# Different races DO have different ways of speaking even with the same accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 1, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144 "2014-07-01T22:45:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/21 "2014-07-02T03:53:34Z")
Bele: It is obvious to the most simpleminded that Lokai is of an inferior breed. Mr. Spock: The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself. Bele: Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me. Look at me! Captain James T. Kirk: You are black on one side and white on the other. Bele: I am black on the right side! ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/22 "2014-07-02T04:32:21Z")
The American who IMHO performed the best English accent I’ve heard? Forest \*\*\*\*ing Whitaker. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/23 "2014-07-02T05:18:37Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Say whaaaaah? Dayum. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/24 "2014-07-02T05:23:56Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Oh, sure. Thanks. > > Anyone who thinks race and voice are inextricably linked needs to listen to the newly departed [Tony Gwynn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkrlQyN9qQA). 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. > > LA in the 70s man, there was nothing like it. Or for that matter Barry Bonds. Grew up in the richest, whitest areas of San Francisco and, in the words of his biographer, Jeff Pearlman, spoke “like Eddie Murphy doing his white man accent on Saturday Night Live.” For that matter, if people want to think of Iranians as a race, whenever my dad speaks he still sounds like he’s fresh off the boat even though he’s lived in the US for thirty years whereas I sound like a grew up in a Connecticut country club and my last name has a roman numeral attached to it and I have a wife named Sydney. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/25 "2014-07-02T06:38:52Z")
I can never find a link for this now, but back in the 1990s I remember reading about research that was carried out at the University of San Francisco which tested Americans’ ability to identify a speaker’s race merely by the sound of their voice. What I recall about the research was that the African-American speakers were deliberately chosen for _not_ having an identifiable AAVE accent. Despite this, a _very very_ high percentage of subjects were still able to distinguish the black speakers from the white speakers. I can’t offer any further information about how the study was conducted nor do I want to speculate on the reason behind the findings, but it is interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/26 "2014-07-02T07:01:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Well, everyone can tell that this is [a black woman singing.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRLHEisj4k). She may be dressed up like a ginger headed white guy, but she ain’t follin’ nobody! Personally, I don’t care about evidence or reasoning or my personal inability to notice it unless there’s a video. If it ain’t a black chick singing, I ain’t listening to “Great Gig In The Sky”. 😃 Slightly more on topic: OP, given the lack of evidence for any particular gene representing how people speak, don’t you think it more reasonable that certain racial minorities have certain speech affectations because of cultural expectations/norms, rather than racial ones? I mean, we all have a basic idea of how black people speak, accent or not - you think black people don’t pick up on that? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/27 "2014-07-02T07:28:57Z")
_Language_ is quite clearly transmitted culturally, not genetically. Given that, it would be extraordinary if _accent_ was genetically determined. I think it’s just a bizarre proposition. Even if it’s true that particular ethnic groups have distinctive forms of speech, that still wouldn’t suggest a genetic factor, any more than an ethnically-distinctive religious denomination proves that religious denomination is genetic. ---
**Author:** ![hellasketchy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f17d59/32.png) [@hellasketchy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hellasketchy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/28 "2014-07-02T07:41:13Z")
OP types white. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/29 "2014-07-02T07:52:40Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > 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. Presumably, the OP meant ‘nuance’, possibly. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/30 "2014-07-02T08:12:32Z")
Hmmm… Black kid, white neighborhood, not bred for colder territories… I’m willing to bet [Grant Fuhr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Fuhr) and [Wayne Simmonds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Simmonds) disagree with the sordid OP. Of course, Grant was half black and adopted, so does he say “Eh?” more than Wayne does? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/31 "2014-07-02T08:43:13Z")
> [@ContentWithTomorrow](#): > > 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. White people have the greatest diversity because it is a social group that grows more inclusive by the decade, nothing to do with genetics. Weakest genes is scientifically meaningless, might as well say they have the weakest lifeforce. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/32 "2014-07-02T12:08:53Z")
I recall watching a comedian at some point back. Asian looking guy and can’t specify his actual background. Then, he spoke and my mind went, ‘hey, that ain’t right.’ Pure backhome, cornbread and butter beans accent. He grew up in Tennessee and spoke Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/33 "2014-07-02T13:09:41Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Well, everyone can tell that this is [a black woman singing.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVRLHEisj4k). She may be dressed up like a ginger headed white guy, but she ain’t follin’ nobody! Thought for a second you were going to rick-roll us 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/34 "2014-07-02T13:31:23Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Say whaaaaah? > [@grude](#): > > White people have the greatest diversity because it is a social group that grows more inclusive by the decade, nothing to do with genetics. > > Weakest genes is scientifically meaningless, might as well say they have the weakest lifeforce. They have the most Midichlorians, though. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/35 "2014-07-02T13:45:55Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > I recall watching a comedian at some point back. Asian looking guy and can’t specify his actual background. Then, he spoke and my mind went, ‘hey, that ain’t right.’ > > Pure backhome, cornbread and butter beans accent. > > He grew up in Tennessee and spoke Tennessee. I know a guy like that also; You see him and you think he’s probably some FOB Chinese guy, or maybe not quite FOB, but still an immigrant. Then you actually talk to him, and you find out his name’s Roy and he’s from Alabama, and if you didn’t actually see what he looks like, you’d think he’s some tobacco dippin’, beer drinking redneck from Alabama. I bet it’s not a matter of accent, but rather some combination of word choice, idiom use and grammatical construction. You could have Anthony Hopkins and George Clooney read the Smokey/Craig scenes from Friday in their normal voices, and it would still be very clear that the characters are black. I bet that even in non-accented black people, there’s still some kind of residual pattern that’s easily picked up. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/36 "2014-07-02T13:52:50Z")
> [@MostlyUseless](#): > > I recall watching a comedian at some point back. Asian looking guy and can’t specify his actual background. Then, he spoke and my mind went, ‘hey, that ain’t right.’ [Henry Cho](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cho). Born and raised in Knoxville, TN. My brother is his non-comedic Arkansas equivalent (I don’t have much of the accent but my word choices occasionally veer southern). All it really takes to prove the OP wrong is just listening to anybody from the UK. The challenge is simple. Take a random UK (or Australian or New Zealand or whatever) voice sample and identify the race of the speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/37 "2014-07-02T13:58:55Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Thought for a second you were going to rick-roll us 🙂 My first response to reading the OP _was_ to Rickroll him. I mean, it would be the first [absolutely justified](http://bit.ly/1qlfxrK) (and helpful!) time. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/38 "2014-07-02T14:24:06Z")
There was also a song from the 80’s that I never saw the video but presumed the singer to be big time Motown and turns out to be a white kid with red hair. In that case, it wasn’t the language, it was the power of his voice. I still think that race has nothing to do with it. A combination of education, word choice, culture of upbringing and probably a whole lot more. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/39 "2014-07-02T14:28:00Z")
… new to the Internet? ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144/40 "2014-07-02T14:49:12Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Presumably, the OP meant ‘nuance’, possibly. Well, sure, but “A Nuisance of Blackness” \*definitely \*sounds like a Ngaio Marsh title. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/different-races-do-have-different-ways-of-speaking-even-with-the-same-accent/692144.md?page=3)