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Speech impediment/rhotacism?

reibish

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Just wondering if anyone had any information or insight on Michael's manner of speech.

I remember Kenny talked about it as "his Indiana accent" in TII - however that is definitely NOT an "accent" from Indiana (I've spent way too much time there, that's now how they speak!)

When I search for stuff, it mostly just comes up with information on teaching children how to pronounce the letter L rather than teens and adults who never learned it correctly.

To be clear what I'm talking about: Michael had an interesting pattern about how he would pronounce the letter L. If it was the first letter in a word, such as LOVE :) there was no issue. If it wasn't an emphasized syllable, such as the word "really," the word tend to be weakened overall, but he could still pronounce it clearly, and that was that slight Midwestern vowel - it would sound like "rilly". However, if the letter L was in an emphasized syllable and followed by a hard consonant, it sounded as though he held his tongue back in his mouth and did not bring it forward to roll correctly and produce the correct sound. Examples:

Children = "chewdren"
Child = "cheyl" (not to be confused with "chile" which is purposefully pronounced that way)
World = "whirew" / "whirl"
Old = "ode"
Normal = "nowmuh" (bit of rhotacism with the letter R in this word)

This didn't seem to often affect his speech when singing (doesn't surprise me as many people lose their accents/speech issues when singing) but I'm just wondering if others have examples or know of any other information on it? Sometimes I wonder if he didn't want to "fix" it if it may have possibly interefered with his vocal technique (not implying he wanted to "repair" it at all, but it's common for singers to completely avoid changing anything about their throat and mouth for fear of altering their voice)

Random topic, I know.
 
Actually Reibish, not so random,. because the other day I was watching some program and I noticed that the person speaking (who was an African American) kept saying "sometime" instead of "sometimes" which I notice all the Jacksons including Michael and a lot of African Americans do as well. I always wondered why that was?
 
The syntax and grammar thing is cultural that goes all the way back to slavery and from what I understand, developed both from the denial of rights and education as well as a resistance against the white european culture they were forced to appropriate that wasn't theirs, as a way to keep their true culture and heritage alive. Not explaining it very well but from what I understand that's where it comes from.

However, I'm mostly talking about the way Michael physically pronounced the words - no one else in the Jackson family really does it. The few times I've heard Prince speak, he's had a slightly similar thing and I assume that is just because Michael raised and so he picked up on it.
 
reibish said:
Just wondering if anyone had any information or insight on Michael's manner of speech.

I remember Kenny talked about it as "his Indiana accent" in TII - however that is definitely NOT an "accent" from Indiana (I've spent way too much time there, that's now how they speak!)
Click to expand...

I heard rather than an Indiana accent the Jacksons' accent is actually a Southern (Alabama) accent. Remember Katherine is from there. And Joe too is from the South.
 
reibish said:
The syntax and grammar thing is cultural that goes all the way back to slavery and from what I understand, developed both from the denial of rights and education as well as a resistance against the white european culture they were forced to appropriate that wasn't theirs, as a way to keep their true culture and heritage alive. Not explaining it very well but from what I understand that's where it comes from.

However, I'm mostly talking about the way Michael physically pronounced the words - no one else in the Jackson family really does it.
Click to expand...
Thats true about the syntax/grammar thing. But I'm trying to hear these examples you gave in my head. Did you have a certain interview or speech that uses these words?
 
Trying to find individual clips, this one is full of it though.

He even starts off with "Her-aw-doh" instead of "Her-all-doe"


In the first two minutes you can hear "world" "children" "bline-fode" (blindfold)

Honestly this is a great example because he's using his deeper voice and the audio is clear enough to hear everything. I think all the examples I talked about are in this.
 
respect77 said:
I heard rather than an Indiana accent the Jacksons' accent is actually a Southern (Alabama) accent. Remember Katherine is from there. And Joe too is from the South.
Click to expand...

Agreed. There really is no "Indiana" accent and theirs is more Southern than anything. But once in awhile they mix their vowels the way Midwesterners do (i.e. I'm often told I say the word "penny" funny and that it sounds more like "pinny")
 
I was born and raised in Indiana...no accent to me at all, but there are Indiana dialects that make words sound more 'southern.' I do think his pronunciation is more southern as mentioned previously.

Just for fun, try the link below:

http://www.dialectsarchive.com/indiana
 
reibish said:
Just wondering if anyone had any information or insight on Michael's manner of speech.

I remember Kenny talked about it as "his Indiana accent" in TII - however that is definitely NOT an "accent" from Indiana (I've spent way too much time there, that's now how they speak!)

When I search for stuff, it mostly just comes up with information on teaching children how to pronounce the letter L rather than teens and adults who never learned it correctly.

To be clear what I'm talking about: Michael had an interesting pattern about how he would pronounce the letter L. If it was the first letter in a word, such as LOVE :) there was no issue. If it wasn't an emphasized syllable, such as the word "really," the word tend to be weakened overall, but he could still pronounce it clearly, and that was that slight Midwestern vowel - it would sound like "rilly". However, if the letter L was in an emphasized syllable and followed by a hard consonant, it sounded as though he held his tongue back in his mouth and did not bring it forward to roll correctly and produce the correct sound. Examples:

Children = "chewdren"
Child = "cheyl" (not to be confused with "chile" which is purposefully pronounced that way)
World = "whirew" / "whirl"
Old = "ode"
Normal = "nowmuh" (bit of rhotacism with the letter R in this word)

This didn't seem to often affect his speech when singing (doesn't surprise me as many people lose their accents/speech issues when singing) but I'm just wondering if others have examples or know of any other information on it? Sometimes I wonder if he didn't want to "fix" it if it may have possibly interefered with his vocal technique (not implying he wanted to "repair" it at all, but it's common for singers to completely avoid changing anything about their throat and mouth for fear of altering their voice)

Random topic, I know.
Click to expand...

I noticed that too. Interesting...
BTW Did you notice how is Blanket speaking?
 
hmmm...I haven't hear enough of Blanket's speech to really notice anything. Mostly I notice he seems to have sinus/adenoid issues maybe?
 
I've always loved the way he pronounces his L's. Like a hidden letter. I'm not ashamed to say that I copy it a lot when speaking/singing!!
 
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