Glottophobia and Accent Based Discrimination

We all have a native language and we all speak it with an accent that is influenced by our place of living and by whoever is around us (Family, teachers, friends). This accent is part of our own identity. But an accent generates also some reaction, that can be positive, negative, or maybe just curiosity, but to hear someone speaking the same language with a different accent, tone or pronunciation is something that catches our attention and automatically we try to associate it with a place of origin and ethnicity. But our concern is when the reaction to a different accent is negative, leading to some kind of discrimination or unfair treatment. This is something we now call “Glottophobia”, a term coming from the french word glottophobie. This term was coined by the expert in Sociolinguistics Philippe Blanchet in 2008 and basically defines discrimination based on a native language or dialect. This term became part of our conversations last week, when in France, the National Assembly voted on a bill outlawing Glottophobia. France is a country that not only has low tolerance to other languages, being either a foreign one or a regional minority language, but if you want to achieve a high position socially or professionally, you need to speak with the standard Parisian accent. Sometimes, even alternatives for common words coming from regional dialects are shunned, something that could be seen during a national debate on whether to accept the use of the word chocolatine as a valid alternative for pain au chocolat for the famous chocolate croissant. The term pain au chocolat is used in Paris and in most of french territory while chocolatine is used in the southwest of France. It is also a word used in Quebec. You can read the whole article written last year by Eowyn Cwper. But things are starting to change, not only thanks to immigration, but also thanks to thousands of French native speakers who moved to the french capital, faced discrimination because of their regional accents and started to rise awareness. But the affair that triggered this law against Glottophobia, happened in 2018, when a french politician refused to answer questions from a journalist from the south of France because of her accent. Reactions started and there were even members of the Assembly who started to participate in the debates using fully their accents from their places of origin. Today, we have in France a bilingual president and a bilingual prime minister who speaks with an accent. Jean Castex, prime minister of France is from the southwest of the country, speaks French with a clear southwestern accent and is a fluent Catalan speaker. But Glottophobia exists almost everywhere. It is just not that widely documented as it is in countries like USA or Canada. Different studies have shown that accents have influence on how people are perceived as potential employees, workmates, business partners or tenants. It may also influence the way we perceive a sales professional and what do they offer. Local native accents are often associated with jobs of higher responsibility and higher potential earning. Sometimes an accent can be the difference between a job opportunity or an application rejected. In Toronto you can find different options and services that help speakers of English as second language to reduce their accents. The Ontario Human Rights Commission considers that discrimination based on accent is associated to other kinds of discrimination already outlawed and provide examples based on cases where the part affected filed a complain for human rights violation. But there are a lot of countries where discrimination based by accent seems to be more socially accepted and the current legislation does not protect people against it. But not always a foreign accent has a negative perception. If you want to promote products from a specific country, sometimes a voice with an accent from that place can cause a positive reaction to the product. For example, if I would like to promote the quality of Italian wines, to hire someone who speaks with Italian accent to help me with the sales can be a plus. And different studies have shown that for people who want to engage in a romantic relation, some foreign accents are perceived as more romantic or sexy. What’s the solution for the Glottophobia? According to Philippe Blanchet, who coined this term and as he revealed in an interview for a Belgian magazine, we need to make a work in terms of education and legislation. He mention that we need an educative system that promotes and creates appreciation for linguistic plurality. We should be able to learn from school that there are other languages, we can learn them, and there are different ways to speak the same language, starting from the same language we are using at school. Regarding the juridic system, we need to review the current laws and focus on those that deal with discrimination to transform them. In my opinion, I totally agree that the education system should prepare us from the beginning to live in a multicultural and multilingual world. Children need exposition to different languages and accents, and understand that there is no better language or dialect than others. In my own family, having Ukrainian and Russian parents who immigrated to Venezuela, I was exposed to different languages (Spanish, English, Russian, Ukrainian) and accents (Spanish native local, Spanish native non local and foreign accents) just walking from home to school. I had a nice time as a kid and I do not have any reason to associate any accent to good or bad people, I found kindness everywhere. To hear a different accent just produced curiosity, but at the end it was another opportunity to learn something new. I remember that during my time as student in the UK, one of the messages we received from the University was to appreciate that we had lecturers who speak English with different accents. If you want to be a professional who works internationally, you will need to talk to colleagues who speak English with different and unique accents and is likely that a transnational company will try to hire employees who feel comfortable with this reality. Today, I consider that this approach is the right one if we want to put limits to glottophobia. But to talk about which laws to enact against Glottophobia, we are talking about a more complicated subject. To reject candidates for a job, based on their accent, and especially in cases where the job description has no accent requirements, this is a discrimination. I read several pages dedicated to employment laws and they basically say that it is legitimate to dismiss an employee only if his accent prevents him to perform properly his duties. The question is: it is legal to add accent specifications to a job description? Some jobs dedicated to communicate, (Teachers, Media presenters, interviewers, actors) might require a specific kind of accent. Can those requirements be legally justified? Laws against Glottophobia may have several consequences over a wide range of activities, and one of them is comedy. Would comedy actors and story tellers have to refrain from using accents in their shows? I think that awareness, respect and common sense can be better solutions than trying to legislate on accents. In the mean time, what do you prefer: pain au chocolat ou chocolatine?