[Magdalen] Pistorius Trial.

[Jay Weigel]

I hadn't really followed the trial, so I'm not clear on whether the gun was
already loaded when he picked it up. That would not be uncommon in the US,
and would not necessarily indicate intent.

As to South African and allied accents, I'm a huge fan of the Precious
Ramotswe audiobooks as read by South African actress Lisette Lecat.
Although they are set in Botwana, the accents must be somewhat similar, and
she reads them in the African-accented English in which they are written.
They're quite wonderful and are easy to understand.

On Fri, Sep 12, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Sally Davies <sally.davies at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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.
> >
> >
>