"Fallen" <fallen@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:eChZj.39868$EH5.1694@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> One Bit Shy wrote:
>> I have no first hand knowledge of intent. As far as I can tell,
neither
>> do you. I can only express my opinions and the inferences I draw. But
>> then, you're on record opposing actually thinking about such things.
>
> Uhm yes you do have knowledge of intent. We've been talking about it.
The
> voice coach was told to make her sound Jamaican.
I've already agreed that the source of the accent is Jamaican. How
Jamaican
it actually sounds like isn't so universally agreed upon. But, yes, in
the
process of producing the episodes, Jamaican was chosen as an accent.
> Are you suggesting that dialogue coaches can just make up what accent
they
> give to characters in shows?
Not arbitrarily, no. But the extent of his involvement in the choice kind
of depends on the charge given him. If Mutant Enemy wanted Jamaican going
in, then he wouldn't have much influence. But if their objective was
something more general like an exotic foreign sounding accent that would
fit
somebody who looks like Bianca Lawson, then it would make sense to turn to
an expert in dialects to select an appropriate one.
At a lower level of detail, Marti seems to make it clear that it was only
the voice coach who was determined to pin the dialect down to something
very
specific.
> Your entire argument seems to be based on one person, who admits that
> she's 'supposed' to sound jamaican', thinking that she didn't really
sound
> that jamaican and that she didn't say 'HI I'm kendra, from Cap town'
when
> she turned up.
That person being the writer of course - presumably in a position to know.
In any case, the core of my argument is that the show doesn't say where
Kendra's from. The script doesn't say - doesn't even mention an accent.
The character is shrouded in mystery from the start - appearing
unexpectedly, looking and sounding exotic, initially confused with a team
of
assassins, and so vague about her origin that she doesn't even have a last
name. The only thing actually made clear is that she's another Slayer.
Lots of detail is given about her being a Slayer.
The only thing that might point to a home is an odd accent and manner of
speaking that many people find difficult to recognize. I don't think
that's
a lot to go on.
> When a character turns up in a show with a specific and recognisable (to
> most people, not to one random women) accent,
I'm not convinced that it's "most". It's certain that many people besides
Marti Noxon don't recognize it. I've seen comments about Kendra's
peculiar
accent for years from many sources. And Marti isn't a "random" woman.
She
wrote the story.
> then that's where they are from unless they say otherwise. Simple
Occam's
> Razor argument.
>
> There is significant evidence pointing to her being Jamaican and
> absolutely no evidence pointing towards her being from anywhere else.
Let me correct that last part. There's absolutely no other evidence
pointing towards her being from anywhere. In the tradition of the dog
that
didn't bark, perhaps the primary clue is the lack of identifying
information. It would be the accent that's the outlier. Try Occam's
Razor
on that.
You seem determined to work the problem back. Let me gently suggest that
working the problem forward from different hypotheses can be fruitful too.
I've suggested that the show may have wanted Kendra's origin to be
unknown.
I think that's a rational writing choice as I discussed elsewhere. But is
the result consistent with that intent? I think so. The script and
actual
dialogue contain no identifying information and even some extra vagueness
by
Kendra not having a last name.
The only contradicting element might be the accent. But she has to speak
something - probably some form of English since it's an American TV show.
Wouldn't an American or British or Australian accent overly identify
somebody who's supposed to be of a mysterious background? You would want
something more exotic. There are probably multiple solutions to that.
Maybe go for something like English taught to a Russian by a Frenchman.
Or
create an entire dialect from scratch. More practical would be to base
the
accent on something real - like some third world dialect - and gum it up
some in the process of making it understandable. Then rely on its
relative
obscurity to generally confuse an American audience that will hear
something
vaguely familiar in the same sense that World Music sounds familiar, even
though they can't tell if it's from South Africa, Brazil or Micronesia.
Your hypothesis would seem to be that they want Kendra to be from Jamaica.
The accent would be consistent with that, though I dispute how clearly so.
Especially when relying on that alone. More to the point, if Mutant Enemy
wanted for some reason to have Kendra identified as from Jamaica, why
doesn't the show say so? It's not as if there's any lack of op****tunity
where that would be a natural, even expected topic of conversation. It
doesn't seem consistent to me to deliberately choose a nationality and
then
avoid all mention of it.
OBS
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