There is argument on which accent is the sexiest in the world today. Well, I am not getting into that. All I know is, some type of accents just makes you quiver with passion. Ok, I am being too dramatic🙄. I heard one guy call fayrouz with a French accent the other day and suddenly, the drink just increased in market value; it became like a designer to me. I mean every thing about the drink just made sense. Secondly, the guy just looked different to me almost immediately. As in, he upgraded sharply. Never mind I was out with my boo. Please, an accent does things to a gal; I go where the accent goes. Nah, I am just tripping…
Another encounter with accent that made me… forget what happened to me. I heard another guy speak one time and was immediately drawn to him; the way he could draw words… trust me, I know what I am saying.
Bottom line, I am sure this doesn’t affect just me. There is something about an accent whether French, American, British, any accent whatsoever one finds intriguing.
Accents affect how we perceive individuals either as polished or crass. It helps us place origin and sometimes socio-economic background. At times, it makes us spot bourgie people from afar. We can tell almost with incredulity which is fake and which is genuine.
However, we have also found a way to make the use of language determine intelligence and worth of a person. It all superficial mush. Really, accents cannot be helped,… or can it?
I believe accents result from language interference or inflections. Accents generally come with the use of a different language from the one spoken in the environment one is used to. In the case of a Nigerian accent, which by the way, is also considered sexy (wink wink), tribal inflections can be heard when the English language is spoken.
What a foreign accent means where I am from, is sophistication, class, and elitist behaviour. probably, priviledged (we’d say ‘ajebo’). When it is fake (biko, don’t fake an accent in Nigeria o), you will be messed up no kidding.
I had a summer vacation overseas one time during my childhood. Impressionable as I was, I came back with an accent for the new term. As fate would have it, I was also resuming a new class, in a new school. So here I am, in a new school with a black cashmere feathered cardigan, over my uniform with a bald head donning an ‘oyinbo’ accent. Yeah, you guessed right, everyone thought I was forming ‘tush’ and of course they treated my fuck up.
To make matters worse, I had a loud voice, so distinct that I couldn’t be silenced should I need to express myself. Let’s just say, I make myself loud and clear.
Overtime, my classmates got used to me. I became accepted as the girl with the different voice and before long, I was the cool kid. Until, I moved to secondary school then uni, and I just had to repeat the whole process.
Over time, I figured I had to blend in so, I learnt to speak crassly if there was a need to get my ghetto on and elite when I felt bougie. Sometimes, I slip back to my accent. When that happens, my friends look at me as though I have sprouted horns.
That is pretty much my accent story until I discovered that with all my ‘foene’ I had an ‘h-factor’. Imagine my shock when I met my seniors with serious phonetics and they told me I wasn’t supposed to have an accent considering that I have an h-factor which I later got to know is common with native Yoruba speakers.
Honestly, I was sad. After all these years of oppressing everyone with my English thinking I was Master craft. Only to discover that my being Yoruba was going to disqualify me from a British or American accent (SMH). Someone even made mockery of me one time saying: “she doesn’t understand why ‘someone’ will be forming accent when they have an h-facfor”. I felt slighted.
This changed when I heard Chinamada speak for the time with what I will call a considerable African accent. Suddenly, all that I knew or thought I knew about accents flew out the window.
It occurred to me that accents don’t necessarily have to be restricted to a language or a particular tribe. What if accent can be peculiar to individuals? What if having an accent could be representative of a personality benchmark; a blend of everything you enjoy? Why do I have to be French to be worthy of a French accent. What if I am Chinese with a Scandinavian accent?
Connoisseur of Memories 