The Accent Code

Why do so many Disney film villains have RP accents? Why do the British Isles have more accent diversity than the whole American continent? And why are teenage girls usually the one to lead accent change?

Dialect coach Erik Singer has spent decades training Hollywood actors in the nuances of accents. In The Accent Code, Singer offers an irresistible guide to how accents work and evolve, revealing the hidden ways accents shape our lives. With wit, erudition and inexhaustible curiosity, Singer leaps across time and geography, from remote islands where people speak as they did hundreds of years ago to contemporary London, where Multicultural London English is one of the world’s newest accents, in order to bring a symphony of past and present accents to life. Along the way, he deconstructs the damaging biases we apply to the ways people speak, and shows that there is no ‘correct’ way of speaking.

Drawing on history, linguistics, and pop culture, The Accent Code is an exhilarating tour of accents which celebrates the rich diversity of human speech.