Similar replacement [s] on the [z] – This is one of the features of the southern accent. And Elon Musk has not yet got rid of her.
Compare English Ilona Mask in 1999 and 2020
If we compare the available recordings of the speech of Elon Mask 1999 and 2020, it will be clear that his English has become more American. If in 1999, subjectively, in his speech there were 60% of the South African accent and 40% of the American one, now it is 75% of the American and only 25% of the South African.
Changes in the English Ilona can not be called too serious, but still they are.
In 1999, Ilon spoke most of the vowels through the nose. This “nasal” pronunciation is very common in South Africa. In 2020, there was no trace of this. Intonations in modern interviews are entirely American. There is a suspicion that after the worldwide success came to him, Musk specially engaged in stage speech in order to competently speak at conferences and seminars.
In everyday life and in informal interviews, intonations from his southern accent slip through him, but they do not exist in speeches in front of an audience.
Also, Ilon is no longer “enveloped” in such words as “most”, “cost”, “got”. In 1999, all these words he spoke through [ɔ:]. This is well heard on a recording from 1999 at the very beginning of the article. Mo-ost, co-ost, go-from – these words sound something like this. Now they are quite American, through [ɒ]: [mɒst], [kɒst], [gɒt].
As for vocabulary, there are practically no changes. Elon Musk did not use slang expressions from South African English both in 1999 and 2020. He actively uses neologisms and scientific slang, but this is part of his profession.
In general, you can see how much the emphasis of Ilon Mask has changed over 20 years. And it is quite understandable, after all these 20 years he mainly lives and works in the USA. Even if the entrepreneur did not consciously work on the Americanization of his speech (and we still think that he was working on it), today his English is much more American than South African.
From the example of many famous personalities, we see that in order to create the desired emphasis, it is important to immerse yourself in a full-fledged ecosystem of the English language. It was her we introduced in EnglishDom. This gives excellent results – after 3 months of study, students from London’s Capital of Great Britain move to the correct pronunciation with a classic British or American accent. All products of our ecosystem are slightly lower.
The section is new to us, so we are interested in your opinion. Write what you think about celebrity accents. Waiting for your comments!
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