Wrong Score Called – Impact of dialects and accents

4.K. Wrong Score Called. If the wrong score is called, the referee or any player may stop play before the return of serve to correct the score. The rally shall be replayed with the correct score called. After the return of serve, play shall continue to the end of the rally and the score correction made before the next serve. After the return of serve, a player who stops play to identify or ask for a score correction will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally. A player who stops play after the serve to identify or ask for a score correction when the score was correctly called will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally, unless all players on the court agree that the stoppage was made in good faith due to the player mishearing the score, in which case the rally shall be replayed.

13.G.1.k (new proposed clause) Repeatedly stopping play to correct the score before the return of serve to correct the score that was called correctly.

4.K. Wrong Score Called. If the wrong score is called, the referee or any player may stop play before the return of serve to correct the score. The rally shall be replayed with the correct score called. After the return of serve, play shall continue to the end of the rally and the score correction made before the next serve. After the return of serve, a player who stops play to identify or ask for a score correction will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally. A player who stops play after the serve to identify or ask for a score correction when the score was correctly called will have committed a fault and shall lose the rally.

13.G. Verbal Warnings, Technical Warnings and Technical Fouls.

Pickleball is increasingly played in international environments where players and referees may have differing accents and different level of English proficiency. Combined with loud venues and varying indoor acoustics, players can mishear correctly called scores — for example between similar-sounding numbers such as (but not limited to) "13" and "14."
Under the current Rule 4.K, a player who mishears a correct score and stops play before the return of serve risks committing a fault, even when acting in good faith. This penalizes genuine misunderstandings caused by accent, dialect, noise or venue acoustics.

The proposed rule change allows for score clarification without penalty if play is stopped before the return of serve. This preserves fairness, avoids disadvantaging players unfamiliar with certain accents (including but not limited to non-native English speakers), those with lower English proficiency or with hearing impairment, and minimally impacts the flow of play.
Potential abuse can be addressed by incorporating the additional proposed behavioral penalty clause (13.G.1.k) for repeated incorrect score challenges. This adjustment promotes inclusivity, improves communication, and upholds the integrity of officiated matches without adding complexity to the referee’s role.

In an international tournament where a high proportion of players and referees can be non-native English speakers or native English speakers with various localized accents, the following situation may occur:
After the referee calls the score "14-6," Player A1 (of Team A) serves the ball. The receiver on Team B (Player B1) stops play and shouts, "That’s wrong, It's 14-6!"
The referee announces, "Fault, Stoppage of Play, Point." Player B1 then tries to explain that they were certain the referee had called "13-6," which is why they stopped the rally.
All involved — the players and the referee — can in this scenario be non-native English speakers from different countries, each accustomed to different accents. The acoustics of the venue (or a player's hearing impairment) may have also affected how Player B heard the score. Although the referee empathizes with Player B1 and genuinely believes the misunderstanding was unintentional, under the current rules, the referee must still award a fault.
This outcome does not seem to fully align with the sport’s spirit of inclusiveness toward different languages, accents and varying levels of English proficiency or hearing impairment.