Native Americans Describe the ‘Rez Accent’

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Native Americans Describe the ‘Rez Accent’

An accent is a way of saying the words in a language that happens among people of one area or region of a country, but not another.

Many people who study languages, linguists¹, predicted in the 1960s that accents would disappear in America. As Americans moved across the country, they said English would become standardized², meaning that it would be spoken the same way everywhere.

Schooling⁴, mass media like television and radio, people moving to the United States from other places and increased car and airplane travel would all add to the standardization⁵ of English.

But sociolinguist William Labov of the University of Pennsylvania says, while some accents in America are disappearing, others are growing stronger.

One of these regional accents is Native American English, known as the "rez accent." It is spoken in many Indigenous⁶ communities in the United States and Canada. The word "rez" is shortened from the word "reservation." Reservations are areas of land in the United States and Canada that are kept separate for Native Americans or Indigenous people to live in.

Kalina Newmark is from the Sahtu Region in Canada's Northwest Territories. Her ancestors were called the Dene people, but she does not speak her tribe's language of Slavey.

"My mom can understand and speak it, but she didn't pass it on to us. She learned it from her great-grandmother. My grandmother chose not to pass along the language because she wanted to make it easier for her children when they went to school," Newmark said.

Newmark went to Dartmouth College in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The school is known for its Indigenous student population.

There, she met other Indigenous students from all over North America. Newmark noticed something very interesting about everyone's pronunciation. The English they spoke³ shared some similar qualities, although they came from different language backgrounds.

These especially could be heard during times of socializing. The accent was even present for students who had not learned their ancestral language.

Newmark and another student, Nacole Walker, decided⁷ to examine the rez accent when they were given a project to study a non-English language. They realized that the rez accent had never been studied before.

Walker is a Lakota person from the Standing⁸ Rock Reservation in the states of North and South Dakota. She said linguists have studied other forms of English, like African American English, and Chicano English, which is spoken by Mexican Americans.

"We knew something unique was happening [with indigenous English] and wanted to narrow it down," Walker said.

They recorded discussions and interviews with 75 people from different tribes and Nations all over North America. Their findings were published in Language in Society in September of 2016.

The Dartmouth team found that Indigenous communities speak different English dialects, but these ways of speaking shared prosody⁹ patterns. Prosody describes the "music" of a language. It includes pitch, how high or low the sounds of the voice are; rhythm, the beat of stressed and unstressed syllables¹¹; and intonation¹², or the changes in pitch when speaking.

James Stanford is a sociolinguist at Dartmouth. He guided the students in their study. He said that the most important quality is how the pitch and intonation rises and falls like a song. The feature was named after the character, "Thomas Builds-the-Fire," played by Evan Adams from the 1998 film Smoke Signals. The movie was the first to be made and performed by Indigenous people.

The group identified another feature that appeared unique to Indigenous populations: the pitch rises at the end of their sentences. Stanford said that in Standard English, speakers usually end their sentences by dropping their pitch levels lower. Indigenous speakers end their sentences with a middle or higher pitch.

The final important feature is the timing¹³ of the syllables, or the rhythm. Some language experts describe languages like French and Spanish as syllable¹⁰-timed. "Each syllable takes up the same amount of time," Stanford said.

English is not syllable-timed. It is stress-timed, meaning that only stressed syllables are said at regular places in speech. The unstressed syllables are shortened. The team noted¹⁴ that the rez accent of English is syllable-timed.

Where did the "Rez" accent come from?

Newmark thinks that the rez accent possibly came from different Native tribes interacting in the 1880s when Indigenous peoples were placed on reservations. The Native American and First Nations children were forced into schools and had to speak English.

The rez accent also might have had its beginning in the 1950s and 1960s when the US government closed some reservations and sent Native American into cities. The children were forced to speak English and interact with each other. "They were all learning English together," said Newmark, "and making an English of their own."

Twyla Baker¹⁵ is a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. She is also president of an indigenous college on the Fort Berthold Reservation in the state of North Dakota. She said that the Rez accent is a form of adaptation. She said that before Native Americans came into contact with Europeans, the tribes connected with each other. They traveled, traded, and built political connections with other tribes. This led to many Indigenous people learning four or five languages.

Baker knows that many people think that the rez accent is not correct English. They may even make fun of it. But she wants Indigenous people not to feel bad about who they are, where they come from and how they speak English.

"I would love for our young people to feel that they are accepted not just in the spaces that they occupy in Indian Country, but when they step off the reservation," Baker added.

Words in This Story

indigenous – adj. produced, living or existing in a certain place or environment

pronunciation – n. the way in which a word is normally or correctly said

unique –adj. unlike anything else

interview –n. a meeting in which people talk to each other to get information

dialect – n. a form of a language that is spoken in a particular area and that uses some of its own words, grammar, and pronunciations

pattern – n. a regular and repeated way in which something happens

syllable – n. a part a word is naturally divided into when pronounced

character – n. a person who appears in a story, book, play, movie, or television show

feature – n. usual quality or important part of something

standard – n. a level of quality, achievement, etc., that is considered acceptable or desirable

adaptation – n. the state of adapting or changing

1 linguists   

n.通晓数国语言的人( linguist的名词复数 )；语言学家

参考例句：

• The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field. 语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。 来自辞典例句
• The linguists' main interest has been to analyze and describe languages. 语言学家的主要兴趣一直在于分析并描述语言。 来自辞典例句

2 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

5 standardization   

n.标准化

参考例句：

• Standardization of counseling techniques is obviously impossible. 很清楚，要想使研讨方法标准化是不可能的。
• In Britain, progress towards standardization was much slower. 在英国，向标准化进展要迟缓得多。

6 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 prosody   

n.诗体论，作诗法

参考例句：

• Both developed doctrine of prosody.他们作诗都有自己的理论。
• The prosody of Beowulf is based on alliteration,not end rhymes.《贝奥武甫》的诗体采用头韵而不用尾韵。

10 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

11 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

12 intonation   

n.语调，声调；发声

参考例句：

• The teacher checks for pronunciation and intonation.老师在检查发音和语调。
• Questions are spoken with a rising intonation.疑问句是以升调说出来的。

13 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

14 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

15 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。