Transcription
Hello, number ones, and welcome to Metatron Academy. So lately, we've been looking at speech and accents from mostly the late 1800s to the early 1900s, and today I found a candidate for our analysis that I think could be very interesting, and it's Theodore Roosevelt.
Now, given this video specifically—of which you will find a link in the description—is 41 minutes and 9 seconds of continuous speech from the president. Um, I'm not going to analyze the whole thing. It would be here until tomorrow, but, as I say, I'll put a link in the description in case you want to do just that.
As always, this is a speech pattern analysis. It's more on the linguistic side of things. So, we're not going to look at what he's saying, but we're going to examine the way he speaks, the accent, the pronunciation, the intonation, in order to create a little bit of an accent profile. I'm going to let him speak for the first 1 minute and 20 seconds, and then I'll provide commentary. Let's go.
In this way, I desire to greet the Boys Progressive League at their meeting at the Hotel Manhattan. I feel that the progressive party should appeal peculiarly to the young men and therefore to the boys who are to be the next generation of voters. The principles for which we stand are the principles of fair play and a square deal for every man and every woman in the United States. A square deal politically, a square deal in matters social and industrial. I wish to see you boys join the progressive body and act in that body and as good citizens in the same way I'd expect any one of you to act in a football game. In other words, don't flinch, don't fall, and hit the line hard.
Okay, 1 minute and 26 seconds only, and I've got a lot to say. The first thing that I would like to say is that clearly, in this situation, he is reading from a script. So, this is a little bit of a rehashed situation. He may have sounded slightly different, particularly when it comes to the intonation rather than pronunciation proper, if he was just speaking with his family, friends, or at a dinner. Uh, but regardless, that's the first component of this examination.
The second aspect, as it happens often times with all sorts of old-school accents that we listen to, is that there is a certain level of a theatrical nature to the enunciation of his speeches. Clearly, this may have to do with the accent itself and the period, but you also have to consider that he's a politician. So, I mean, politics is a theater after all, and therefore there is a certain level of a performative aspect to it.
Another thing about his speech is that it has a certain rigidity to it. Check this out: A square deal politically, a square deal in matters social and industrial. A square deal in matters social and industrial. It's as if words are inserted in precise slots at exact intervals of time. See where I'm going with this? Maybe my best guess as to why he speaks like this, apart from the persuasive aspect of it that has to do with, once again, political speech of this era, it's also the fact that he was a military man. And this is something that I noticed even in some modern accents when it's someone who is a colonel, for instance, or a left tenant or lieutenant if you want to pronounce it in the way that makes more sense. But I'm stuck with left tenant because that's the one I learned.
All right. Now that we have said this, let's jump into the accent proper: pronunciation. In this way, I desire to greet. I desire to greet. Did you notice that he didn't say desire? He said desire. This is what is normally called a non-rotic accent. Allow me to elaborate. Roticity in English is one of the main characteristics that sets aides lots of different accents in several regional varieties all around the world. Rotic versus non-rotic is the technical terminology, but you may have heard the expression dropping the R. So here is an example of a rotic accent: farmer. And here is an example of a non-rotic accent: farmer. So in my case, I would say farmer. So my accent is non-rotic. Can I even say it the other way? Let me hear it. Started with the president of the United States, end up with me. Farmer. Farmer. Do I sound weird? Farmer. Farmer. Farmer. Farmer. Farmer. Man, that's so much easier for me. Farmer. Farmer. Farmer. I don't know. You'll be the judge, and judge you will. I know you so well in the comments.
Note, however, that in a non-rotic accent, it's not that you never pronounce the R or you always drop it, but you only drop it in the presence of specific phonological conditions. In this situation, the R at the end is dropped. This happens with words such as butter, car, but also this R is dropped. So, why the heck is this one dropped? Well, this one is dropped because it's followed by a consonant. If, instead of a consonant or a consonant cluster in this specific space, you would have had a vowel, then the R would have been fully pronounced. Likewise, if the R is at the beginning of a word, it's always pronounced. Now, in Victorian accents, sometimes at the beginning of words the R is actually fully rolled. Yeah. Like a, but these days I think the only place where I hear that happen sometimes is Scotland. Yeah. So anyways, this word is actually a good idea: contracted. So even in a non-rotic accent, you would still pronounce the R here because it's followed by a vowel. That's it. So he says desire. I would say desire. Maybe my vowel is a bit different, but generally speaking, that's the idea.
Now let's talk about why he's pronouncing it like that. I think the reason is that we are in the presence—as we'll continue to listen—but we are in the presence of a so-called upper-class northeast elite accent, similar in a way, a little bit to the mid-Atlantic or transatlantic accent that will occur a little later than him; there are still a bit of a difference, but in general, you will see that there will be common aspects in this specific accent between American English and RP, or received pronunciation, which is the standard English accent. Let's continue.
Earnestly desired to do it, to adopt it if I honorably could. Even is O. Honorably could. It is perfectly true. Oo, what did I just hear? How did he say perfectly? Honorably could. But it is perfectly true. Now, I don't know if it's the recording because, of course, we're dealing with got a sort of prehistoric technology almost. But did he say perfectly or did he say perfectly? I honorably caught. But it is perfectly true. Man, I don't know. You'll have to tell me that cuz I'm trying. But it sounds a bit like poetly, which would be kind of—I know that there are some accents that pronounce that way. Although usually it's not an upper-class thing—is a bit of a—but anyway, who knows—this is still—I mean, the guy was in—was a pres—was the president from 1901 to 1908 or 9, I don't remember—now you'll definitely correct me in the comments—but yeah, that neither Mr. Bliss nor any other human being—Did you notice he says neither rather than neither—ever had any influence over me so far as concerned getting me to abandon the prosecution of any corporation or any individual engaged in wrongdoing? Mhm. To this extent, Mr. Archbold's testimony is an fascinating—he says testimony rather than the more common in the American vernacular these days testimony. Testimony. I mean, I would say testimony as well. So here is another area of commonality. By the way, not that I count—I'm not even a native speaker, but I did pick up my English in England. So my—I would say my accent is a mixed—is a mixed—like you could tell I'm not a native speaker, but I think you can also tell that I picked it up in England. So it's kind of a—sometimes I sound foreign, sometimes I don't, but I would say testimony. Testimony. So we have that in common.
Entirely true. And I call your attention to the fact that Mr. Archbold and Mr. Penrose come forward to testify against me only because at the moment I am heading the progressive movement. So moment—how we said moment—I would say moment. So interestingly enough, as I was saying, it's a mix. So perhaps to our modern ears, sometimes he sounds English, some a bit more British, sometimes he doesn't, because it is a mix, but from a person of the period, he would have sounded American—that—that's what you sound if you are upper class though—because, once again, do remember that—and that's another thing we need to say—this accent, the elite northeastern accent as well as the future mid-Atlantic or transatlantic accent—usually these are not learned organically, naturally; these are taught, particularly if you attend high-level private schools. In other words, a lot of students would acquire an elite accent as they go through courses called elocution. And for those who don't know, elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, and style. Tone also being part of it. Now the idea is contested, however, and I've read a little bit on this, and some linguists believe that some people actually did acquire this kind of speech because they went—as they were young children—and so to these schools and classes, and at the end of the day they ended up speaking like this naturally. Other people think, instead, it's a purely performative accent, but in—it's not something that you would naturally learn. It's something you put—put on. Whichever be the case, we can definitely recognize it in his speech pattern.
Continuing, and I call your attention to the fact that Mr. Archbold and Mr. Penrose come forward to testify against me only because at the moment I am heading the progressive movement. Were I a private citizen, it wouldn't enter their heads to make any assault on me. They dislike me, I grant you. And the longer I live, the greater cause I shall give them to dislike me. Did you notice that the way he pronounced longer? So, normally with a non-rotic accent, you would expect the R to be dropped: longer. I live. But when you speak relatively fast or naturally without pauses, then this is something that happens even today with non-rotic speakers—that they will pronounce the R because it's followed by a vowel and it acts as a liaison. So basically what's happening is that instead of saying and the longer I live, they end up saying the longer I live. The longer I live, the longer I live, that's how I would say it, by the way. But if you give me the word in isolation, I would say longer, but longer I live. So he is one of these people that do this. Not everyone does it. Some speakers do prefer to put a pause there. And others might insert instead a glottal stop. And for those who don't know, a glottal stop is basically the sound you hear in cartoons when you hear uh-oh. Uh, so I'm not saying that you would say uh-oh, I'm saying that's the sound—you block the air like that. And you often hear it when T's, which is another element we're going to discuss today, are replaced. So for instance, instead of saying bottle, battle, water, British network—all my T's have been fully enunciated. I could say bottle, water, battle, British network. Okay, that's a glottal stop. Usually in America today, rather than this. So the glottal stop when Americans don't feel like pronouncing their T's—which is like 99% of their life—then you guys swap it into a soft D, technical term being flapping. So basically you say British beauty. I know I'm not doing a good job, but you know where I'm going with this. Water, British. Anyways, yeah, you pronounce it kind of like a D. Believe it or not, Australians do it too sometimes, even though they are non-rotic like the English. So basically, if you ever—like a word could sound better, better, better. Okay. But that isn't the fundamental motive that influencing them. The fundamental motive that induces them to act as they have acted in this manner is not merely that they dislike me, but far more because they dread you. They dread you, the people; you and those like you who make up the people of the United States. Yeah, United States. So he is pronouncing every T, and this is again a characteristic of this accent, also of the transatlantic accent or mid-Atlantic accent, because as we say they are mixture mixtures between English and American. So he will pronounce all his T's, and to a speaker of the transatlantic accent, even in the case of roticity, they will pronounce the T and they will say water instead of water or water. They know that their time has come if once the people obtain real power. We stand for the rights of the people. We stand for the rights of the wage work—wage worker. We stand for his right to a living wage. We stand for the right and duty of the government to live. Did you hear that? Duty instead of duty or duty. Um, yeah. So the U is more similar to the way it's pronounced in England. You would say call of duty rather than call of duty. So, um, another area of interception, if you will. I'm enjoying this very much. Let me listen a little bit from this one.
Political affiliations may have been in the past. The powers that pray are united against us. The powers that pray pay no heed to a question of partisanship in this contest. Some of them may individually prefer Mr. Wilson to Mr. Taft. Others may prefer Mr. Taft to Mr. Wilson, but the preference for either is tepid compared to the intensity of their animosity toward us. Yeah, I would go for Wilson simply because it reminds me of my dog Winston. I have a Pomeranian.
All right. Anyways, I thought that this was just as a little introductory analysis of a speech. I think I've already bored you enough, but do let me know if, for whatever—whatever reason—um, struck a luck, you actually enjoy this, then we'll make more. And in fact, if there is anyone historical that you want me to review and see the way they speak, I'll be more than happy to do it. Thank you very much for watching and for joining Metatron Academy. Ciao.