Dedicated to Dialects

Ask Seattle-born Elijah Pasco to speak with a Scottish accent, and he’ll want more details. “What part of Scotland?” he’s likely to ask. “What socioeconomic status?”

Pasco, who graduates from the UW this spring with majors in linguistics and drama, has been fascinated by language since childhood, inspired by a polyglot grandfather who “can go from Japanese to Chinook jargon to Old English and back to English.” Since middle school, Pasco has loved theater as well. Through the study of dialects, Pasco has combined his interests.

Receiving a Glenn Hughes Scholarship from the School of Drama, "I felt really...