Intonation
A Linguist Breaks Down Young Thug's Vocal Style
Play videoa look at the vocal style of rapper Young Thug and his use of vernacular in his music.
Global 'goo-goo': What baby talk sounds like around the world
This article talks about a study done on "baby talk." I thought it was relevant to the research on Motherese (Ochs, Elinor. 1993. Indexing Gender) in that it pointed to research on various countries and their corresponding "baby talk." The article talks about how the speech of parents supposedly elicits different "babbling" from their babies. [Published on 12-07-2017]
Vin Diesel Says I Am Groot in Multiple Languages
Play videoIn this clip from The Tonight Show, Vin Diesel says the same phrase in multiple languages, as he learned to do for his role in Guardians of the Galaxy. Interestingly enough, the language spoken by his character Groot is one that uses only those three words, with variation in tone that indicates different meanings and emotions.
Modern Family Accent Mocking
Play videoPhil Dunphy, the fun loving dad in Modern Family, demonstrates accent mocking for the sake of entertainment within the newest episode of the show. Having been invited to a "roaring 20s" themed wedding, Dunphy slides into is "gangster Chicago accent" to fit the period. Completely unlike his natural accent, this Chicago accent is highly theatrical and contains language he feels to be appropriate for that time period. Using a Chicago accent to portray and old-timey gangster demonstrates an ideology held about this accent and this region.
Trump Debate
Play videoThis is an example of performance, as Donald Trump places an emphasis on the way he delivers his response to Jeb Bush. His delivery and the way he speaks is very aggressive and confident in tone. His style of speech, that is in a very straight forward, relaxed manner, has resulted in his popularity around the country. He tells it as it is and throws the "political correctness" out the door in all of his debates.
"Dads should cut out the baby talk to improve their child's language skills, study says"
This is an interesting look at use of child directed speech that found significantly lower pitch and pitch variation when fathers from "traditional two-parent families" spoke to their preschoolers than when mothers did. [Published on 05-20-2015]
Acrolectal Trinidadian English
Play videoIn this video of The Culinary Institute of America, a Trinidadian demonstrates how to make a traditional Trinidadian dish: Callaloo. It's interesting because the chef produces features (such as th-fortition, non-rhoticity, consonant cluster deletion, and Trinidadian intonation), but also variant use of superstratal features such as plurality and past tense marker (ie dice pumpkin instead of diced pumpkin).
Lohnson's Fury (Singapore English)
Play videoThese Singapore English speakers have made a whole bunch of "Singlish 101" videos, all of which are really fun. I chose this one because it illustrates a couple of interesting fixed expression (including "win already lor"--basically lexicalized sarcasm), as well as giving some idea of how the vowel system and intonation of Singapore English work.
Transgender voice lesson
Play videoAn example of the many voice tutorials on YouTube made by transgendered individuals for other transgendered individuals interested in sounding more like their gender role - more like men or women.