his accent
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Trevor Noah
Borovnia54 — 10 years ago(December 13, 2015 07:36 PM)
i know he's South African, but to my American ears, I thought he was British Is there anything I should listen, any sound, that could help me distinguish it from a British accent?
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marta-vdz — 9 years ago(October 01, 2016 09:19 AM)
British English pronounces vowels at sort of back of the mouth, the part that's near to the throat. Trevor, on the other hand, creates his vowels in the front part of his mouth. He uses his lips a lot for the vowels. (You can spot the difference easiest if you listen to him pronounce a word that contains the "ur" sound. "Furtive", "heard", "bird" something like that.) Sorry, can't describe it better.
Notice also how carefully he pronounces all syllables, even "him", "of", "it" etc. In British English, there are big contrasts between long stressed syllables and short unstressed syllables. Trevor's speech is sort of staccato, all syllables more of less the same length and equally carefully pronounced.
Also, he speaks more or less monotonously, while English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish English each have a specific melody to them.
But neither of this is typical of South African English, it's actually how many non-native speakers all around the world pronounce English (Latinos, Japanese, Indians, most Europeans etc.)