Why Do We Have So Many Accents?
What makes us sound so different from each other 鈥 even when we鈥檙e speaking the same language? Listener Amanda鈥檚 question takes us all over the world鈥 and inside our mouths.
Why do we have so many accents - even when we鈥檙e speaking the same language? What's happening in our brains and mouths to make us sound so different from each other? This week鈥檚 question from listener Amanda takes CrowdScience to Glasgow in Scotland: home to one of the most studied - and distinctive - accents of English.
Along the way we visit a voice coach to try and learn a Texan accent, use ultrasound to see what different sounds look like inside our mouths and find out how a brand new dialect was formed when many accents collided in New Zealand.
Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk
Presenter: Nastaran Tavakoli-Far
Producer: Cathy Edwards
New Zealand Mobile Unit recordings courtesy of Ng膩 Taonga Sound & Vision
(Image: A mouth screaming white letters. Credit: Thinkstock)
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How to speak like a Texan
Duration: 01:51
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- Fri 31 Mar 2017 19:32GMT大象传媒 World Service except News Internet
- Sat 1 Apr 2017 22:32GMT大象传媒 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
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CrowdScience
Answering your questions about life, Earth and the universe