Time to stop all this political bickering? Want a little more rationality and a little less volatility? Start listening to dialects, particularly to vowel sounds.
Did CCR subtly give us a mechanism for understanding political leaning in their 1968 version of Susie Q? “Oh, Susie Q…I like the way you talk….” Is there something in Aunt or Cousin or neighbor Susie’s speech that gives us a clue to their political perspective and a mechanism for reducing adrenalin output during conversations about politics?
Talk, or, more specifically, dialect, isn’t something we pay much attention to unless we travel outside our regions. Maybe we should pay more attention to it inside our neighborhoods. Brice Russ reports (Dec. 1, 2017) in Science.org that people with a common political bent have a common dialect: “…even small linguistic difference can indicate political affiliation—and help form identities.”*
Scottish members of UK’s House of Commons pronounce vowels according to their affinity for a political point of view according to the study Russ reviews. Members of the Scottish National Party would probably read aloud the Dr. Seuss story with a low “a” deep in the throat as The Coht (or Cot) in the Hoht (or Hot), but their counterparts in the Labour Party would likely read it more with a higher pitched “a” as the tip of the tongue presses into the bottom teeth (/kaet/) in voicing The Cat in the Hat.*
“How,” you ask, “is this something we could all use when we talk to Aunt or Cousin or neighbor Susie to reduce our output of adrenalin during a political conversation?”
Hearing one’s own dialect and distinguishing it is a difficult matter for many of us when we are surrounded by similar speakers. But we all, it seems, can tell the difference in pronunciation when we are among speakers with a different dialect. We might not be able to hear or pay attention to our own dialect, but we can sure hear a different one.
Mostly, we associate dialects with regions, and we probably hear what we consider an indigenous pronunciation in city or farmland, in eastern or western districts, or in mountain and valleys. We distinguish generally when we visit another region. People in the USA Midwest differ in pronunciation from people in the Northeast, and a pattern of differences manifests itself in the “Midwests” and “Northeasts” of almost every nation. In assigning dialects to regions, we ignore subtle differences in dialects within regions.
But now, according to the study of the Scottish Parliamentarians, we need to consider how political view also shapes the way we talk. Would listening to dialect be a rational mechanism that reduces gut reactions to people of different political persuasion?
So, the next time you visit those relatives with a different point of view, pay less attention to their perspective and more attention to their vowels. You’ll turn yourself away from simply using your amygdalae and toward using your frontal cortex, and you’ll have a smaller amount of adrenalin coursing through your veins. For a brief time at least, let’s all stop listening to what our political adversaries are saying and start paying attention to the sounds they use to say it.
If dialect indicates political view, then we really don’t need to hear all those same talking points with which we either agree or disagree. Pronunciation of a single vowel will encapsulate an entire political point of view as much as a generalized dialect represents a region.
Oh, Susie Q. I like (or dislike) the way you talk.
Now we just need someone to do a study on how people of differing political perspectives walk. We might not even have to engage a political counterpart in a conversation as we watch him or her walk toward us.
Of course, in today’s contentious society driven by incessant shouting matches on talk shows, there’s another alternative for peaceful coexistence between two political opponents: Don’t walk toward or talk to each other.
“But nothing will ever be solved that way,” you say.
“How is that different from what seems to be the current status of political exchange?”
Oh, Susie Q.
I like (or dislike) the way you walk;
I like (or dislike) the way you talk…
Susie Q.
* http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/how-politics-can-shape-person-s-accent
**This will be difficult for a member of either party to distinguish among colleagues.
Did CCR subtly give us a mechanism for understanding political leaning in their 1968 version of Susie Q? “Oh, Susie Q…I like the way you talk….” Is there something in Aunt or Cousin or neighbor Susie’s speech that gives us a clue to their political perspective and a mechanism for reducing adrenalin output during conversations about politics?
Talk, or, more specifically, dialect, isn’t something we pay much attention to unless we travel outside our regions. Maybe we should pay more attention to it inside our neighborhoods. Brice Russ reports (Dec. 1, 2017) in Science.org that people with a common political bent have a common dialect: “…even small linguistic difference can indicate political affiliation—and help form identities.”*
Scottish members of UK’s House of Commons pronounce vowels according to their affinity for a political point of view according to the study Russ reviews. Members of the Scottish National Party would probably read aloud the Dr. Seuss story with a low “a” deep in the throat as The Coht (or Cot) in the Hoht (or Hot), but their counterparts in the Labour Party would likely read it more with a higher pitched “a” as the tip of the tongue presses into the bottom teeth (/kaet/) in voicing The Cat in the Hat.*
“How,” you ask, “is this something we could all use when we talk to Aunt or Cousin or neighbor Susie to reduce our output of adrenalin during a political conversation?”
Hearing one’s own dialect and distinguishing it is a difficult matter for many of us when we are surrounded by similar speakers. But we all, it seems, can tell the difference in pronunciation when we are among speakers with a different dialect. We might not be able to hear or pay attention to our own dialect, but we can sure hear a different one.
Mostly, we associate dialects with regions, and we probably hear what we consider an indigenous pronunciation in city or farmland, in eastern or western districts, or in mountain and valleys. We distinguish generally when we visit another region. People in the USA Midwest differ in pronunciation from people in the Northeast, and a pattern of differences manifests itself in the “Midwests” and “Northeasts” of almost every nation. In assigning dialects to regions, we ignore subtle differences in dialects within regions.
But now, according to the study of the Scottish Parliamentarians, we need to consider how political view also shapes the way we talk. Would listening to dialect be a rational mechanism that reduces gut reactions to people of different political persuasion?
So, the next time you visit those relatives with a different point of view, pay less attention to their perspective and more attention to their vowels. You’ll turn yourself away from simply using your amygdalae and toward using your frontal cortex, and you’ll have a smaller amount of adrenalin coursing through your veins. For a brief time at least, let’s all stop listening to what our political adversaries are saying and start paying attention to the sounds they use to say it.
If dialect indicates political view, then we really don’t need to hear all those same talking points with which we either agree or disagree. Pronunciation of a single vowel will encapsulate an entire political point of view as much as a generalized dialect represents a region.
Oh, Susie Q. I like (or dislike) the way you talk.
Now we just need someone to do a study on how people of differing political perspectives walk. We might not even have to engage a political counterpart in a conversation as we watch him or her walk toward us.
Of course, in today’s contentious society driven by incessant shouting matches on talk shows, there’s another alternative for peaceful coexistence between two political opponents: Don’t walk toward or talk to each other.
“But nothing will ever be solved that way,” you say.
“How is that different from what seems to be the current status of political exchange?”
Oh, Susie Q.
I like (or dislike) the way you walk;
I like (or dislike) the way you talk…
Susie Q.
* http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/12/how-politics-can-shape-person-s-accent
**This will be difficult for a member of either party to distinguish among colleagues.
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