We've all done it. Imitated a foreign language that we don't speak, that is. We can all "speak" in pseudo French, Italian, Chinese, etc using nonsense syllables and trying to capture the rhythm, "melody", timing and timbre of those languages, sometimes throwing in a real word or syllable or two for authenticity. Comedians like Sid Caesar and Danny Kaye were excellent at it.
Now, to native speakers of those languages, I'll bet our attempts are pretty humorous/pathetic. What I'd love to hear is people who don't speak English at all trying to sound like they're speaking English. Anyone know of websites which contain sound clips of this?
phony English by non-English speakers?
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brewerpaul
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burnsbyrne
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I had the pleasure of seeing Marcel Marceau do fake languages....the absolute BEST he did, though, was speaking fake French. Yes, he did American and British.
Sorry...no clips though!
Sorry...no clips though!
Remember, you didn't get the tiger so it would do what you wanted. You got the tiger to see what it wanted to do. -- Colin McEnroe
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BoneQuint
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Re: phony English by non-English speakers?
I asked some German exchange students once what English sounded like to them. They said it sounds like someone chewing gum while talking (and demonstrated with nonsense syllables...nyahm murm nooom myah etc.) Many languages have short, clipped vowels, where English tends to have long vowels.
They also said French sounds like someone drowning, and German sounds like someone choking on a chicken bone.
They also said French sounds like someone drowning, and German sounds like someone choking on a chicken bone.
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Jerry Freeman
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Scott McCallister
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Marcel Marceau can speak?!?Tyghress wrote:I had the pleasure of seeing Marcel Marceau do fake languages....the absolute BEST he did, though, was speaking fake French. Yes, he did American and British.
Sorry...no clips though!
I did think it funny for him to have the only audible line in Steve Martin's Silent Movie. In the movie Martin's character thought Marceau would be a "natural" for a silent film to which he replied "NO." ...
There's and old Irish saying that says pretty much anything you want it to.
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Nanohedron
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The Weekenders
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Jack
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English sounds like this:
English's "R" and "th" sounds are also rather rare among Indo European languages, so that stands out as well.
There are lots of "warbly" sounds, and lots of short words and glottal stops in weird places.Hibbly mish farduz thun lef unu osa innit ollar dose munt faes i shon hordly mock no warbly oggith sneelth ara plack idoal perry bloo bether
English's "R" and "th" sounds are also rather rare among Indo European languages, so that stands out as well.
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I.D.10-t
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In Dari class we always made fun of Persian Farsi speakers because they had a French accent! They said “ you are speaking the classical or “backwood's” form of Persian”
Snobs!
Oh, man, did I need to get that off my chest!
PS if you think that is strange just wait until you hear a guy from Louisiana try to learn Spanish!
Snobs!
Oh, man, did I need to get that off my chest!
PS if you think that is strange just wait until you hear a guy from Louisiana try to learn Spanish!
"Be not deceived by the sweet words of proverbial philosophy. Sugar of lead is a poison."
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Jack
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Yes. One of my online friends came from Delaware to Virginia and I remember her telling me that the people there made fun of her for the way she signed many words, but there was something peculiar about the way she did the word "puppy". If I remember correctly, in one accent there was no word for "puppy", it was just signed as "baby dog", and in the other accent people use a special word.MarkB wrote:Does ASL have accents?
But my ASL is horrible (at best), so I could be completely wrong.
Last edited by Jack on Mon May 02, 2005 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nanohedron
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Oh, yeah: also a mod here, not a spammer. A matter of opinion, perhaps. - Location: Lefse country
When I was visiting N'Awlins, I paid a visit to the JKA dojo in Metairie and trained there a couple of times. I forget the chief instructor's name, now, but is was entertaining to hear a Louisiana accent coupled with a Japanese one!I.D.10-t wrote:PS if you think that is strange just wait until you hear a guy from Louisiana try to learn Spanish!
