(no subject)

[robinturner]

I've just seen Holly Hunter as herself for the first time. She's a lot more attractive in real life than in most of her screen roles - until she opens her mouth. God, those diphthongs!

Comments

[arbiteroftruth.livejournal.com]

what's a diphthong?

and did you see her in a movie (that new one), or in person?

Re: Not only for geeks

[solri.livejournal.com]

A diphthong is where you kind of glide one vowel into another, like in "wait".

I saw her in a TV interview. The new film looks interesting, though.

Re: Not only for geeks

[redngold.livejournal.com]

...and there was me thinking it was a skimpy topless swimsuit. Ah, Father Robin, the things you learn in this journal.
On a brighter note, Holly Hunter (in Crash) presses so many buttons that I feel like a Cantonese Keyboard.

Re: Not only for geeks

[solri.livejournal.com]

Love the simile!

[chr0me-kitten.livejournal.com]

I take it you're not a fan of American Southern accents.

Re: Not only for geeks

[solri.livejournal.com]

Not the White Trash variety. I can handle Hollywood Southern aristocrat or Robert Johnson style Delta. I guess that makes me racist and a snob!

Re: Not only for geeks

[redngold.livejournal.com]

Know what you mean...it's that exquisite torture, waiting (seems like) weeks for those sounds you just know you're going to hate. Y'all is my "favorite", sounds like an especially abusive yachting term.

n.b. you wouldn't believe where I'm typing this...

[thegreatwhite.livejournal.com]

Holly Hunter was sooo gorgeous in The Piano...Speaking of that movie, I know it's kinda funny; but I noticed only this year that that little girl in the movie, Ada's daughter, was actually Anna Paquin, The X-girl :) Isn't that weird ?
Of course she was in her larval stage in The Piano...

I find her dumb-ass souther accent quite attractive.

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

She seems an intelligent and 'sassy' woman. Seen her in 'Crash' ? I don't much like 'The Piano Lesson', but I do like 'An angel at my table'. Think I'll order that soon.

[solri.livejournal.com]

I think the problem for me is that her accent makes her sound alot less intelligent than she is. What interests me is whether the sound of languages/dialects actually have inherent qualities, or whether we just attach the qualities we associate with the region/country to the accent. The prevalent view in linguistics is the latter, so that, for example, German sounds "harsh" because of stereotypes of German people, but I suspect there is something in the former view.

points in favor of the former and the latter.

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

Well, there are experiments in psycholinguistics that indicate that we do associate certain vowels with 'smallness' and other certain vowels with 'largeness'. So it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that languages/dialects can have inherent qualities.

Btw, I think that certain dialects of French sound really harsh, and I don't find French as a whole to be 'pretty' like EVERYONE always says it is. I wonder if more people would think this, if French weren't stereotyped to be the 'language of love'.

Re: points in favor of the former and the latter.

[solri.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of my French student who refused to ameliorate his outrageous accent, "because ze Eenglish girls, zey jerst luuurv ze Fransh accon," and of course the Merovingian in The Matrix: Reloaded: "French is my favourite - fantastic language, especially to curse with. Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperies de connards d'enculés de ta mère. You see, it's like wiping your ass with silk, I love it."

I replied to a post of yours...

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

but somewhat arrogantly I did in my lj, and i guess you didn't see it.

It's here :

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ankh156/272746.html?mode=reply