According to Forbes, it takes a person 30 seconds to linguistically profile a speaker.
They might quickly know what part of the country a speaker comes from and even assume the social or economic class of the speaker.
Some examples:
To Americans, an English accent sounds smart without much regard to the many types of English accents.
To a Midwesterner, a Brooklyn accent can sound coarse and rude.
To a New Yorker, a Southern accent (and cadence) may sound uneducated and a Midwest accent may sound lazy.
To a Midwesterner, California speech that makes everything sound like a question may sound fake.
The more assumptions we have about the region, the more likely we are to imbue accented speech with those biases.
This is to say nothing of conclusions about speech pattern variations of races and countries of origin. All of these carry assumptions based on accent.
We all should suspend our linguistic prejudices because they are likely to be in error. Chances are we won't, though, since linguistic prejudice is a feature of every culture in the world.
But, in an increasingly global world, what can speakers do to communicate effectively regardless of accent?
1 Avoid grammatical errors. One hears in the Midwest, 'they seen' instead of 'they saw.' Good grammar goes a long way in conversation.
To the listener: Don't be a grammar snob, especially in texting.
2 Avoid cussing. In some regions, it is considered especially egregious around older people.
3 Avoid conversation spacers, such as "you know," "like," "eh?", "I mean".
4 In a business context, try to avoid adolescent speech patterns like the 'Vocal Fry.' The Vocal Fry is when a person ends a sentence with a growly emphasis on the last word. You can hear examples online and you'll recognize them immediately.
