Fake Languages

[imron]

Following a link about English experts from this post, I came across a Youtube

of a guy speaking "fake" languages. Basically he recorded himself speaking a bunch of gibberish based on how he perceived other languages to sound, with the hope that he could encourage non-native English speakers to do the same back. Quite an interesting little experiment.

[Senzhi]

Actually, the "Sims" series of games produced by Electronic Arts uses also a "fake" gibberish language. Feedback on those games is that players actually do understand what is being said due to non-verbal communication as well as intonation.

Interesting indeed, if we consider the origin of languages. Somewhere somehow in history we all must have started "barking" when we wanted something.

Now we just do it when we don't want something.

[imron]

Another one of the same guy speaking with himself in fake german and fake arabic.

[DrZero]

I think he's had some exposure to those languages ... or at least to samples for quite a while online before doing this video. Him imitation of the Chinese sounds is so close.

[imron]

Perhaps, but I think an important part of being able to do this is not being able to understand the languages you're imitating, otherwise it becomes difficult to do.

[aliah]

Maybe your right. Myriam. A little bit of new learning.

[atitarev]

I watched "Minority Report" and was disgusted by fake Russian, which didn't sound like anything Russian - the subtitle said "speaking in Russian", though, the Russians in the movie were also disgusting like in many Hollywood movies. Otherwise the movie is not bad.

Sorry, Imron, I don't like fake languages, they don't sound well to the speakers of the real languages, although it may take some skills and efforts. In the student years I was able to imitate quite a few languages and other people could tell, which ones they were but I am not enjoying this exercise any more - prefer the real thing

[imron]

Just out of curiosity, do you think you'd still be able to do a fake English?

[atitarev]

I think I can both Russian and English but I am a bit out of practice

Don't get me wrong - it's OK to do it socially but if, in some movies they show it as a real thing.

--

You can get not only fake speech but fake writing - like they show Russian army planes, rockets with gibberish in Cyrillic.

I was amused and annoyed by the writings inside the Russian probe in "Red Planet".

It's not that hard to find a native speaker/translator for a multi-million movie, isn't it both for speaking and writing.

[Lu]

I watched "Minority Report" and was disgusted by fake Russian, which didn't sound like anything Russian - the subtitle said "speaking in Russian", though, the Russians in the movie were also disgusting like in many Hollywood movies.

I recently saw a bit of Saving Private Ryan. There is a part when they get to a destroyed city, and there's a family sitting in a building with the front broken off. Now, this entire story takes place in France, as anyone with some knowledge of WOII history, let alone an ear for languages, would know. But not the subtitler. Every time the family in the broken house said something, the subtitles said (德文), and I was sitting there yelling at the tv: this isn't friggin' Dewen, it's Fawen, can't you hear?! Where do you think they landed?! On a German beach?

[atitarev]

He-he

[imron]

in some movies they show it as a real thing.

Yeah, I agree, it's pretty sloppy to not get things checked/verified by native speakers, especially when you consider how easy it should be.

I think I can both Russian and English but I am a bit out of practice

Don't suppose you'd like to post some short fake english on youtube then? :mrgreen: The last time I looked the original poster didn't seem to get many fake english responses except for one from a german guy. This is something I'd always wondered about too (i.e. how English sounds to a non-native speaker).

[flameproof]

Another one of the same guy speaking with himself in fake german and fake arabic.

Remember, you have fake German in several Monty Python sketches.I think some have fake French too.

I think here is some: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yff5Sp6bN6k

[Prase]

I watched "Minority Report" and was disgusted by fake Russian, which didn't sound like anything Russian - the subtitle said "speaking in Russian", though, the Russians in the movie were also disgusting like in many Hollywood movies. Otherwise the movie is not bad.

Russian? When? Which scene?

[imron]

Bumping this thread because today I came across this.

[vellocet]

deleted

[phills]

This probably happens more often than people think.  Reminds me of "Iko, Iko" the song.  Does it actually mean something in a Carribean language, or is it fake? 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP01RNDDsPM

 

Because it's popular, you imagine other people think it means something.  I imagine a similar process too with chinese character tattoos that were popular for a while.

 

[matteo]

On 10/29/2022 at 3:35 PM, imron said:

Bumping this thread because today I came across this.

 

thanks for bringing this up, it was a hugely popular song and periodically comes up somewhere, and always makes me smile

This is the complete video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yj_N5_P5qI&ab_channel=C.RandallNicholson in the introduction he says he wrote the song to "develop the theme" of lack of communication. 

Funnily enough, listening to it gives me a very similar feeling to when I hear spoken mandarin that is too fast for me to understand...you almost get it, but not really