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Bernd: I'm well aware of how to pronounce your name. As I said, I took five years of German class. While my grammar is questionable, and my vocabulary is lacking, I do know the pronunciation rules. Doesn't mean I can say the words w/o an accent, but I do know how it should be, even if my mouth doesn't. *L*
True non-accented English is only spoken in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Evidence?: Wherever I travel other people have an accent, but when I'm home, no one does. (Of course, when I'm in LA, everyone thinks I'm a native)...
Seriously, Due to the pervasiveness of Hollywood, most people hear English on TV and motion pictures with a westcoast accent - even if the character is supposedly from Mississippi or historical Europe. My hat is off to Costner - how he kept his corn-belt rasp as Robin Hood is beyond me. He attempted an English accent for only one word in the entire movie: "armor".
-------------------- 'One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.' - Lazarus Long
quote:Originally posted by Killboy Powerhead: I see what you mean, but if he spoke only Russian for the first part of his life, his ability to realise unfamiliar sounds might be stunted (especially if it were not requested of him).
Pardon me for butting in here, but you guys are really reaching with this stuff about whether a "v" is always a "v" or whether Chekov could enunciate such a sound. It's obvious he's familiar with the sound. He doesn't identify himself as Powell Chekow.
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To add to Reg Barclay's point, a little while after Chekov says the infamous line 'nuclear wessels' in Trek IV, he says, 'I'm sorry, then I vill have to stun you' - or words to that effect. So he obviously can pronounce the V correctly. Why he couldn't apply it to the word 'vessel' I haven't a clue.
BTW. Non-accented English doesn't exist outside Britain. We invented the damn language, it's everyone else who has an accent!
lol
-------------------- "To the Enterprise and the Stargazer. Old girlfriends we'll never meet again." - Scotty
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Non-accented English by region is typically thought of as Midwestern American trait. As much as we can thank or blame British for their fine language, I don�t believe Americans would agree that the Queens English is non-accented, but that is simply an opinion. Chekov�s speech impediment was really nothing more than a cinematic prop to draw attention to the gravity of the situation. I would say that Chekov�s accent fits well with someone wrestling with a second language in a high stress or unfamiliar situation. Americans in general absolutely love accents so the fact that Chekov flubbed vessels only makes the character that much more appealing.
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I stand by my contention that it insults Russians to give Chekov a bad accent and it insults me if TPTB say I need to hear a bad accent to accept a character as a non-American. IIRC, a reviewer of TOS in the 1960s called Chekov's and Scotty's accents "vaudevillian."
Can't say as I really love accents as a American, either. I once knew a Russian blonde, abso-freakin-lutely drop dead gorgeous from head to toe, but it was frustrating trying to cut through her thick accent (which BTW sounded nothing like Chekov's).
-------------------- Never give up. Never surrender.
OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
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quote: BTW. Non-accented English doesn't exist outside Britain. We invented the damn language, it's everyone else who has an accent!
Actually, the British used to speak English like Americans do today. Only since the Revolutionary War have the British shifted their pronunciation to what it is today. So actually, ours is the right way of speaking English! HA!
BTW: I am from New Jersey, not New Joisey.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
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'That's a joke, son.' The funny part wasn't that he had an accent. It was that here was this strung-out aging Davy-Jones look-alike approaching recently post cold-war Americans and asking them where he could find their nuclear vessels in a ridiculous Russian accent.
That is to say that while Chekov and Scotty (and countless other preposterous caricatures from all the series) may have spoken funny, they were never merely comic foils. These characters were crucial members of the crew. Their accents may have made their characters more palatable to intensely xenophobic American audiences. (Before anyone goes jumping down my throat, I would hasten to point out that although the people who post to this board may come from diverse backgrounds, one could harldy say we roundly or in any way completely represent the popular viewing audience.)
That's the real trick. These shows were made and continue to be made for American audiences. That's why they tend to be so American-centric. I mean that's why we have the American Scott Bakula and not the Chinese Chow Yun Fat or the Indian Rani Mukherjee as the new Captain. You didn't see Tarkovsky casting James Coburn in "Solaris" (Well for a number of reasons, really). It's about what sells to your audience. Unfortunately, American audiences tend to be a little reactionary. The producers will try to be progressive, but they've got a show they are trying to make popular. They can only go so far before they start losing their audience. If they lose that, they lose their platform. It's a balancing act.
I mean would you expect the new crew to speak the international language of Esperanto? (Incidentally, we do know that Shatner can do Esperanto (see:Incubus) I don't think I'd be likely to watch a show in Esperanto on any regular basis (perhaps on a dare or if there was some elaborate drinking game involved) I seriously doubt anyone outside of the Esperanto-speaking community would.
I don't think anyone has touched TOS in terms of forward thinking, but I must say that I respect what the Trek producers have done of late. Colorful Captains, female commanders, etc. It's great. I can only hope that they will continue this tradition.
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