The American voice, to non-Americans

[Ben B]

That was fascinating!

[skira]

If he was a bit more nasally he could have done a passable Dylan.

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by skira

An Italian singer wrote this song with gibberish to sound like American English. If you've ever wondered what other people think Americans sound like, watch this:

It maybe sounds more like English pop/rockers singing "American," but -- yeah -- this sounds like you really should be able to understand it. I found myself listening in fascination because I felt like it was easy to 'understand' and sounded like Anglo-American rap-speech, except, of course, when it came time to put it all together, it remained just out of focus. I fear that this is how the aftermath of those strokes that scramble speech recognition probably sound...



PS... I really liked that old b&w video clip big production number. Anyone know what that's from?

[hazmuz]

Originally Posted by theblue1

It maybe sounds more like English pop/rockers singing "American," but -- yeah -- this sounds like you really should be able to understand it. I found myself listening in fascination because I felt like it was easy to 'understand' and sounded like Anglo-American rap-speech, except, of course, when it came time to put it all together, it remained just out of focus. I fear that this is how the aftermath of those strokes that scramble speech recognition probably sound...



PS... I really liked that old b&w video clip big production number. Anyone know what that's from?

i think it's from one of the rai (italian tv) shows hosted by Raffaella Carra (the blond lady sitting next to Adriano Celantano in the last scene). but someone from italy may correct me.

and if someone wonders how italian (or should i say french?) sounds like

Modern Times - The Nonsense Song (Titine) [Skiffleboom.com] - YouTube

[narcoman]

What a groove!!!

[kraku]

As a non-native-english speaker from Europe I can confirm that it sounds quite close to what a hybrid of US and UK english singing sounds like to my ears. For some reason I think of Lenny Kravitz & Bob Dylan...

[jackies]

Huh, Adriano Celentano?
He sounds dope no matter in which language!

Besides, as another non-native english speaker I'd like to add that american english sounds like someone speaking while chewing a gum.

[IHateMyUsername]

Haha, great! If I hadn't been told, I could probably have listened to the whole song without noticing.

awesome type of topic; thanks for the link.

This was tagged onto the tune video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=q-cAnFbEXY0

As a native english speaker, this is kinda like what some modern english sounds like to me at times! hence a preference for instrumental music.

[Barish]

Yeah it's Adriano Celentano and Rafaella Carra. God I am getting old…

Most of the rap hip hop stuff I hear today sound no more intelligible than this to me by the way.

In fact, this one started kinda making sense to me after the second pass

I totally agree with the sexiness in the groove. I felt I had to listen to it again. Mesmerizing.

B.

[ksandvik]

I have to get the original track for DJ:ing!

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by kraku

As a non-native-english speaker from Europe I can confirm that it sounds quite close to what a hybrid of US and UK english singing sounds like to my ears. For some reason I think of Lenny Kravitz & Bob Dylan...

I've always thought there was something once-removed about Lenny. I've never seen him live, but I'll bet he can just pick up a guitar and start singing and warm and scratchy old record noise will come up in the background out of nowhere. And, of course, it's a cliche that Dylan's been imitating Dylan so long he can't remember who he is.

[LTJazz]

I think this is pretty common to how we imitate other languages, no?

Imagine if someone had done gibberish in french or spanish, recorded it, and presented it to that population. They'd probably say "it sounds like our language, but it's gibberish."