Should we start a campaign for sub-titling US films?

[handsomefortune]

ferretfancy - a fabulous post!

"Coom on! Play dooble fooertay!"

i absolutely love that! especially having had 'hellocaution' lessons, taught by some very pretentious teachers, bless them, trying their very hardest, which i found acutely embarrassing and still do tbh. so it's definitely not just kids who are 'bi-lingual'. i bet half the forum bordees have a 'telephone voice' for instance.

There's certainly a distinct American aspect to the tweets (as in CB-H's, 'Come say hi', apparently being an invitation to people to listen to her Breakfast Show to discover what was 'possibly my favourite piece of music EVER').

since ian thumbwood has mentioned the language of the dispossessed in 'the wire', it might be worth ramming the points home, made by joaquim phoenix, that it's much easier to exclude people, in every sense, if they have become completely alienated from the rest of society. large sections of people not understanding one word the 'others' are saying is highly suspect surely, as is the idea that this might be 'successful popular entertainment'? i have witnissed umpteen conversations about 'the wire' where people seem to get very excited about NOT understanding, i also notice all sorts of people seem to become enraptured by it!

not everyone wants to be bi-lingual, but i suspect r3s cb-h is bi-lingual, playing dooble fooertay under the studio mixing desk, imagining they're conning listeners that 'everyone' talks like a (cod) american 'nowadays'. perhaps a visit to the states might help?



imv subtitles should be routinely optional on all broadcasts surely? quite apart from deaf people, it'd really help, should viewers prefer to make their own soundtrack, eg keep car chases, trails and other typically VERY noisy scenes 'nice and quiet', preferably silent! besides, by the time we find out the actual proportion of the population made deaf by mobiles, ipods, emergency service sirens, very loud concerts, etc the hard of hearing might actually be in the majority!

[mangerton]

I thought many in the UK, including some presenters on the BBC and the rest of the media, already now talk in a pseudo-American manner, anyway?

They certainly do. On the weekend, freight trains, train stations, skedjools, golf shots................ to name but a few.

[Pabmusic]

They certainly do. On the weekend, freight trains, train stations, skedjools, golf shots................ to name but a few.

Agreed. An interesting side issue is that 'schedule' apparently entered English from French in the 14th Century as 'cedule' (='sedule') and was pronounced that way until the late 18th Century (it's the only pronunciation given by Walker in 1791).

[Serial_Apologist]

i absolutely love that! especially having had 'hellocaution' lessons

Shake on it - me too!

That said, I did try my hardest to make out the conversation being had between five youngsters on the train home late last night, I really did, and could maybe make out about 30% of what was being said.

[Dave2002]

Interesting points Marthe. We often think that only in Britain have accents changed markedly since the 40s/50s and even from the 60s and 70s. However, there is no question that American accents have altered practically as drastically. The kind of folksy drawl, or urbanely prim accents, heard on many movies from the post war years definitely belong to a bygone era.

Most languages have changed. Swedish, for example, is according to language books a tone language, but many Swedish people nowadays speak in a much flatter manner, perhaps due to watching US films on TV. Listen to recordings of speakers from, say 1930, and the speech is much more likely to go ooop and down.

[Beef Oven]

I'm an American and I don't always understand the dialogue in American films either. I think it's a generational thing. Americans of my children's generation, who are now now nearing thirty, have a rather different accent from the accent of my generation. My sister refers to this as YPT (Young People Talk).The dialogue in American films and TV shows made before the mid-1970s is much easier to understand.

Ferretfancy, thanks for such a clear explanation of sound recording techniques.

Smokey and the Bandit is one of the best film to have come out of the US in the last 50 years and the diologue is very clear.