The Ridiculously Interesting World of American Accents

When your family is from a place with a distinctive, often-mockable accent, and you don’t have that accent but can (and do) readily fall into it as soon as you get around anyone who does their vowels like a Minnesotan, you learn to love accents. And then, as soon as you take any class (or read any text) in the anthropology/sociology/cultural analysis realm, you start thinking about accents as signifiers: of place, of race, of social status, of education, of insider/outsider status… the meanings feel endless.

I’m SO thrilled to have Dr. Nicole Holliday on this week’s episode to go deep and nerdy on all of your very complicated (or, sometimes, deceptively simple) questions about accents — most of them American, but we’ve got a few Canadian questions in there, too. And I can pretty much guarantee: you’re going to absolutely devour this episode. It’s the platonic ideal of a Culture Study ep, and I can’t wait to discuss it.

Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!

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Show Notes:

• Find out more about Dr. Nicole Holliday’s work here

• Follow Dr. Holliday on TikTok (where I first started watching her!)

• If you haven’t heard GloRilla’s Memphis accent, here you go:

Taste of the Yinzer Accent:

Okay one more:

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• Birding Culture!

• Running a Small Business — and How to Make It Sustainable & Survivable (with Jen Hewett!)

• Hoarding Culture / How to Navigate Hoarders in Your Life

• Different Modalities of Hanging Out (aka, best ways to hang out with different people) with Mary HK Choi

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• Baseball Culture (with Ali Liebegott and Melody as additional co-host!!!)

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For this week’s discussion: How did this conversation make you rethink an accent (or many accents) in your life?

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