MovieChat Forums > The Sleeping Dictionary (2003) Discussion > Jess's slangs sounded weird

Jess's slangs sounded weird

posted 20 years ago by deburrapink
26 replies | jump to latest

I do not know about u guys, but i'm an Iban (from Sarawak, too) and I can't understand the words she (Jessica) was saying in Iban.. Luckily there were subtitles.. Even worse, some of the words that she used to translate the body parts were all mispronounced, e.g. neck is "rekong" not "bekong" and breast is "tusu" not "susu". She should've studied a little more and practiced her pronounciation before filming...i loved Liz Tyler's work in "Lord of the rings" at least she was trying hard in mastering the language before speaking it!

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sideliner 19 years ago

What deburrapink said is 100% true. We're not simply bashing her work...if she really did receive that 'best-actress' award for that DVD...whoooaaahh...standards must have sunk really lowwww. Since those who gave her the award are not Iban...they don't actually know what they are assessing. And yes, during filming, she did have an attitude about learning the language and her lines...and she wasnt even that famous yet then...

[–] soccer_rocks_yee 19 years ago

ya, she probably shouldn't have gotten that award for this movie, but nonetheless, she is a great actress, have u seen Dark Angel series? And even though she may have gotten the language wrong, dont fret over it, mistakes happen, it hard to learn another language and besides, I am chinese, a ton of movies that have chinese dialogue are wrong but I dont care, so neither should u guys.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bjossa10 19 years ago

I only have one problem about this, is who would pretend to be from Iban or Sarawak or whatever just to bash the movie? Hollywood has a long history of awarding mediocrity, and I mean Hollywood figuratively.

[–] moxiefruvous 18 years ago

I support deburrapink & sideliner 200%. It is so easy to learn to say the few words correctly. For examlple, a Scifi series : Firefly, had their cast spreak Mandarin. Though some of it was hard to understand, I was amazed by the amoutn I do understand. OT receive an award, one most do outstanding work, which should include saying the native words correctly.

[–] vero33 19 years ago

They used an actual language in LOTR? I thought they made up words and called it Elvish

[–] camelandthefreak 19 years ago

JRR Tolkian was a linguist.. so knowing all differnt grammer rules and language structures he created a complete and whole language..never spoken natively anywhere that i know of...but it is learnable..i think pronuciation is based of a mixutre of European languages.. Nordic or Slavic.im not sure but some fans of the trilogy have learnt to speake it fluently and can comunicate fully through Elvish.

[–] mrvlgrl1860 19 years ago

All the different Elvish languages are in fact, real languages. I've seen many bios on author J.R.R. Tolkien, and he actually did create all of those languags we see in the film, word for word. I can't recall which of our languages it was, but he did base the Elvish languages off one.

[–] Menzoberranzan 19 years ago

Sindarin - based on the Welsh language.
Quenya - based on the Finnish language.
Link for each:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sindarin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenya

P.S. I have entirely too much time on my hands.

"Aaawwwww, what's in the box? What the f#@k's in the f#@king box??"

[–] Royalcourtier 9 years ago

An invented language is not a real language, however carefully it is designed.

[–] xyberdruid 18 years ago

i saw some video of him from the 70,s writing a phrase in elvish like he was signing a check

[–] quinnliam 19 years ago

could it not be the time in which the movie is set? Did they pronounce words differently over time?
Surely she would have a dialect coach.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ahjesshitz 19 years ago

Hey guys..I am of mixed parentage (Chinese-Iban) from Sarawak, and I have to agree with Debra,neck IS 'rekong' and breast is 'tusu' and she didn't really pronounce it correctly..I am not bashing anyone or anything but yup, I couldnt get the Iban that was spoken sometimes, and not just by Jessica Alba but some of the other actors as well..BUt the scene where she & Hugh Dancy were saying "I am in the bathroom" etc...THAT I could hear they were speaking Iban...

And another thing i noticed is that the Chinese settlers in the movie spoke the Cantonese dialect, which I found a bit weird...because as far as I know the early Chinese settlers in Sarawak speaks the Hokkien, Foo Chow or Teo Chew dialect (Chinese settlers speak different kind of dialects based on which part of China they came from)...not Cantonese dialect..CAntonese dialect was more widely spoken by the Chinese settlers in West Malaysia (Sarawak is in east Malaysia)...

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ferretJack 19 years ago

i love how some fans
CAN'T face the facts of their IDOLS..!!!

i've seen the movie...she was okay, but i wouldn't give an award to her.

tennlover.
pls.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] vulture88gurl 19 years ago

I'm Indonesian, and in my language (it's really similiar to Iban, Malay) what Jessica said was the right one.. like 'breast' is 'susu' not 'tusu'
maybe the dialect teacher got it mixed with Indonesian.. who knows???

[–] r_glazzard 19 years ago

thank you

[–] humorschua 18 years ago

Exactly, in Bahasa Melayu and Bahasa Indonesia 'susu', literally for milk, is right. I supposed due to geographic closeness, Iban also incorporate some Bahasa into their language. Just as Javanese and Dutch influence Bahasa Indonesia and Arabic influence Bahasa Melayu.

For those who do not understand linguistic differences, yes, Jessica Alba, whom I adores greatly, is speaking in accent with tonal differences spotted in European languages. In another words, she is pronouncing "A" as in "E" in "Edward" (IPA /æ/), and not as "A" in "Archduke" (IPA /ɑ/), which is the case for Iban and many other languages.

[–] matthew_impact 19 years ago

I agree with deburrapink too.I'm an Iban from Sarawak by the way...and all I can say is that I could not understand Alba's accent,which probably arises from the fact that she is not a native Iban herself.

[–] soccer_rocks_yee 19 years ago

Of course she ain't a native Iban, she is Danish, mixican, english, and a bit of French, so stop given alba a hard time.

[–] fluffymarshmallowsandtof 19 years ago

i find it more amusing that there are people going "NO YOU'RE A LIAR! SHE GOT AN AWARD SO HER ACCENT HAD TO BE RIGHT!"

[–] huahinevahine05 18 years ago

deburrapink in tagalog its "susu",so I assumed her diction was correct.Indonesian language and some filipino dialects are kind of similar.Thats why when I heard her say "susu",I thought cool serawak language and tagalog is the same but its tusu??? ohh..oh well.:)

Karma is a bitch,ain't it?

[–] bobby_allen 12 years ago

This is the pathetic standard of movies produced in the West. Most of them just have this superiority complex that they feel they don't have to pay attention to details and get things right.