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VOICE OVER DIALECTS IN GIBBERISH

voice over dialectsMany voice actors make the mistake of thinking that “pronouncing letter combinations correctly” = performing convincing dialects. 

But in addition to pronunciation, each language has its own musical phrasing.

In this video, a 19-year old Finnish woman demonstrates how your language sounds to foreigners…even though she’s speaking gibberish.

Probably you’ll be skeptical until you hear the melody of your own language, despite the nonsense words.

For you English speakers: “UK English” appears at :50; “American English” is at 1:11. 

This won’t teach you how to speak gibberish, but it does teach voice actors how to do nine different, real dialects.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Darren Marlar March 10, 2014, 6:32 am

    WOW! What an ear she has – and a great talent for mimicry! Most of us would kill to have these skills! Absolutely loved the U.S. English – she NAILED it!

  • Rebecca Michaels Haugh March 10, 2014, 7:04 am

    Dang. She is good!! Fun stuff… 🙂

  • Dalia Bach March 10, 2014, 7:05 am

    Terrific job!

  • Dalia Bach March 10, 2014, 8:48 am

    Terrific job!

  • Rebecca Michaels Haugh March 10, 2014, 10:26 am

    Dang. She is good!! Fun stuff… 🙂

  • Jack Newberry March 10, 2014, 6:50 am

    I recognized the dialect styles in most of these but the door subtitles helped. Some I missed entirely (even with the door). I wonder if she can do a recognizable Dan O’Dialect?

  • Mike Holmes March 10, 2014, 6:53 am

    I’d put this incredibly talented person in the “savant” category. So few people have astonishing talent. I feel like a kid looking into a candy store.

  • UraharaZR March 10, 2014, 6:56 am

    What a tallent! All the languages were astonishingly imitated. Too bad there’s no Serbian in it 🙂

  • Emil Gallina March 10, 2014, 7:10 am

    All that, and beautiful, too. Wow! Sid Caesar made a career out of doing this. Seemed like every time he appeared on The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson would ask him to demonstrate it. Also, Peter Sellers did a classic scene in one of the Pink Panther films in which he went under cover as an American tourist at an international reception. That was the first time I’d heard American English as gibberish and it was brilliant.

  • Conner Crast March 10, 2014, 7:48 am

    The U.S. female circa 80’s sounds convincing enough. Oh wait, most college females sound like that today. Nice slap in our face!

  • Rod Rawlings March 10, 2014, 8:02 am

    Fearless and fantastic! She may not know the words, but she knows the tune.

  • Rory O'Shea March 10, 2014, 8:14 am

    A finely tuned ear and masterfully convincing delivery. Obvious comedic sensibility. And pretty, too. But can she dance?

  • Timo Virkkula March 10, 2014, 9:59 am

    Check out the rest of this girls repertoar, like when she sings in different styles. Not a completely untalented person I´d say.

    But then again, she´s from Finland…

  • Ted March 10, 2014, 2:25 pm

    These were fun to watch. I looked at her other videos, and her family may come from Finland, but her natural accent is U.S. English — or maybe that’s an act, too. 🙂

  • greg March 10, 2014, 2:44 pm

    She’s willing to do what many aren’t. Put in the time to learn and practice.

  • Reuven Miller March 10, 2014, 3:09 pm

    Danny Kay was another master of this niche. He once did French gibberish with Brigette Bardot, who remarked, “I know he is speaking French, … but, I do not understand a word!”

  • Lawrence Wallison March 10, 2014, 3:26 pm

    Wait…what did she say?

  • Richard Bird March 10, 2014, 4:31 pm

    Apparently world renowned physicist Richard Feynman was so good at imitating the sounds and rhythms of certain languages that he would regularly fool people into thinking he was actually speaking the language.

  • Paul Garner March 10, 2014, 9:31 pm

    Wow! Talent all the way ’round.

  • Daniel Dorse March 19, 2014, 10:10 pm

    I know enough about 4 of these languages to know that she is glibly doing a clicheed version of a particular regional (or gender-based) version of that accent, which leads me to believe she does the same thing with the languages I’m less familiar with. One size does NOT fit all.