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Uncategorized Wednesday, October 12th 2011 at 6:12 pm

Skwerl, A Short Film In Fake English [Video]

Skwerl is a short film directed by Brian Fairbairn and “written” by himself and Karl Eccleston. Why do I say “written?” Well, all of the dialogue in the film is complete gibberish, but it’s designed to sound like English to foreign speakers, or native speakers that aren’t quite paying attention; those familiar with English will probably find themselves slipping in and out of it in a really weird way.

The gibberish keeps in line with the common sounds in English, keeps out anything foreign-sounding and results in a weird sort of “could you repeat that for me?” effect. It’s generally referred to as Prisencolinensinainciusol after a (really awesome) music video that specializes in the same phenomenon. Check it out for an interesting, but sort of unsettling treat.

(via Viral Viral Videos)

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  • http://breki.se Breki Tomasson

    Gibberish? Not really, they’re using a bunch of normal English words, just out of context, order and with the wrong syntax. “We wrap the gate crap frown?”. Sure, there’s a couple of “Fuwhard herpydoo”-type of words in there, but the majority of the dialogue seems to be just random English words in no particular order.

  • Jennifer Lindsay

    It would seem that the point of this video is to show English speaking people how ridiculous we sound to non-English speaking folks.How Does English Sound To Foreigners?: Skwerl, a short film shot entirely in fake English, seeks to answer that question.

  • Ray Chatham

    The film’s twist rests on intonation and accent serving as substitutes for meaning. A UK English speaking movie goer often has to guess at what’s going on behind the nasal snuffles, oddly placed glottal stops and alien interpretations of vowel sounds they hear in a film made with American actors. This is a British (or Australian?) spoof of a US style scene, to show how casual American speech can be 80% unintelligible to a British, Australian or South African audience.

  • Noni

    A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fastin’ bulbous, got me?

  • Brooke

    Not at all, but I was very amused all the same. xD