Is this comedian speaking Russian or is it gibberish that merely sounds Russian?
Asked by
LuckyGuy (
43867
)
March 16th, 2017
The comedian is Trevor Noah. He is multilingual and has an ear for accents and can imitate them perfectly. In the routine he does: Scottish, Indian, New York, South African, French, British, Russian, etc. He can switch in an instant.
If you have time, it is worth watching the whole stand up routine. But, I am interested in the last couple of minutes when he discusses the Russian accent.
Here is the link. (Hopefully I got the timing right I’m trying to link to 1 hour, 4 minutes and 0 seconds.)
Is this real Russian or gibberish? If real, what is he saying?
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14 Answers
There are definitely real Russian words in there and then some I don’t understand but I surmise it is all Russian.
I know exactly who can help you. Already summoned her.
Thanks I hear a few real words as well, : da, nyet,
He is very good. I really don’t know which is more difficult: making up words that sound Russian, or memorizing a short real dialog. His turntable bit is brilliant.
@LuckyGuy More words than that. My guess is it’s Russian but we’ll see what Snek has to say – she will know.
I’ll have to hear it a few more times (I’m in the bus now, with no earphones) but I agree with janbb. There are definitely a lot of yes and nos there, but the rest is kinda difficult to understand now.
I think it’s actual Russian. Speaking like that makes sence for a conversation ( people repeat yes and no a lot when talking on the phone) but I’ll have to hear it again to figure the rest of the dialogue. I’ll report in an hour.
I got “spaceba” at the end which means “thank you.”
Oh my goodness. I’m a big fan of Trevor Noah. Always makes me think. I can pick out pieces of that but am not fluent enough to know if that is anything more than a standard phone call.
My bet is that it is mostly made up nonsense with the occasional actual word to make it sound more real to the average person who does not speak Russian.
Just like when people pretend to speak German.
Some Ja, some Nein, some Schnell, and the rest is a gibberish Hitler impression.
^ She’s right, I take my word back. It’s gibberish.
The beginning part, where he’s listening to the conversation, is real Russian. There’s “yes”, “no”, “good”, “thank you”, and some cursing. But then the bit afterwards, where he veers into a rap, is gibberish.
But is it Russian rap gibberish or other gibberish?
I sent a PM to a member whose first language is Russian, but her last appearance here was in August, 2014.
He is fluent is so many languages and is such a fast learner I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in Klingon!.
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