Toddlers around the world start developing accents as they grow and as they are exposed to many other factors like the media, people and geographical differences, their accents may change.

An “accent” is, in context to the topic in discussion, “a characteristic pronunciation, especially one determined by the regional or social background of the speaker… [Or] … one determined by the phonetic habits of the speaker’s native language carried over to his or her use of another language” (Accent n.d.).

As can be derived from the definition above, there is no such thing as not having an accent. A man from Malaysia has a Malaysian accent and a man from the United States of America (USA) has an American accent. An accent is affected by the environmental factors of the speaker and among those, includes the influence of his peers, culture, race and ethnicity and even location.

Accents are not only phonetics, but they are an identity. It distinguishes and identifies a person’s social status, group and identity with which the accents are associated with. There are two types of English accents widely spoken in the world today; they are the General American English and the Received Pronunciation (RP), also known as the Queen’s English (Ask-a-linguist FAQ: accents 2007).

In Malaysia, the phenomenon of speaking in Western accents is spreading. A majority of urban youths in Malaysia are influenced by so many internal and external factors that their adoption of Western accents are beginning to affect the phonetics of their own native language. The common accents spoken are the General American and Received Pronunciation accents. The General American accent is sometimes known as the Standard Spoken American English. On the other hand, the Received Pronunciation accent is known as the Queen’s English which is the accent most used when teaching non-English speakers. A minority of Malaysia’s urban youths speak the General American accent while a majority speak RP. However, the difference is inconsiderable as they often switch between languages and accents.

The presence of both American and RP accents in Malaysia can be explained through history, education and the media. Some characteristics of being a Commonwealth country are the traces of culture, language, tradition, religion and et cetera left behind by the English, not including other European forces that once settled in Malaya. English used to be Malaya’s official language but have since been replaced with Malay, the language of the natives. The adoption of the American accent began picking up steam after American television programs were introduced after the British Colonial Period in 1957 (Malaysian English 2007). Not to forget, a substantial amount of Malaysians are furthering their studies in the USA.

In the coming paragraphs, I will be discussing the race/ethnicity and ideology of Malaysian urban youths regarding accents spoken.

1. Race/Ethnicity
Those who speak with Western accents are urbanites and that includes all three main races in Malaysia; Malay, Chinese and Indian. However, race or ethnicity does not play as major a role as the exposure of foreign cultures and languages through the media to the people. Nevertheless, race and ethnicity still affects the accents adopted, albeit very rarely.

All the same, it must be stressed that a majority of urban youths from all races adopt accents far more often and conveniently than their suburban counterparts. A teenager who lives in Petaling Jaya is more likely to pick up an American or RP accent than a similarly aged teenager in the suburban village of Kampung Lepar in Kelantan. Hence, it all comes down to education and foreign media exposure that separates the two groups.

Nonetheless, if race and ethnicity must play a part, it would involve Ethnocentrism the perception that one’s own ethnicity is superior to others’. Not to be ignored are the small number of people who are ethnocentric. For example, families may prohibit foreign languages to be spoken in their homes or may reduce exposure of foreign influences, especially Western culture in their homes. This argument does not discriminate between urbanites or suburbanites as this involves religion and upbringing. The reverse of Ethnocentrism, Xenocentrism, will also be discussed briefly under Ideology.

2. Ideology
Perhaps the most significant reason for having an American or RP accent is the ideology behind it regardless of whether the speaker is aware of it or not. An accent is an identity that conveniently reveals information like a person’s social status, peer group and social identification. Not only that, it reveals a person’s opinion of other people who have certain accents. In other words, they are stereotypical judgments.

People associate accents with personal information. A man who speaks English with a hint of French accent gives away that he is familiar with French and probably from France. A child who has Mandarin speaking parents and lives in the United States will grow up to speak with an American accent because he does not pick up the accent from his parents, but from his peers. Other than the fact that he is influenced by them, he also wants to be accepted into that peer group (Ask-a-linguist FAQ: accents 2007). Just like how a person would change their accents when they are speaking to someone of a different accent or country.

For certain countries that have a number of accents for all the different groups living there, an accent tells of your social standing and your background. In Britain, Received Pronunciation is considered the official accent as it is associated with the Queen of England and the upper class (Received pronunciation n.d.). A shared judgment of people when they hear a Malaysian with an American accent is that the person is educated and that the person is from a respectable social standing. Or, they may think he or she is showing off, which brings me to Xenocentrism.

Xenocentrism is an attitude believing that other cultures are superior to one’s own culture. In the case of Malaysian’s Westernized accents, it is Xenocentrism, which is related to the White Supremacy. The White Supremacy spread to Malaya during the Imperialist Era in South East Asia. Other than history affecting the way people think, it is also the media that portrays Whites as superior. For example, movies portray Asians to be weak and silly. Therefore, the feeling or idea of being superior to others by speaking in an American accent instead of a Manglish (portmanteau for Mangled English) is enjoyed. You could say, they feel as though they are one of the Americans; sharing the American image.

Accents are not influenced by our sexuality, femininity or masculinity or whether we are from the patriarchal or matriarchal group, but they are mostly affected by our ideology of accents, our level of education and even the exposure we have of other cultures, either through the media or the Internet and even friends.

Accents can help conceal our identity or reveal them. It also shows that we tend to stereotype people based on their accents. We pick up accents for a reason. It could be because it sounds nice or it makes us feel good about ourselves; makes us feel above everyone else; makes us feel, different.

References
Accent n.d., The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edn. Retrieved
May 9, 2007, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/a/a0038000.html

Ask-a-linguist FAQ: accents 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2007 from http://linguist.emich.edu/ask-
ling/accent.html

Generation Y 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
Malaysian english 2007. Retrieved May 9, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian
_English

Raines, C 2002, Managing millennials’. Retrieved May 9, 2007 from http://www.generation-
satwork.com/articles/millenials.htm

Received pronunciation n.d., American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edn.
Retrieved May 9, 2007, from http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/r/r0080400.html