FROM ACCENTS TO AI — On the impact of standardization on identity and linguistic nostalgia

talk, 2023

Clusters: Technoculture, Art & Games
A symposium at Milieux Institute, Concordia University, that explores creative nostalgia through panel discussions and workshops from experts in the arts and sciences.

Abstract:

Increasing mobility, technology and changes in globalized society have made nostalgia a more typical experience for many, through multilingual communication. Speaking multiple languages blurs the boundaries between the languages we were born with and the adopted ones, sometimes on a daily basis. Some elements in language proficiency evoke nostalgia, for example, sound associations that lie in sensory memory, chief among them is an accent: a rough hint of the existence of another language in the mouth of the speaker, a hint of the past.

Perhaps this is nostalgia: a new, more diverse orality compiled into our sensory database. Many digital tools produced in recent years use this premise, trying to detect as many forms of pronunciation as possible. What does multilingual oral expression tell us about our identity, past and future, and what is the place of speech-harmonizing digital tools in a world where the identity of the speaker is woven through oral personalization?