Apparently some people believe that their is no difference in way of speaking between different races of people who grow up in the same enviroment. Others disagree and say that even when example a black child is born in middle class suburban America, is raised by White Americans, and interacts with other whites, they still wouldn’t sound like other white kids. I agree with the latter one.
Well Its probably evolution. White people evolved to be suited to Northern cold climates. They also have the weakest genes meaning they display the most diversity in facial shape, eye colour, hair colour, hair texture and vocal types.
This is probably why other races seem to have the same way of speaking; the genes for voice are dominant.
But you can clearly hear the difference when they speak their language. Why is that? Well probably because again language evolved from environment and they are suited to the environment. Perhaps when they try and emulate other ‘‘White accents’’ their brain and vocal cord can only do a generic. Making them sound all alike
Think of William Shattner. He has a deep voice, deeper than some blacks, but most American black or white would be able to tell that he’s not black. Yet Africans who have voices with the a high pitch same as most whites still would have a nuisance of Blackness in them.
I could be wrong but can anyone elaborate on this?
Anyone who thinks race and voice are inextricably linked needs to listen to the newly departed Tony Gwynn. Black dude, raised in LA in the surfspeak culture and sounds quite a bit like me, the whitest of white dudes also raised in the same area and the same time.
For some reason “A Nuisance of Blackness” sounds to me like it should be the title of a Victorian mystery novel. One of the ones people are embarrassed to read now because it’s really, really racist.
Accents are cultural artifacts, not genetic. (But, then, of course, race is a cultural artifact also.)
We acquire accents initially from our family, and then from our peers. If it’s true that in some places black people speak differently from white people - I express no opinion about whether, or where, this is the case - that is because those places still practice some degree of social segregation; for a kid of a particular race, other people of the same race are more his peers than people of different races, and they have a greater influence over the shaping of his accent.