The Accent Code: Understanding the Infinite Variety of Human Speech

by Erik Singer

Why do so many film villains speak Received Pronunciation? Why do the British Isles have more accent diversity than the whole American continent? And why are teenage girls usually the one to lead accent change?

Dialect coach Erik Singer has spent decades training Hollywood actors in the nuances of accents. In The Accent Code, Singer offers an irresistible guide to how accents work and evolve, revealing the hidden ways accents shape our lives. With wit, erudition and inexhaustible curiosity, Singer leaps across time and geography to bring a symphony of past and present accents to life, from remote islands where speech sounds echo from the past to contemporary London where Multicultural London English is one of the world’s newest accents. Along the way, he deconstructs the damaging biases we apply to the ways people speak, and shows that there is no ‘correct’ way of speaking.

Drawing on history, linguistics, and pop culture, The Accent Code is an exhilarating tour of accents which celebrates the rich diversity of human speech.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication April 13, 2027

About the author

I grew up in Connecticut. My mother is Swedish, but moved to south-eastern England at the age of 12. I grew up surrounded by all kinds of languages and accents, and imitated them all. I studied languages and literature in college. I became an actor, and trained classically for two years in London. As a professional, I worked steadily in Shakespeare and other language-based plays, but also found myself cast over and over again in roles that required accents (sometimes many different accents in the same show!). Eventually I became an acting teacher, a voice teacher, and a teacher of speech, phonetics and accents. I taught for several years in one of the nation’s top MFA actor-training programs. These days, in addition to teaching and coaching, I do a great deal of commercial voice-over, audiobook & animation work.
Erik Singer's theatrical credits include the title role in The Hostage, A Life in the Theatre, Greetings, Stones in His Pockets, national tours of Othello and The Taming of the Shrew, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, and The Tempest. TV credits include All My Children and As the World Turns, and the A&E Biography as Vincent Van Gogh. Other audiobooks include The Dogs of Babel, and The Five People You Meet In Heaven.