{"id":18321,"date":"2019-10-21T01:18:22","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T01:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18321"},"modified":"2019-10-23T07:13:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T07:13:11","slug":"your-political-views-can-predict-how-you-pronounce-certain-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/your-political-views-can-predict-how-you-pronounce-certain-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Your political views can predict how you pronounce certain words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zachary Jaggers<\/a>, University of Oregon<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Politics can predict the TV shows we watch<\/a>, the shops we frequent and the places we live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But what about the way we speak?<\/p>\n

In a recent study, I was able to show how your political orientation can influence how you pronounce certain words.<\/p>\n

How members of America\u2019s two parties view the country \u2013 and its place in the world \u2013 might explain this phenomenon.<\/p>\n

A tale of two presidents<\/h2>\n

You may have noticed President Donald Trump has a unique way of saying the names of foreign places.<\/p>\n

For example, he\u2019s pronounced \u201cTanzania\u201d as \u201ctan-zay-nee-uh<\/a>,\u201d as opposed to \u201ctan-zuh-nee-uh,\u201d and \u201cNamibia\u201d as \u201cnam-bee-uh<\/a>\u201d instead of \u201cna-mih-bee-uh.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, President Barack Obama was a \u201cstickler<\/a>\u201d for saying foreign words in a way that more closely mimicked the pronunciation of native speakers. He was even thanked for it: Pakistanis reportedly expressed appreciation to the White House<\/a> for his pronunciation of \u201cPakistan\u201d as \u201cpock-ee-stahn,\u201d rather than using a pronunciation like \u201cpack-iss-stan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

My own research<\/a> has found that this pronunciation difference isn\u2019t relegated to presidents. Speakers who identify as Democrats are likelier to use these kinds of pronunciations of foreign words than those who identify as Republicans.<\/p>\n

A speech pattern emerges<\/h2>\n

In my study, I had participants read random sentences out loud, some of which included the names of foreign places, and others that included English words borrowed from foreign languages.<\/p>\n

Then I asked them questions about their political identities, views and opinions. I compared their responses to these questions with their pronunciations.<\/p>\n

I found that, when compared with Republicans, Democrats are more likely to pronounce<\/p>\n