Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Nov 28, 2011 at 2:28am
Do you notice what I notice about these two videos?
Classic code-switching. She was born in Australia, so it's not that surprising. Do you react differently to her when her accent changes?
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May '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Wow. That's a pretty extreme case.
But I plead guilty myself. I didn't get to Texas until I was 12, and I find I myself losing my drawl when I'm talking to yankees. (When I don't lose my drawl, yankees speak to me very slowly and eschew words of more than two syllables.)
With her, my impression doesn't change much from one to the other.
Edited on Nov 28, 2011 at 3:03amFeb '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
I must be a code-switcher too. My native New York accent can barely be detected here at Ricochet.
I actually found her accent very similar in both venues. Neither time does she sound regular American, although it is more marked in the first. But in the second, the way she says her own name, "Danielle," and "foreign" when describing her job at AEI, is almost Irish (and yes, I know of the similarities between Irish and Australian voices).
Edited on Nov 28, 2011 at 3:15amMay '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Obama does the same when he's talking to a black audience. Not quite as dramatically different as this, though.
Aug '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Lots of people do it, especially us Aussies when talking to Americans.We get sick of repeating ourselves. And before you take offense at this, its because Australians mumble, not because Americans are stupid.
Feb '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Did any of you see Mark Steyn on Brian Lilley's show at Sun TV, in which he claims (jokingly, I am sure) that the accent he is putting on is quite tiring when he tries to do it for a whole hour? I don't recall which of the clips it is in, but the whole show is, of course, worth watching.
Aug '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Mark Steyn is ALWAYS worth watching. Thanks for the tip!
Oct '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Perhaps because I'm attuned to it - or was waiting for it - she seemed like an Americanized Aussie in both clips.
(This is a somewhat amusing, if slightly NSFCC, clip about the Oz accent.)
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
My accent changes with alarming speed, depending on where I am. It's awful.
Jun '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
When just talking about regional accents within the same language, for myself, I can pick out the genuine and the fake Minnesota accents quite easily, whereas people who didn't grow up with them miss the nuances. I may not even know what's wrong with it. I just know it's fake. I would have trouble picking out the fake Louisiana accent in a movie, but I could pick out the fake accents in "Fargo." About 90% of them fake in that case. Still a good movie, but the accents were not quite right.
Apr '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Honestly, I don't hear what you guys hear... her accent sound practically the same to me in both cases. There are audio differences, but I don't think there are accent differences. In the first clip she is speaking far slower and is sitting further from the mic. In the second she is speaking faster and has the mic right up to her mouth.
As for switching accents that is something only duplicitous untrustworthy carpetbaggers do...there I've said it...but then again I've only really lived in the mid west for most my life so I've never had a reason to change my accent, or opportunity. It is an interesting phenomenon, but I feel it is most often done unconsciously, so it should not be held against people.
Aug '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
My Texas accent returns fifteen minutes after I pass thru Texarkana headed west on I-30, or at the sight of a Luby's Cafeteria - whichever comes first.
May '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
I love how she says "I'm not a betting man" at 1:06 of the first video. It gives me hope that someday we will quit this hyper-gender-conscious PC nonsense and stop referring to the leader of a committee as a piece of furniture.
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Seriously? She sounds like two completely different people to me!
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Actually, that was a bit ... jarring. It's not quite PC nonsense to notice that she is not a man, is it? Would you not look at me strangely if I said, "Trust me, I'm a man of my word?"
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Actually, that was a bit ... jarring. It's not quite PC nonsense to notice that she is not a man, is it? Would you not look at me strangely if I said, "Trust me, I'm a man of my word?" · Nov 28 at 8:26am
I wouldn't. But I tend to hear "man" as a less clumsy way of saying "man or woman or transgendered individual or sentient being."
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
I had a casual lunch with a friend and Dani Pletka once (in Washington), and she spoke in the more American accent you hear in the second, just for the record.
It is interesting particularly how non-rhotic her accent becomes (more like RP) in the former video, and I was surprised at the degree of the code-switch. That said, I'm not sure it means much, but it is definitely fun to watch.
May '10
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Actually, that was a bit ... jarring. It's not quite PC nonsense to notice that she is not a man, is it? Would you not look at me strangely if I said, "Trust me, I'm a man of my word?" · Nov 28 at 8:26am
You're right, I just meant that calling someone a "chair" is PC nonsense. Her unexpected use of "betting man" is what prompted me to think of it.
Feb '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Seriously? She sounds like two completely different people to me! · Nov 28 at 8:22am
Seriously, to me she sounds like a non-native American (not a non-Native American, which would be a different thing altogether) in both clips, more so in the first, in which she is speaking longer and has perhaps practiced it less. She seemed to be trying harder in the second clip to sound American.
Feb '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
Mark Wilson
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Actually, that was a bit ... jarring. It's not quite PC nonsense to notice that she is not a man, is it? Would you not look at me strangely if I said, "Trust me, I'm a man of my word?" · Nov 28 at 8:26am
You're right, I just meant that calling someone a "chair" is PC nonsense. Her unexpected use of "betting man" is what prompted me to think of it. · Nov 28 at 8:51am
Is it just me, or does this conversation make you think of Eowyn too?
Apr '11
Re: Danielle Pletka and Code-Switching
I kinda prefer the conference presentation. It's more dispassionate and authoritative, which is the role she is playing. At the debate she is asking a question. The tone and diction, supported by the more American female accent, is more sensitive and petitioning ("don't you agree with me?"). I prefer the first, because she sounds as tho we could have a discussion and an argument without her dissolving into the sulks.
In neither does she sound completely American.