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fab · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:18 am Post subject: fake languages

This guy (and others too) has made videos of fake languages.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=6C5EZmyJ9ik

What is your opinion of how well is it?

I tend to find it better, when I understand the least of the language.
So in this case I didn't find french convincing at all. Spanish seems to me
better but not so much. at the contrary I could have been confused with is fake Russian and German. His Chinese doesn't sounds bad but Japanese is not really convincing.

he made interesting variantions of fake English accents, taht seemed to me quite realistic, I could be confused.

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=h0N0vtU-nLE&feature=related

fab · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:54 am Post subject:

this one is very good I think

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=WRR_gKFT6ds&feature=related

Deborah · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:32 am Post subject:

I thought the first guy's Italian ("costa mosto") and German ("schwiermacke") gibberish were very good! The second guy did a very creditable English and Hebrew.

For me, the best ones are not necessarily the languages I understand the least. For example, I don't know any words in Latvian, but I also haven't heard the language enough to have any idea whether the second guy did it well. And I know English quite well, but I still thought the second guy did an excellent job of sounding American even though he didn't actually throw in any English words (I'd have to listen again to verify the second half of that statement).

I think doing gibberish in one's own language must be the most challenging, since it would be so hard to avoid using real words and phrases.

One of the most popular American TV comedians in the 1950's was Sid Caesar, who was well known for doing foreign language gibberish. I saw an interview with him, a couple of decades later, in which they found a Japanese guy in the audience and had him listen to Sid Caesar speaking Japanese gibberish, and got his reaction. Unfortunately, I don't think the guy in the audience understood what was going on, because he just looked confused.

Something that worked better was an elaborate prank that was played on former talk show host Johnny Carson. An associate of his knew that he found posh English hard to understand at times, so at a reception he attended in London, a group of actors were hired to pretend to be posh English-speaking party guests. In fact, they just spoke gibberish, with an occasional real word thrown in. It was very funny. because Carson was really put on the spot, trying to keep up his end of the conversation. When he was alone with his friend, he told him him how embarrassed he was at not being able to figure out what they were saying.

Deborah · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:41 am Post subject:

I remember attempting foreign language gibberish once, and found it very difficult. The only one I could even begin to do creditably was French. I used a lot of the nasals (en, on, in) and the "eu" sound.

I heard a guy from Spain do a very good country western singer in gibberish.

Tiffany · Expert Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 145

Truthfully, I didn't think any of the English gibberish would fool any native English speaker, though some of it is quite good. I think the same is true for all the other languages and the native speakers of said languages, because a native speaker can hear the finer nuances - like an r pronounced too strongly, not trilled enough etc. Who it would fool would be a non-native speaker of the same nationality of the gibberish speaker.

The Italian to me sounded quite good, though I knew the words were gibberish. But to me, that is what Italian sounds like and that is the point. What we are hearing is what a non-native thinks a certain language sounds like. The nationality is important too. He was an American trying to sound Italian - sounds exactly like what I hear as a fellow American.

Perhaps you thought the French speaker you linked spoke great gibberish English, but may that have been because you yourself are a French speaker?

It's fun to hear what others think our respective languages sound like though.

Bashar · Expert Joined: 11 Jun 2007 Posts: 59

Here's some fake Dutch, done by a group of Canadians. (The Kids in the Hall)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JinJ7NY5_E

Deborah · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 9:47 am Post subject:

Deborah · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:58 pm Post subject:

I think this guy did a good job:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qxg9eFObYls

But he's a United Statesian, as am I, so we hear languages similarly.

Elaine · Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject:

The first guy's Italian, Russian, and Chinese sounded nearly authentic. Of course, I don't speak those languages so what do I know. I don't quite get the whole 'pi'/'pe' thing in the guy's "Spanish", though.

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Tiffany · Expert Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 145

Deborah · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:08 am Post subject:

Elaine · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:29 am Post subject:

Benjamin [inactive] · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2008 2:24 am Post subject:

The Scottish one sounds kind of Edinburgh, I think, and the Irish one sounds more Northern Irish to me.