Daddy Issues in Modern Language 

By Olivia Rawiel

Have you ever wondered why you might find some accents more attractive than others? For example, why someone might believe that Italian is more captivating than German. Most people would say it is based on the sounds that come from the language itself, but contrary to popular opinion, there is no linguistic basis on why German should sound “harsher” than Italian. It actually goes much deeper than that. 

There is nothing specific in the sound itself that might make a language less attractive. This idea really stems from how we stereotype the speakers who own the dialect. For instance, Spanish, Italian and French are considered more alluring because, according to western society, their countries are associated with things like romance, culture and art. 

This means that a lot of “first world countries” tend to be regarded as “more attractive”. Case in point, many of the countries that Britain colonized consecutively agree that the British accent is “hot”. All of this connects back to colonialism. It basically comes down to “sociolinguistic daddy issues” in which colonized countries might still associate their colonizers with greater wealth. 

This is called a Prestige Dialect. It is the same reason why you might find the transatlantic accent to be more appealing than minority dialects. It's associated with a higher social class, therefore creating this narrative that some languages just “sound better”. This means that the prestige dialect often coincides with what is standard and accepted, having us subconsciously marginalize certain languages without even realizing it.  

While this may not be true for all languages and certainly has a few exceptions, it could definitely explain the bias we have towards specific accents. 

Through this, we can conclude that, despite what many may think, we are far more connected to our history in colonization than one might previously assume. Even though it was a long time ago, it is this that can determine who we turn into as people. We will never not be controlled by our pasts. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I cannot say for sure. However, it is important to be aware of how this linguistic phenomenon affects us and, in turn, how we affect other people. 

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