Donald Trump thinks some accents are ‘beautiful,’ but what makes them so?

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arts, ideas & societyanalysisThe Conversation: Arts + Culture (US)

Donald Trump thinks some accents are ‘beautiful,’ but what makes them so?

the gist

Judgements of accents depend less on sound than on what listeners know about the speakers. Children aged five or six do not distinguish between northern and southern US accents, but by about age 10 they rate northern speakers as smarter and more in charge. When listeners know nothing about an accent they rate accents about equally, but familiarity lets social associations shape which sounds pleasant. Foreign accents also take more effort to process, because the brain must match unfamiliar sounds onto the sound categories of the listener's own language, and that gets easier with exposure.

how it works

Listeners sort incoming speech sounds into categories learned from their own language. Unfamiliar sounds need extra processing time, and noise, phone calls or face masks remove visual cues such as lip movements, adding to the load. The more often someone hears an accent, the faster the brain learns its patterns.

so what

It explains why labels like beautiful or hard to understand say more about attitudes than about the accent. It also shows that understanding someone's accent is a learnable skill.

the bigger pattern

Older adults with hearing loss and people with dementia also find foreign accents harder to understand, showing that the effort of processing speech varies across listeners.

Trump and Netanyahu reportedly clash over whether to resume military action against Iran

the gist

Israeli reports also say the cabinet directed the military to prepare for a possible new attack on Iran.

so what

The United States and Israel have been closely aligned on Iran's nuclear programme and regional threats, so open disagreement between their leaders over military strategy is unusual and closely watched. Whether to resume strikes is a decision with consequences for shipping, oil markets and the wider Middle East.

fun fact

Benjamin Netanyahu has served as Prime Minister of Israel for more years in total than any other person.

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Data: GDELT Project

Illustrative photo · Israel Belkind and Fanny Abramovitch (original) “The Provis…, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

10:49

supplementary video · Epimetheus on YouTube ↗

world cultures & travelWikivoyageclassic9th–15th century · Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor was the largest pre-industrial city on Earth, covering about 3,000 square kilometres

the gist

Angkor, near Siem Reap in northern Cambodia, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia between roughly the 9th and 15th centuries. At its height the city spread across about 3,000 square kilometres, making it the largest pre-industrial city on Earth by area. Its growth depended on water: huge reservoirs called barays, along with canals and embankments, stored monsoon rain and carried it to rice fields. That system let farmers harvest more than once a year and fed a very large population through the dry season. The temple complex of Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century, is the best-known monument and still stands at the heart of the park.

how it works

The Khmer kings built enormous rectangular reservoirs that caught monsoon rain during the wet season. Earthen dykes and canals moved that water into rice paddies, so farmers could grow crops across much of the year. The surplus food supported craftsmen, builders and the workforce that raised the temples.

so what

Angkor shows how a society without industrial machinery could build a city on a scale that rivals modern metropolises, using engineering and water management instead. Some historians link its decline to drought, flooding and shifts in its water systems, which makes it a long-running case study in how cities depend on managing water. The site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most important archaeological landscapes in Southeast Asia.

fun fact

The outline of Angkor Wat appears on the national flag of Cambodia.