Daily bread 01/06/2018

• Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents? - The Atlantic

  • Why Do Cartoon Villains Speak in Foreign Accents?

       

    Children’s shows often use non-standard dialects to voice the "bad guys," sending a dangerous message to kids about diversity.

  • differences between Mufasa and Scar
  • Mufasa is heroic and steadfast, while Scar is cynical and power-hungry
  • Mufasa has an American accent, while Scar, the lion of the dark side, roars in British English
  • Scar’s accent as part of a disturbing pattern in the film: Foreign accents and non-standard dialects were being used to voice all of the “bad” characters.
  • Scar’s minions, the hyenas, spoke in either African American English or English with a Spanish accent.
  • a study of language patterns in animated kids’ entertainment,
  • analyze 323 animated TV characters using measures such as ethnic and gender identification, physical appearance, hero/villain status, and linguistic markers
  • a random sample of 12 shows, which spanned a variety of networks, air-times, and genres
  • lots of kids’ shows use language to mark certain traits in a given character.
  • In many of the cases studied, villains were given foreign accents.
  • most of the heroic characters in their research sample were American-sounding; only two heroes had foreign accents
  • this correlation of foreign accents with “bad” characters could have concerning implications for the way kids are being taught to engage with diversity in the United States.   
  • The most wicked foreign accent of all was British English
  • British is the foreign accent most commonly used for villains
  • German and Slavic accents are also common for villain voices
  • Henchmen or assistants to villains often spoke in dialects associated with low socioeconomic status, including working-class Eastern European dialects or regional American dialects such as “Italian-American gangster
  • None of the villains in the sample studied seemed to speak Standard American English; when they did speak with an American accent, it was always in regional dialects associated with low socioeconomic status.

• 10 strategies for success on the CELPIP English test | Canadian Immigrant

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.