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Thread: Spoken language in ST - Perfect or perfectible?

  1. 01-29-2003, 08:38 AM #1
    otaku mike
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    Spoken language in ST - Perfect or perfectible?

    As a french, I always enjoyed star trek in subtitled version, because the spoken english is very understandable and clearly spoken. At the beginning, I almost didn't like the kind of manierism the characters speak, especially in TNG, and DS9 (I know less about the other series, but if I remember correctly, TOS is not that clear). I even thought that the series were british during a long time !
    My question is to the native english speakers. What do you think about the language and vocabulary used in ST? What do you like/don't like about it? And please illustrate your opinion to help a non-native speaker to properly grasp what you mean
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  2. 01-29-2003, 12:22 PM #2
    Greg Smith
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    The dialogue tends to be quite colourless, IMHO. I am partially deaf and I require the use of subtitles for such shows as NYPD Blue, Buffy, ER where the dialogue is accented or spoken fast. Star Trek's dialogue is very clearly enunciated, unaccented and lacking in idiom, so I can hear it pretty well.
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  3. 01-30-2003, 07:08 AM #3
    Aldaron
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    The choice of language and accents is one of the beefs I have with Star Trek. TNG was better than TOS - at least it had some non-American accents (please, don't anybody mention Scotty! I love Scotty, but his Scottish accent was about as realistic as mine! )

    Picard and Deanna had Briish accents (though Deanna's started out as a sort of hybrid, wierd thing, and gradually evolved back into her native Brit as the series went on)...with Miles we had an Irish accent, but again...that was about it.

    One thing I liked about Babylon 5 was the variety of accents (and ethnic groups) you saw constantly. It gave the impression that with aliens around, a human with white skin and a human with black skin who spoke different languages weren't really all that different, after all!
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  4. 01-30-2003, 07:24 AM #4
    C5
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    Hey, this reminds me why I started watching TNG in the first place : I was happy that I could understand the Captain, the empathic woman, and the guy with gold skin and yellow eyes

    Come to think of it, that's right, they usually talk with an American accent in almost every other series (except as has been pointed out Scotty and Checkov.... I'm glad they didn't ask Stewart to imitate some French accent : "I'm Capten Jean Luc Picard of ze starsheep Enterrrprrrise".... )
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  5. 01-30-2003, 03:15 PM #5
    Aldaron
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    Originally posted by C5
    Hey, this reminds me why I started watching TNG in the first place : I was happy that I could understand the Captain, the empathic woman, and the guy with gold skin and yellow eyes

    Come to think of it, that's right, they usually talk with an American accent in almost every other series (except as has been pointed out Scotty and Checkov.... I'm glad they didn't ask Stewart to imitate some French accent : "I'm Capten Jean Luc Picard of ze starsheep Enterrrprrrise".... )
    Oh, no...scary thought. I'm having visions of Star Trek meets Monty Python & the Holy Grail.

    Cardassians: Aren't you French?
    Picard: Of courrrse Ah am Frrrenshhhh....can't yer tell bah mah outrageous accceeennt? Now, go away, yer silly Carrrdie! I farrrt in yer generaaal direction! Yer motherr waz a 'amsterr, and yer fatherrr smelt of elderberries!

    Hehehe....
    When you are dead, you don't know that you are dead. It is difficult only for others.

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  6. 01-30-2003, 03:24 PM #6
    AslanC
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    Originally posted by C5
    I'm glad they didn't ask Stewart to imitate some French accent : "I'm Capten Jean Luc Picard of ze starsheep Enterrrprrrise".... )
    RFLMAO!

    Now imagine it as a French-Canadian one.

    "Salut, I 'ham Capiten Jean-Luc Pi'kard of de starsheep enterrpize. Merci la visite!"

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  7. 01-30-2003, 06:41 PM #7
    Kaiddin
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    Originally posted by AslanC
    RFLMAO!

    Now imagine it as a French-Canadian one.

    "Salut, I 'ham Capiten Jean-Luc Pi'kard of de starsheep enterrpize. Merci la visite!"

    Damn you! Now I'm picturing Picard being played by Jean Chretien.
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  8. 01-31-2003, 11:24 AM #8
    Greg Smith
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    Originally posted by Aldaron

    Picard and Deanna had Briish accents (though Deanna's started out as a sort of hybrid, wierd thing, and gradually evolved back into her native Brit as the series went on)
    Marina Sirtis has a something of cockney twang in her natural speech. Deana didn't.

    "Cor blimey, Captain me awld sparra, I can feel pain."
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  9. 02-01-2003, 08:56 PM #9
    Captain Leana Craig
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    Originally posted by Aldaron
    Oh, no...scary thought. I'm having visions of Star Trek meets Monty Python & the Holy Grail.

    Cardassians: Aren't you French?
    Picard: Of courrrse Ah am Frrrenshhhh....can't yer tell bah mah outrageous accceeennt? Now, go away, yer silly Carrrdie! I farrrt in yer generaaal direction! Yer motherr waz a 'amsterr, and yer fatherrr smelt of elderberries!

    Hehehe....

    Or to really butcher one of the best lines from Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

    "Unlike some other French Captains, I can speak with an English accent"
    -------------------------
    Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges

    "In time of war, the law falls silent"

    Admiral Ross to Dr Bashir

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  10. 02-02-2003, 05:51 AM #10
    Aldaron
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    Originally posted by Greg Smith
    Marina Sirtis has a something of cockney twang in her natural speech. Deana didn't.

    "Cor blimey, Captain me awld sparra, I can feel pain."
    ROTFLOL...shades of Pygmalion

    I was actually referring to Deanna waaaay later - by the time of the movies (esp., for some reason, First Contact) her on-screen voice is almost indistinguishable from the off-screen voice I've heard from her in interviews.

    Oh no...I just had a new flash for when Riker gets his own command...

    "'Allo, Will. Go' a new motor?"

    Damn your eyes, Greg! Every episode of Minder is now coming back to me...with Deanna inserted into every scene!
    When you are dead, you don't know that you are dead. It is difficult only for others.

    It's the same when you are stupid...
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