The Substance of Language, by Stephen Fry
One of my favourite British comedy series is 'A Bit of Fry & Laurie' (Hugh Laurie currently stars as the main character in the US series House). Let me share with you an excellent sketch from this series: Stephen Fry plays an English professor who delivers a witty and ironic speech on the very substance of (the English) language. Hugh Laurie plays the baffled interviewer who can hardly come to terms with Mr.Fry's dazzling display of wisdom. Among the many interesting questions: what if Hitler had spoken English?
Remember what we said about plosives in English? Please pay attention to Stephen Fry's pronunciation (repeated) of the word 'capable'.
Just enjoy: "[...] language is my whore, my mistress, my check-out girl. Language is a complimentary moist lemon-scented cleansing square or handy freshen-up wipette. Language is the breath of God, language is the dew on a fresh apple, it's the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning light as you pluck from an old bookshelf a half forgotten book of erotic memoirs; language is the creak on the stair, a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, it's a half-remembered childhood birthday party, it's the warm wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl, it's cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot. "
10 comments:
It impressed me!
I could not imagine Hug Laurie playing that different role as a character. And even more, here he has a cute British accent quite different from the fluent American one in the serial House.
Cheers...
What can I say, what can I say, what can I say…
Yes I like this linguistic elasticity where collocations have lost all their significance but the language is still capable of sustaining demagogery.
Language is the breath of God; it means that language is creative so, from now on, I’m going to speak as if I was composing in an 88 keys piano:
Library potato will rain trolley cloud, Don’t ye surmise?
Btw, is it pronounced the same way in British and American English?
capable: 'keipəbl
Hi Anna & Susana! I'm glad you like Fry & Laurie. They are both not only excellent actors and comedians but also talented writers. Yes, 'capable' is pronounced more or less the same in British and American English, one could just say that in American English plosives are generally slightly less "explosive".
what are plosives?
Of, relating to, or being a speech sound produced by complete closure of the oral passage and subsequent release accompanied by a burst of air, as in the sound (p) in pit or (d) in dog.
From the English Dictionnary linked to the blog.
Plosives are sounds produced by a complete closure of the oral passage and subsequent release accompanied by a burst of air (in English), as in the sounds /k/ of car, /t/ of tea, or /p/ of pen. That's why Fry's mouth sort of bursts when he pronounces 'capable' (3 plosives). Have a nice Magdalena!
The speech this man has made is very good, he starts to speak, he loses his mind and later starts again and about a different topic. I have enjoyed it a lot.
Hi Amparo! I'm glad you have enjoyed Stephen Fry's speech, even more so on Magdalena Sunday! Well, Stephen Fry's a great actor. Among other roles, I found him impressive as Oscar Wilde in the film 'Wilde' (1997).
Post a Comment