[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[Sally Davies]

Yes - the accents are very different. However, it seems to be accepted in
broadcasting and film media that Americans, in particular, struggle to
understand 'foreign' accents. On the first animated movie that Keith worked
on, Adventures in Zambezia, almost all the original South African cast had
to be replaced with American voices in order to have any hope of an
American release deal.

We did well out of it, with some great voices including Samuel L. Jackson,
but it pressed the budget past breaking point. So your experience, David,
is probably 'par for the course' in the USA.

Perhaps in countries like the UK, where regional accents vary extensively,
people just get used to following these different accents? To us as South
Africans Aussies and New Zealanders sound nothing like us, but when I first
went to the UK people would often enquire whether I came from Down Under,
or even from Canada.

I'm weary of the Oscar trial now but suspect we may not be done with it as
the State is not going to like this verdict. The Director of Public
Prosecutions has been in court which has me wondering if they're going to
appeal. I don't like the verdict myself because according to me if someone
loads a gun with that type of ammunition, they're already intending to kill
someone.

Sally D

On Friday, 12 September 2014, 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.
>
>