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Message board > What language is Obama speaking?
What language is Obama speaking?
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wolfy
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What language is Obama speaking?
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I have been doing Obama�s speech in class with my student�s, and come across some strange use of langauge.
There are a couple of instances where he uses what I consider British expressions (not US). �He uses the present prefect a lot, he uses Autumn not Fall, he says "winter" with what sounds like a trace of a cockney accent. (almost silent "t")
Any thoughts, I�m not American, so I don�t know much about him or this history. �Was he raised in London at some point? |
2 Dec 2008
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Zora
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He was probably raised somewhere near the Canadian border... funnily enough, I�ve been told by Americans that Canadians can sound "British" and by some Brits that we sound American!!I think that it�s due to the strange crossover of vocabulary (both Brit and American) and accents and the way things are pronouced at times. Also, Canadians use the Present Perfect a LOT, like the Brits do.
Edit! I found this on wiki: And it explains the reason behind the strange usage of English....
"With his Kenyan father and white American mother, his upbringing in Honolulu and Jakarta, and his Ivy League
education, Obama�s early life experiences differ markedly from those of
African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s.... "
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2 Dec 2008
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