Comparing attitudes toward Caribbean, British, and American accents in Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Hänsel, Eva Canan; Meer, Philipp

Abstract

This article compares the attitudes of respondents from Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States toward speakers from these countries and from Grenada. Analyses of mean values on the attitude dimensions of status and solidarity reveal striking similarities between the rankings of the stimuli by the three respondent groups, especially regarding the British and American stimuli and a Creole-influenced Grenadian stimulus. Only the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents differ slightly regarding the Caribbean stimuli. The results suggest that similar stereotypes might have influenced the evaluations of the British, American, and Creole-influenced Grenadian speakers across all respondent groups, while the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents might reflect the social connotations of the fine-grained nuances of Caribbean (standardized) accents.