A DELIBERATIVE CONCEPTION OF ACCENT: ANALYSIS AND COMPARATIVE

EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

Chapter I
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Every country, locality, or place has their own distint way of speaking which is also known

as accent. As defined by Cauldwell (2014) "an accent is a colouring or flavoring to your speech

that influences the sounds and shapes of words and sentences". It is how a person sounds when

speaking and how they speak.

According to Linguistic Society of America, there are two kinds of accent, one is foreign

accent and the other one is native accent. The former occurs when one speak using the rules of

another. For instance, if a person has difficulty pronouncing some of the sounds of other language

they are practicing, they tend to substitute similar sounds from their mother tongue. Foreign accent

may sounds wrong to the native speakers of the language.

On the other hand, native accent pertains to the way of speaking of one group of people to

their native language. This can be indentified by where they lived and what social groups they

belong to, by the reason of people who live and has a close contact with one another tend to have

similar way of speaking which can be distinguished from another group of people in other places

speak.

Muñoz City has a total population of 75,462 based on the 2010 population census with its

annual growth rate of 2.28% ("Philippines Cities", n.d.). Tagalog is the prevailing language used

in the Muñoz City. While the others also speak Ilocano, Pampango, and other languages of

Pangasinan, Bicol and Negros.

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

People from Muñoz City also have their own way of speaking whether it is talking to one

another during their everyday lives or speaking to other people. This study will tackle and sought

to have a deeper and broader understanding in regards to muñoz accent. Accordingly, this study

will discuss about the variety of accent in relation with their age and the adaptation of people

whom have a prior accent.

Research Problem

This study aims to seek answers to the following questions:

1. Is there a significant difference as regards with the:

a. Intonation

b. Exclusive words, phrases and expression used after end of sentences

c. Distinct emphasis given to a syllable or word in certain words, phrases and expression

by stress or pitch

between the Muñoz accent natives as comparison to Cabanatuan accent?

2. Does the environmental and social interaction of Muñoz natives with other individuals who

has different accent a factor and does it influence in shaping their accent?

3. Does the Muñoz accent clearly noticeable when they naturally speak as comparison to

Cabanatuan accent when they both use “Tagalog” as the medium of their communication?

4. Does the Muñoz accent can possibly be learned and be totally adopted by an individual

who does not originally lives at Muñoz?

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

Research Objectives

The following are the objectives of the study:

1. To provide information on how environmental factors affect the language acquisition,

development and accent of a person.

2. To discover the effects of social interactions in acquiring a language or accent.

3. To unveil if there is a specific distinction to recognize an accent as Munoz accent (to unveil

if there is a significant difference between Munoz accent to other accents).

Significance of the Study

To the community of Muñoz: The findings in this study will help the people become much aware

of their accent.

To the current Researchers: Having interpreted the gathered data, the researchers will be able to

assert conclusions that are essential to making particularities regarding Muñoz accent.

To future Researchers: This study will serve as a foundation for improvement and acquisition of

new knowledge.

Scope and Limitation

The main goal of the study is to gather information about the Muñoz accent natives in,

Poblacion East, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. The study is limited to the extent of deeper

understanding, discoveries and a brief comparison regarding the Muñoz accent and Cabanatueños

accent.

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

The study is to be conducted within a week with inclusion of the data gathering in the said

place.

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

All of these forms and levels have created theories and comes about inside the world of

linguistics. Finding the level of the environment where linguistics finds itself in new and

unexplored region. Important commentaries note the significance that natural impacts may play

in forming dialects is ineffectively caught on in the aspect of it is

not effectively banished inside linguistics. Lack of studies regarding if the environmental affects

the way people speak and how they naturally pronounce and as well as communicate.

Whereas there has been a few work by anthropologists (e.g. Ash and Coal 2007 ; Battled et al.

2004 ), phonetics should, seek out the natural impacts on dialect. This exclusion is astounding as

there do show up to be solid impacts of environment on the dissemination of dialects themselves

(see Greenhill 2014 ), with more dialects in more ecologically rich regions ( Vex 1998 ) and

towards the equator ( Mace and Pagel 1995 ; Gavin and Stepp 2014 ), and

the propensity for dialects to ‘fill’ natural specialty like an island ( Gavin and Sibanda 2012 ). This

article provides information that environment is an influencing factor on shaping.

Accent and identity have impacts on each other. An accent of one person could be his

identity since it is how he speaks. In the study of "How Accent and Identity Influence Each Other"

by Kazuaki Kumagai, they shows similar experiences shared by distinct people when it comes to

accent and their identity. "As one of the non-native speakers, I have experienced many different

situations where I became concerned about my own English accent because of the different sound

I have." (Kumagai, 2013). The accent of one person could be influence by the place they are living

to and may have trouble adjusting if they moved to new place. New place means new environment

and new environment means new people to talk with, in which has the higher chance of having a

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

different way of speaking. As the time goes by, people with adapt one's accent especially if they

often have interaction with each other. Accent of Muñoz citizens have factors on how they acquire

their way of speaking. This study will provides corelation of the environmental and social

interaction of Muñoz natives with other individuals who has different accent a factor on shaping

their accent.

Accent is very important to one’s way of speaking as it somehow shows the locality it came

from. As many people know, especially those who travel the most and stays at different places,

accent is not that very hard to adapt. According to The Linguistic Society of America, “native

language causes ‘interference’ in your efforts to pick up the new language”, accordingly, even

though people may adapt a new accent, it would be hard for them to overcome the tendency to use

the familiar sounds from their first language. Throughout this study, the researchers would want

to know how a certain accent is being adapted and analyze it to gain deeper understanding on the

implications of this.

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

This chapter gives a profounder about the study that tackles Muñoz accent and unveil if
there is a specific distinction to recognize an accent as Munoz accent. This will show the theoretical
Framework, research locale, unit of analysis and respondents, sampling design, research design,
research instrument, data collection, and data analysis.

Theoretical Framework

Social interactionism is a theory that is based on social learnings by James Burner wherein

he asserts that language is obtain through interactions that help infant develop language. This

theory states that through communicative interactions, language is acquired.

This supports the primary aims of the study which is to provide information about how

environmental and social factors affect the language acquisition, development and accent of a

person.

The Norwich Theory was a study of Peter Trudgill in the 1970s to find out how and why

people's ways of speaking varied. Trudgill used the final consonant in words like "running" and

"walking" as his variables. In Norwich the pronunciation "walking", "walkin'" os frequently heard

as if there was simply "n" on the end.

This theory will serve as a guide on discovering if the Munoz accent have distinct words

or expressions on their locality and whether if it has a significant difference among other accents.

Research Locale

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

This research study will be conducted in Central Luzon State University (CLSU) and the
interview proper will be conducted at Poblacion East, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Further
processing of information and formation of the conclusion based on the gathered data, will be
conducted in the university.

Research Design

Confirmation of Data Gathering

Muñoz natives that (Through a friendly
will be the subject or casual interview
for the one-on-one approach)
interview

Interpretation of
Data Analysis
Gathered Data

Figure 1. The Continuous Flow of Data Collection and Analyzation

The researchers will use the qualitative type of research in conducting the whole research
process. The researchers will gather data through a casual interview with the selected interviewees
for they believe that talking casually with them will give them better results and will highlight the
natural way of speaking the Muñoz accent. Thus, researchers will consolidate the information they
gathered in preparation for the data analysis.

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EXPOSISTION OF THE MUÑOZ ACCENT NATIVES

Research Instrument

The researchers will be needing the subsequent instruments for the data gathering with the
certainty that the selected instruments are related and helpful in the study so it will result to a
relevant, effective and credible research paper that may be use for future references.

 Related Literatures and Studies. The researchers will gather information from reliable
and credible literatures and/or studies in order to strengthen and establish a firm image of
this research.
 Structured Questionnaires. The researcher will conduct a 4-5 questions regarding on the
main objective of the study to know and provide a specific distinction to recognize an
accent as Munoz accent. This questions however will be ask by the researchers in a
friendly manner.
 Recorder. As one of the essential materials that will be provided by the researcher so
proper transcribing of the answers by the respondents will be taken consideration.

Data Collection

The researchers will gather information on Poblacion East, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva
Ecija specifically Muñoz natives ranging from the ages of seven (7) to seventy years old (70) so
that variety of samples will be presented and other objectives of the study will be answered.

Data Analysis

The researchers will be using the thematic analysis in interpreting the data gathered through

interviews. Theme-based analysis and qualitative analysis of text-based data were the tools used

in the study.

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