It’s Zorro’s dialect of English – the qualities of his vowels are very different from those of North American English speakers. I think I’ve heard a dialect like his before … so I took a stab at explaining it above.
Whether I am correct or not, I don’t know. Zorro would have to be the one to confirm or deny.
Yet I’m English and I’ve never heard anyone pronounce “ear” as though it began with a clipped “ay” sound. Where are you from Zorro?
Do you fluently speak British English with a slight French accent? Or does your accent when speaking English pretty much jibe with the accent of those around you? Given everton’s recent remarks, that might explain things.
Of course, it may be the other way around – your fluent French may have a hint of an English accent.
That’s a good question – Zorro’s version of English, from what I can gather from his description, doesn’t seem like any version of London English of which I’m aware. Everton, your comment seems to concur. Wonder if he grew up elsewhere in England, then moved to London later?
FTR I grew up elsewhere in England and only moved here a few years ago (that was one of the reasons why I compared the unaccented e to the u in “muscle” – it nearly works the way they pronounce muscle where I’m from, but not down here).
All the same, I thought I knew a wide range of English accents, so this would be an education to me too.
Out of the night,
When the full moon is bright,
Comes the horseman known as Zorro!
Actually I live in a large hacienda outside Los Angeles. I am originally of aristocratic Castilian stock, but in my other secret incarnation as Zorro, I fight the wicked Spanish colonial government to protect the downtrodden peons. And as a result, I speak English rather like Errol Flynn, despite being surrounded by people who speak like Cheech Marin.
Zorro, Zorro, the fox so cunning and free,
Zorro, Zorro, who makes the sign of the Z!
Of course, that’s a terrible lyric because in my strange English “dialect”, “Z” doesn’t rhyme with “free”, it rhymes with “Red” or “dead”.
I suspect that the confusion as to what the bloody hell I’m going on about stems from my unfortunate original choice of the word “ear”. Forget the "ear thing, just drop it, it was a bad idea. Then of course there is the fact that most (most, I said most, so I don’t want a deluge of people quoting themselves to point out that they were right) of you are familiar with American English rather that British English, that most of you are only familiar with French as a foreign language, that at least one of the native French speakers here is from Québec which doesn’t help, that people have been reading French words in phonetic English, English words in phonetic French, all the variations thereof, and that all the British participants must be Essex wideboys or Cockney sparrahs or something.
Right, my cultural, ethnic and ensuing linguistic background:
I am half French, half British. I have spoken both languages all my life, fluently, meaning that I have two mother tongues (OK, so one’s a father tongue, but that isn’t a valid expression). My French side is from Alsace (Eastern France, along the Rhine, where choucroute garnie, Kronenbourg, the big dogs like Rin Tin Tin and the Littlest Hobo, and Gewurztraminer come from - and Californian winemakers can sod off). My English side is from nowhere in particular, as they’re not that big on regional identity in the UK. Well, some regions are but it’s not as common a phenomenon as in France, especially Alsace where we’re just a bunch of complete chauvinists.
And so here’s what I sound like: my French is just standard French French (to distinguish from Québec French, in case those guys pipe up again), with a very slight tinge of an Alsace accent on occasion (just the odd longer than average vowel). My English is pretty much BBC Radio 4 newsreader. I’ll leave it to the other Brits to explain this to any Americans who are unclear as to what I’m talking about.
And once again, I must stress the importance of forgetting all about the “ear” thing.
Un cavalier qui surgit hors de la nuit
court vers l’aventure au galop
Son nom, il le signe à la pointe de l’épée
d’un Z qui veut dire Zorro!
I feel at this point that I should step forward and give evidence, for though I have nothing to say about the grave accent, I do have some idea of what Zorro sounds like, having worked with him for two years - I am in fact sitting within spitting distance of him right now, as we toil away at our soul-mangling underpaid employment.
While the two years during which I have known Zorro have frequently seen me baffled, bewildered and desperately seeking comprehension (not to mention an escape route), as you may be able to judge from the delusional and tangential nature of his reply above, not once has this confusion arisen from his accent, which lacks all trace of regional distortion. BBC Radio 4 newsreader is about right - This (Reaplayer) news bulletin is provided free of charge for those seeking examples, although Zorro, as you might imagine, modulates his tone considerably more in an attempt to convey his disturbed emotional state to the listener.
… aka Received Pronunciation, or RP.
This explains the “ear” thing to my satisfaction. RP is an “r-less” dialect, which is a feature that RP has in common with some other English dialects.
As you are likely aware – and I’m confident everton can vouch for this – RP is not a common dialect to hear off the air and through the course of common conversation among familiars. Some speak it, but not so many.
Actually, it would be a shame to forget this … it is a very interesting aspect of your dialect. You maybe one of a few thousand English speakers who say “ear” that way in casual conversation.
Accordingly, I couldn’t resist updating this thread…
I had never realised that my way of speaking was so uncommon as to be almost freaky, and I didn’t think of it as a dialect. An idiom, maybe, but isn’t RP just standard English? That doesn’t mean that most people speak it, just that it’s the benchmark, an arbitrarily chosen datum.
No actually, you’re wrong. It’s ALL OF YOU who speak weird dialects!
This is the ying-dong badaboo service from the BBC, from Broadcasting house at 1617 GMT…
Rest assured, every human being speaks a dialect of their native language. There is no one who speaks unaccented English, Polish, Swahili, Japanese, etc. It is no way “freaky” – in fact, it is invariably the case.
Standard English, as such, does not exist as a discrete entity, as there are many competing “standards” which are acceptable to many different English-speaking communities. RP is a standard of spoken English, used by the British electronic media … but I would not call it the standard.
You are actually correct here. We all do speak “weird dialects” of our native tongues. Each and every one of us.
hmm, actually, if you speak british english you wouldn’t say zee, you would say zed, screwing up the whole rhyming thing.
BTW, I’m just joking by nitpicking! I’m sure you came up with that because you live in america ; )
The above will demonstrate that I am aware of the pronounciation of the letter “Z”, but I recognise the American version’s legitimacy as it is necessary for this song and for the Amazing Alphabet Dancers in Sesame Street.
I don’t live in America mate, I live in Earl’s Court, London Ingerland.