193 00:12:54,760 --> 00:12:56,960 Speaker 1: can differ from the kind of English that's taught in 194 00:12:57,040 --> 00:13:01,359 Speaker 1: textbooks in many ways, in part because of this interrupted heritage, 195 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 1: and it's also the product of a lot of really 196 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:07,240 Speaker 1: varied linguistic influences. If I say i'll be i'll be done, 197 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:10,439 Speaker 1: told this story a thousand times, Okay, That use of 198 00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:14,839 Speaker 1: be done can be traced back to Scott's Irish dialects 199 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:18,000 Speaker 1: and the indentured servants that introduced that to the slaves. 200 00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:22,880 Speaker 1: The dialect that's considered standard or correct, or the Queen's English, 201 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:25,040 Speaker 1: or whatever you want to call it, that kind of 202 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,200 Speaker 1: status is really usually just the product of the fact 203 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,760 Speaker 1: that the classes in power consider their own way of 204 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:36,079 Speaker 1: speaking as correct. But linguists recognize that, at least from 205 00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,760 Speaker 1: a purely theoretical point of view, all languages and dialects 206 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: are equal, but they do vary. And the dialect spoken 207 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:45,960 Speaker 1: by the defendant on trial for murder was not the 208 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:49,680 Speaker 1: same as the one spoken by the prosecutor. John took 209 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: the taped call, which included the so called confession, to 210 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:56,319 Speaker 1: his language lab and he slowed it down to analyze 211 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,440 Speaker 1: every sound, and he began some research with speakers of 212 00:13:59,480 --> 00:14:04,760 Speaker 1: the same dialect. I conducted some experiments with African American 213 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: men similar background, same age, who were listening to the 214 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 1: recording under headphones, and I had them produce at the 215 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:17,000 Speaker 1: same pace. You know, I know I committed this ship 216 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: versus I know I ain't committed this ship. Okay, let's 217 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,280 Speaker 1: break that down. That one syllable from the defendant is 218 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:28,680 Speaker 1: the crucial detail on which John's testimony hinges and in actuality, 219 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 1: what he said in black dialect was whim a dual 220 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,520 Speaker 1: speedy trial, want to know and committed this ship now 221 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:40,040 Speaker 1: when I know I ain't committed is a nasalized dip 222 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:43,800 Speaker 1: thong without the tea of the word ain't. What the 223 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: prosecutor had taken for a confession, John understood is a 224 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:50,760 Speaker 1: statement of innocence. He took the stand and shared that 225 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,560 Speaker 1: analysis with the jury, and he presented them with an 226 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 1: image called a voice print, a graphic that showed the 227 00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: sound waves of both sentences. You can see the different 228 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: it's more clearly than you can hear the difference. After 229 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,320 Speaker 1: all the evidence was presented, the jurors went to deliberate, 230 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:09,960 Speaker 1: and the stakes of the verdict were really, really high. 231 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:14,000 Speaker 1: The crime that was committed was one where the defendant 232 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:21,520 Speaker 1: was eligible for execution, so essentially the single nasalized vowel 233 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: sound potentially could be the difference between life and death. 234 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 1: The jury was asked not only for a verdict, but 235 00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 1: to decide whether to impose capital punishment a death sentence 236 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,800 Speaker 1: if they found him guilty. In the end, the jurors 237 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: didn't vote to equit the defendant. They did find him guilty, 238 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 1: but the jury decided not to invoke the death penalty. 239 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:48,440 Speaker 1: So it could well be that John's testimony, undermining the 240 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 1: otherwise damning confession, stopped them from issuing a death sentence. 241 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:03,480 Speaker 1: Your particular dialect, which can shape your life and reflect 242 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 1: all sorts of facets of your identity, probably started to 243 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:13,520 Speaker 1: gel before you learned your first word. Okay, we get 244 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:15,560 Speaker 1: the idea. You can really only take so much of 245 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:20,080 Speaker 1: that anyway. Researchers led by Kathleen Vermke at the University 246 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: of Wurtzburg in Germany have found that infants cry and 247 00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 1: the melody of the language they've heard while in the womb, 248 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:29,480 Speaker 1: so French babies tend to produce cries with the rising 249 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: melody contour, whereas German babies produce more falling ones. Both 250 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:37,720 Speaker 1: patterns distinguishable from babies crying in Mandarin. But as soon 251 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:40,000 Speaker 1: as we're old enough to spend time with our peers, 252 00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 1: the parental influence on our language quickly dims in comparison 253 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: to that of our own social groups. Back to socio 254 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: linguist erindiccken to a kindergartener. If there is nobody cooler 255 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: than a first grader, right, So that's who becomes your 256 00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: new lingualistic models. But the profits of language teenagers, the 257 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 1: way that like fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old speak, that 258 00:17:05,240 --> 00:17:07,879 Speaker 1: is what's in the crystal ball, the nascent trends that 259 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,240 Speaker 1: will shape the speech of the future, and about of 260 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 1: language innovations are first used by women or girls. So 261 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:22,120 Speaker 1: what changes are currently underway? What sort of language forecast 262 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,119 Speaker 1: are we in for? Well, in the North American corner 263 00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:27,960 Speaker 1: of the map, there is a front coming in. It's 264 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 1: been called the California shift, it's been called the third 265 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: dialect shift, it's been called the Canadian shift, the short 266 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,480 Speaker 1: front vowel shift, or the low back Merger shift. So 267 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:42,000 Speaker 1: I'm talking about the short O vowel as in c 268 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:46,840 Speaker 1: ot cot and then this other vowel as in c 269 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:53,720 Speaker 1: A U g h T cont and since I'm from Massachusetts, 270 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: I pronounced those two the same already. I say caught 271 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:00,800 Speaker 1: and caught, but somebody from New York City, for example, 272 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: might say c ot cot and c a U g 273 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: h T court. Essentially, two distinct vowel sounds are collapsing 274 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: into one single sound, and this is creating a chain 275 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,960 Speaker 1: reaction all over Vowelville. So other vowels are essentially shifting 276 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:20,320 Speaker 1: to fill in the space left by this convergence. Think 277 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:23,919 Speaker 1: of how tectonic plates shift and collide and push one 278 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:28,280 Speaker 1: another around. So the third dialect shift involves the short 279 00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:32,400 Speaker 1: a as in the cat and the hat, moving backwards 280 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,960 Speaker 1: towards like the cat and the hot the e and 281 00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: dress and the eye and fit those are morphing too, 282 00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: So that's what the third dialect shift is. The short A, 283 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:48,120 Speaker 1: short E, and short eye vowels all moving kind of 284 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:54,240 Speaker 1: down and back in the geography of the mouth. So 285 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 1: maybe when we hit the ten thousandth episode of Deeply 286 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:01,960 Speaker 1: Human will be calling it a podcast as about human behavior, 287 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,879 Speaker 1: I don't talk about the vowel sounds in English seem 288 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 1: particularly susceptible to this kind of evolution. This may be 289 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,679 Speaker 1: because English, as compared to other languages, has a bunch 290 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: of vowel sounds somewhere between eleven and sixteen, which means 291 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:20,160 Speaker 1: that each of them has sort of a narrow lane, 292 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:22,440 Speaker 1: like if you move your tongue just a little bit 293 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:26,639 Speaker 1: one way or the other, you wander into the neighboring sound. Spanish, 294 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:30,040 Speaker 1: by comparison, has only five vowel sounds, and Aaron says 295 00:19:30,080 --> 00:19:32,400 Speaker 1: that some of those have been stable for as long 296 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,040 Speaker 1: as linguists have been able to trace their history. Okay, 297 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:45,480 Speaker 1: speaking of foreign languages, James, that's the signal, James, my guy, 298 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:50,240 Speaker 1: play the next clip. My name's Katie Harris, thank you, 299 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: and I run a website called Drew of Languages, which 300 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:59,160 Speaker 1: is where we help adults learn a foreign language by 301 00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: making it far and making the grammar explanations really really simple. 302 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: Katie lives in Italy, and I'm told that her Italian 303 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:09,919 Speaker 1: accent is pretty think good, like almost native. But it 304 00:20:10,119 --> 00:20:14,480 Speaker 1: was not always. So I've been living in Italy for 305 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,200 Speaker 1: a year, nobody had ever told me about the difference 306 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 1: between single and double sounds. So in Italian there's this 307 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:29,160 Speaker 1: difference between how long you hold a sound. So, for example, 308 00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:32,760 Speaker 1: if you say I'm not with two ends, then that 309 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: means year. But if you say are not with one 310 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:41,639 Speaker 1: end a shorter end, then that means anus. So it 311 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:45,119 Speaker 1: can be quite dangerous, especially because in Italian, so to 312 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,919 Speaker 1: say your age, it's like Spanish, where you say I 313 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: have thirty five years. So I thought I'd been walking 314 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:53,399 Speaker 1: around telling people that. Well at the time, you know, 315 00:20:53,520 --> 00:21:01,640 Speaker 1: I had twenty three anuses. It's unfortunate. Yeah, Katie, who 316 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: I will note also speak Spanish and French and some 317 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:08,680 Speaker 1: German and some Mandarin, had to really focus on getting 318 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,200 Speaker 1: her Italian accent down, whereas it comes more easily to 319 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:17,199 Speaker 1: very young humans. Babies when they're born are able to fully, 320 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,120 Speaker 1: of course, perceive the difference between any sound in any 321 00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:24,119 Speaker 1: of the world's languages. It's almost as if their brain 322 00:21:25,240 --> 00:21:28,240 Speaker 1: starts to lock on to the first language that they learned, 323 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:31,879 Speaker 1: so that then it becomes more difficult to hear the 324 00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: difference between other sounds and therefore pronounce them as well. 325 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: If you focus on learning the sounds of a language 326 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:41,440 Speaker 1: in the same way that you focus on learning the words, 327 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,680 Speaker 1: it's quite possible to train yourself to pronounce new sounds. 328 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:48,040 Speaker 1: You have to be patient because it's a bit like 329 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,719 Speaker 1: going to the gym. You have to change the muscles 330 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:53,560 Speaker 1: in your mouth, so that takes a little bit of time, 331 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:58,560 Speaker 1: but it's absolutely possible to learn them. I spoke to 332 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:01,320 Speaker 1: an accent coach, Jack Alas, who said that part of 333 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:03,919 Speaker 1: the challenge is just to make people aware of all 334 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:07,359 Speaker 1: their muscles. So sometimes teachers will ask students to roll 335 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:09,800 Speaker 1: a blueberry on their tongue just to get a sense 336 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: of what's really going on in there. Being a language 337 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,800 Speaker 1: teacher and learner herself, Katie is dialed into all the 338 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:20,959 Speaker 1: tiny variations of speech sounds around her. For example, my 339 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 1: partner speaks wonderful English. He's Italian, but he still has 340 00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,960 Speaker 1: an Italian accent. He asked me about the pronunciation of things, 341 00:22:29,040 --> 00:22:33,480 Speaker 1: for example, saying, the Italians when they speak English, tend 342 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,160 Speaker 1: to say because they don't have the sound, and if 343 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:40,159 Speaker 1: we just sit and I explain how to make it, 344 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,199 Speaker 1: he can make it perfectly. It sounds native. And then 345 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: I asked him why he doesn't actually do it when 346 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,080 Speaker 1: he's speaking English, and he said, it feels silly. I 347 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:52,040 Speaker 1: feel like I'm trying to pretend to be somebody that 348 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: I'm not. I don't want to pretend to be an 349 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:58,080 Speaker 1: English person. I'm Italian. I'm happy to sound like an Italian. 350 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:01,760 Speaker 1: He's speaking English. Okay. By this point you've probably picked 351 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 1: up on the fact that identity is a big theme here. So, 352 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: for example, if I think about chefs who might have 353 00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:12,400 Speaker 1: been living in the country for twenty thirty years, say 354 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,680 Speaker 1: an Italian chef living in the US. For some reason, 355 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:18,239 Speaker 1: I've always noticed that chefs always really tend to keep 356 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:20,760 Speaker 1: their accents, even if they've been living there for decades. 357 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 1: I think it's probably because it's useful to them. They 358 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:28,119 Speaker 1: have no reason to adopt a new local identity, because 359 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,879 Speaker 1: the stronger their accent is, the more that people can 360 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,399 Speaker 1: associate them with where they come from. So you know, 361 00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:37,680 Speaker 1: I personally would trust a pizza made by an Italian 362 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,080 Speaker 1: chef that has a stronger Italian accent than they had 363 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: an American accent. Why you talk the way you do, 364 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,919 Speaker 1: there's a product of a lifetime of layered factors. The 365 00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:51,120 Speaker 1: melodies of speech that make their way to you while 366 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,479 Speaker 1: you're still an incubation, the words and phrases learned from 367 00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:57,240 Speaker 1: your parents, the rough and tumbled talk of the first 368 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:01,199 Speaker 1: greater jet set, and then in humorable, fine layers of 369 00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:04,119 Speaker 1: identity informed by the slang at the girl's table, in 370 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:06,840 Speaker 1: the lunch room, the talk in the brake room, maybe 371 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,640 Speaker 1: the language of the Sunday sermon. You're like a walking 372 00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:13,560 Speaker 1: archaeological dig of language, and of course they are your 373 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,720 Speaker 1: own aspirations to speak like the person you'd like to be. 374 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:21,199 Speaker 1: My job as a scientist is to try to have 375 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 1: people appreciate and respect that someone who's linguistic background is 376 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:33,879 Speaker 1: substantially different from your own is equally worthy of your respect, 377 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: your kindness, and the assumption that they may be just 378 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:44,560 Speaker 1: as intelligent and just as capable as those people that 379 00:24:44,640 --> 00:24:49,359 Speaker 1: you prefer in your own linguistic comfort zone. Snaps Wow, 380 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: landed Man, Well, let me give you your shoutout girlfriend, 381 00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: because you are good. What kind of maniacal, self celebratory 382 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:02,320 Speaker 1: podcast host would include that complimentary bit of audio. If 383 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:12,280 Speaker 1: you guessed this guy, yes you are correct, Watch out Olivia. Also, 384 00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: let me share a quote from author Amy Chua, but 385 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,760 Speaker 1: struck a chord with me. Do you know what a 386 00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:23,320 Speaker 1: foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery. Okay, let 387 00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,679 Speaker 1: the record show what a highbrow podcast you are listening to, 388 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:28,920 Speaker 1: and that we got almost all the way to the 389 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,879 Speaker 1: end of this thing before even mentioning the fact that 390 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:39,800 Speaker 1: some accents are just really sexy, like unwholesomely charged with 391 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,040 Speaker 1: pure animal Hang on, we'll come back to that in 392 00:25:44,080 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 1: a second. Got into the credits first. Deeply Human is 393 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:52,359 Speaker 1: a BBC World Service and American Public Media co production 394 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,440 Speaker 1: with I Heart Media, and it's hosted by Tessa. Find 395 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:05,760 Speaker 1: her online on Instagram, Darling on Twitter. My French friend 396 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:10,399 Speaker 1: who lives in Milatin. When she was in the States 397 00:26:10,440 --> 00:26:14,040 Speaker 1: for a while, she found the perfect pickup line was 398 00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: to say, I'm French, but they live in Milan. Is 399 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:26,320 Speaker 1: she single? Yes? But she wasn't when she was in 400 00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:29,040 Speaker 1: the States because it was so easy. Everyone would melt 401 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:35,919 Speaker 1: as soon as she said it. If you play music 402 00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 1: for a nine month old baby, they'll start to squirm 403 00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:41,880 Speaker 1: and bop around and dance in whatever manner is possible 404 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:44,720 Speaker 1: for somebody who can't yet stand unsupported in whose arms 405 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,000 Speaker 1: are barely long enough to reach over their own heads. 406 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:51,400 Speaker 1: Join me Tessa for the next Deeply Human to find 407 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,720 Speaker 1: out why our bodies respond to rhythm and if you 408 00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:57,800 Speaker 1: dig the podcast and you've got an extra forty five seconds, 409 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,640 Speaker 1: rate us and drop us a review. I read them all, 410 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:02,760 Speaker 1: and more than once I have referenced to review while 411 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: chatting with the team to craft a new episode. Thanks 412 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,439 Speaker 1: per usual for listening, and we'll see you. Next question.