Chapter 3
Evaluations of foreign accent in a purist speech
community
The case of Iceland
This study was directed both at evaluations of
foreign-accented Icelandic according to listeners’
background and the possible consequences of evaluations
for the linguistic climate in Iceland. Seven female
non-native speakers, representing the largest immigrant
groups, and one native speaker of Icelandic were recorded
and subsequently evaluated according to eight personality
traits. Statistical analysis of answers of 538 Icelanders
revealed that women and those over 60 are generally more
positive in their evaluation as compared to men or those
under 60 years. Overall, results imply, firstly, that
those accents which can be categorised as
Western are preferred over those
that belong to Eastern Europeans or Asians and, secondly,
that the native Icelandic accent is not always rated
highest.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Evaluating an accent
- 3.The language situation in Iceland
- 4.Method
- 4.1Speakers
- 4.2Procedure
- 4.3Survey and data analysis
- 5.Results
- 5.1Evaluations of personality traits
- 5.2Gender
- 5.3Age
- 6.Discussion
- 7.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
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