Philippine Azkals: The Accents (1)
Hey, fangirls.
We just like to scrutinize every foreign-based Philippine Azkal's English accent. We just have to like it. It just means that Filipinos have diversity of linguistic ethnicities. We're a melting pot of sorts. Pinoys abroad are melting pots, figuratively.
In this above video, four Azkals members, Aly Borromeo, Jason Sabio, Simon Greatwich, and Rob Gier greet during their photoshoot for Metro Society magazine. Aly and Jason are based in America; Simon and Rob are based in Britain. Well, they have different accents at the continental level, but how do their accents distinct from each other? So how do we start from here?
Aly, the captain, is born in San Francisco, California. So I expected when I heard of him for the first time that he would speak Californian twang. But, no. He actually spent most of his teenage years in the Philippines since he played for the U-19 teams of UFL for the 2000 AFC Challenge cup. In an interview with Jessica Soho last January, there I was shocked to see him speak Tagalog. It's great to see the skipper communicate in our national language, and that's a good thing for a captain to communicate with both the locally-based players and his fellow foreign-based players. But it seems his accent has a mix of Hispanic/Kastila overtones, given that he is actually hailing from a Spanish mestizo bloodline. And also, his very thick glottals and emphasis on [k] and [æ] can make you think that he sounds more Bisaya than Tagalog.
Jason is born in Manila, but he and his family moved to Long Island, New York and later Hunstville, Alabama at a tender age. So he would probably get some South Central American accents which focuses on distinctions such as the diphthong /aɪ/ becomes monophthongized to /aː/, yod-dropping and deep rhotics. So yeah, he has that distinction. But he has a distinct New York twist with those alveolars and the short-A split there.
Simon, one of the three Greatwich brothers, is born in Brighton in Sussex, Southern England. In Sussex, some distinctions can be observed like switching /ai:/ and /oi:/, /ɾ/ ("double T") is emphasized, and /ou/ is elongated. Interestingly, he didn't lose those distinctions even if he's now based in an American soccer club.
Rob is born in Ascot, Berkshire, South East England, where his current football club is based. However, he now lives in Oxford, Oxfordshire, a town known for deep emphasis for Received Pronunciation or RP. Although he sounds a lot like RP, he has some loose fricatives very distinctive of counties bordering West London, and he quit loosens his /t/ and /k/ which is distinctive of Estuary English.
Maybe next time we'll focus on Neil Etheridge (who sounds a mix of Estuary and Sloane-speak), Anton del Rosario (who sounds Midwestern American), and the Younghusband brothers (who sound distinctively London but may feature Hertfordshire overtones). We might include the locals Chieffy Caligdong and Ian Araneta as well who are Hiligaynon in distinction.
If you do have comments on my distinguishing of these boys based on their accents, just let me know on the comments section.
KENNETH
