[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[Jay Weigel]

I had no problem understanding the judge. But then, she sounded very much
like the black South African family I knew in Madison. I have a little more
trouble understanding some white South Africans, but not much. I find most
black South African English very musical.

New Zealand accents are another matter entirely. A woman from New Zealand
was visiting the brother of a friend from church, and the friend brought
both go them along one Sunday. When I was talking with her at coffee hour,
she said "I only came for a wake." It took me a moment to process that she
had said "a WEEK"!

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
>
> There has been very heavy USA media coverage of this trial
> which seems to have dragged on forever.
>
> Yesterday there were comments during this TV coverage from
> five different South Africans, both black (the judge) and white,
> (including Pistorius).
>
> The judge was only partially comprehensible to me, but I suspect
> that for her, maybe English is a second language (?)
>
> The other four were variably understood by me, probably secondary
> to some very unusual (to me) vowel pronunciation.
>
> I had forgotten that South Africa has its own strong regional accent,
> as I keep lumping South Africans in with Aussies and New Zealanders.
> If these five on the news are any indication, my assumptions are
> obviously simplistic.
>
>
> David Strang - Struggling with his own Great Northern Cities Vowel  Shift.
>
>