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They don't actually know how to speak English. If you listen carefully, what they are doing is sounding out English using the pronunciation rules of their "nati

by Bud 11y ago

They don't actually know how to speak English. If you listen carefully, what they are doing is sounding out English using the pronunciation rules of their "native" language. It's not an accent at all, just a literal parsing using different rules.

reuven 11y ago
That's precisely what ends up causing an accent, no? Using the sounds and pronunciation of your native language in another one, with different rules. I don't think that Apple has created the World's Best Accent Impersonator here, but it's good for a few laughs.
- Bud 11y ago
  An accent is when you do it occasionally and accidentally, not pervasively, the wrong way, every single time for every single sound. That's something else.
pavel_lishin 11y ago
Two-part response. 1, the pedantic: technically none of them know how to speak English, or any other language - there's just a rule set for making phonemes based on characters out of waveforms. 2. Ignoring the pedantic response, I still don't think that's true - if that were the case, then Milena wouldn't be able to speak an English sentence! say -v Milena "Hello, I am Milena" If they only speak their own language, then Milena should be saying "Прописная буква Х, строчная буква и", etc.
- microtherion 11y ago
  It's even more complicated than that: Some voices DO speak multiple languages, e.g. the German voice "Anna" (downloaded from System Preferences) speaks excellent German, English, Spanish, Italian, and French: say -v Anna 'über allen Wipfeln ist Ruh' say -v Anna '[[lang fr_FR]] que restet-il de nos amours' say -v Anna '[[lang it_IT]] chi nasce asino non muore cavallo' say -v Anna '[[lang es_SP]] nosotros tenemos mas influencia con sus hijos que su tiene' say -v Anna '[[lang en_UK]] are we having fun yet?'
  - pavel_lishin 11y ago
    Hm, do you know how many speak languages that aren't "ascii"?
  - carlob 11y ago
    No, it doesn't speak Italian, for one 'chi' is pronounced like 'she' and not like 'ki'.
the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
They actually do, but only if you also download the entire language packs for them.

by Bud 11y ago

reuven 11y ago

That's precisely what ends up causing an accent, no? Using the sounds and pronunciation of your native language in another one, with different rules. I don't think that Apple has created the World's Best Accent Impersonator here, but it's good for a few laughs.

Bud 11y ago
An accent is when you do it occasionally and accidentally, not pervasively, the wrong way, every single time for every single sound. That's something else.

pavel_lishin 11y ago

Two-part response. 1, the pedantic: technically none of them know how to speak English, or any other language - there's just a rule set for making phonemes based on characters out of waveforms. 2. Ignoring the pedantic response, I still don't think that's true - if that were the case, then Milena wouldn't be able to speak an English sentence! say -v Milena "Hello, I am Milena" If they only speak their own language, then Milena should be saying "Прописная буква Х, строчная буква и", etc.

microtherion 11y ago
It's even more complicated than that: Some voices DO speak multiple languages, e.g. the German voice "Anna" (downloaded from System Preferences) speaks excellent German, English, Spanish, Italian, and French: say -v Anna 'über allen Wipfeln ist Ruh' say -v Anna '[[lang fr_FR]] que restet-il de nos amours' say -v Anna '[[lang it_IT]] chi nasce asino non muore cavallo' say -v Anna '[[lang es_SP]] nosotros tenemos mas influencia con sus hijos que su tiene' say -v Anna '[[lang en_UK]] are we having fun yet?'
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  Hm, do you know how many speak languages that aren't "ascii"?
- carlob 11y ago
  No, it doesn't speak Italian, for one 'chi' is pronounced like 'she' and not like 'ki'.

the_mitsuhiko 11y ago

They actually do, but only if you also download the entire language packs for them.