老外告訴你真相 英音美音誰更高大上

In America, prestige speaks with a British accent. Friendliness, however, sounds a lot like you.

在美國，人們覺得英音高大上，而美音則顯得友善。

Record a variety of people reading the same passage aloud —speakers from different regions of the English-speaking world—and then play those recordings to American college students. Ask the students for their first impressions about the speakers. Are they well-educated? Do they have good jobs? Are they funny? Would you trust them?

讓來自不同英語地區(qū)的人們大聲朗讀同一段文章后，把錄音播放給美國大學(xué)生聽，并詢問學(xué)生們對這些說話人的第一印象：他們是否受了良好的教育?他們是否有好的工作?他們幽默嗎?你能信任他們嗎?

Historically, with a big enough sample (say, a few hundred people), you would have found two things. First, that the speakers of British English, particularly the upper-class dialect known as Received Pronunciation (RP, or “the Queen’s English”), would rate highest on measures of social status and power, such as wealth, education level, and assertiveness. Second, speakers with American accents (particularly the same American accent as the raters had) would score highest on measures of solidarity, such as friendliness and sense of humor.

以往，樣本足夠多時(比如說有幾百人參與研究)，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)兩件事。首先，說英式英語的人，尤其是被稱為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)發(fā)音的上流社會口音(RP，或者叫“女王英語”)在衡量社會地位和權(quán)利時得到的評價最高，包括財富、教育程度和自信等。其次，美式發(fā)音的人(尤其是和評價者有著同樣的美式口音的人)會在測評團(tuán)結(jié)程度時得分最高，比如說友善程度和幽默感。

But the annoying thing is that social attitudes change drastically over time. Even the most exhaustedly replicated set of findings will eventually be out of date. So sociolinguists must entirely redo earlier studies (“revisit” is usually the euphemism used) to see if the original results still hold. In 2001, the late Donn Bayard of the University of Otago (in New Zealand), with colleagues Ann Weatherall, Cynthia Gallois, and Jeffery Pittam, presented several hundred American, Australian, and New Zealander undergrads with recordings of American, Australian, New Zealand, and English (RP) speakers all reading the same passage aloud. As in earlier studies, the college students rated the speakers on a number of factors.

但是令人煩惱的是，社會上的看法會隨著時間的推移發(fā)生180度的轉(zhuǎn)變。就算筋疲力盡一再重復(fù)研究得出的結(jié)果最終也將會過時。所以社會語言學(xué)家必須要徹底重新做一次之前的研究(委婉點說叫“重訪”)來看看是否原來的研究結(jié)果仍然成立。2001年，奧塔哥大學(xué)(新西蘭)已故的唐•貝爾德和同事安•韋瑟羅爾、辛西婭•加洛瓦、杰弗瑞•皮塔姆一起給幾百名美國、澳大利亞和新西蘭大學(xué)生聽了美國人、澳大利亞人、新西蘭人和英國標(biāo)準(zhǔn)口音的人大聲讀同一段文章。正如之前的研究一樣，這些大學(xué)生要從幾方面來評定這些朗讀的人。

To vastly oversimplify a large and complex data set, things looked a bit different this time around. First, American students rated the American speakers quite highly on all accounts (not just on measures of solidarity). Second, and most strikingly, the New Zealand and Australian students also rated the American speakers very highly across the board. These students actually rated the Americans speakers higher on measures of solidarity than they rated speakers of their own dialect.

這一次龐大復(fù)雜的研究數(shù)據(jù)被大大簡化了，研究結(jié)果看起來和以往有點不同。首先，美國學(xué)生在各個方面(不僅僅是在團(tuán)結(jié)程度上)都給了美音朗讀者很高的評價。其次，最引人注目的是，新西蘭和澳大利亞的學(xué)生也在各方面給了美音朗讀者很高的評價。事實上，這些學(xué)生在團(tuán)結(jié)程度上給了美音朗讀者比持自己國家方言的人更高的評價。

Why might this have happened? Why are American accents suddenly so ubiquitous and admired? The authors held the media largely responsible. They argue that the change may “reflect a bowing to the inexorable pressure of American global hegemony in all its guises: fast foods, pop music, films, middle-class sitcoms, American ownership or part ownership of what were formerly New Zealand/Australian entities like rail, phone, and power networks, and even the adoption of Black American music, dance, and spoken idiom by the equivalent Maori and Pacific Island underclass in New Zealand.” Indeed, students in New Zealand, where the influence of the American media is even stronger than in Australia, had a more positive perception of American accents than did students in Australia.

為什么會這樣?為什么美國口音突然變得無處不在、如此吃香?這個責(zé)任很大程度上要歸因于掌控著媒體的人。他們爭辯說這種變化可能“反應(yīng)了對美國在全球各種形式的霸權(quán)的屈服，這種霸權(quán)帶來了無法阻擋的壓力：快餐、流行音樂、電影、中產(chǎn)階級的情景喜劇、美國對原來是新西蘭或澳大利亞的實業(yè)(像鐵路、電話和電力)的所有權(quán)或部分所有權(quán)，甚至對美國黑人音樂和舞蹈以及土話的接納，這些土話就相當(dāng)于新西蘭的毛利語和下等階層的語言。”新西蘭的學(xué)生受美國媒體的影響甚至比澳大利亞還要大，他們的確對美式口音的看法要比澳大利亞學(xué)生更積極一點。

Speaking of which. The study I’ve just described was published back in 2001, and a lot has happened since. What does prestige sound like today? I’m sure someone’s on it.

說到這，上面描述是早在2001年的研究，自那以后發(fā)生了很多事，現(xiàn)如今什么樣的口音最高大上呢?一定有人在對此進(jìn)行研究。