Zak's pronounciation - Ghost Adventures (2008) Discussion

[–] amandadewindt 9 years ago

Now he's saying ah-blee-et. Oi vey

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That drove me crazy when I watched it...I don't know how he can mess up pronunciations so often. In the Bell Witch episode he kept mispronouncing Drewry Bell's name every possible way he could say it to the point where I'm not sure if he ever said it right.

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[–] omgjayde 9 years ago

I think it might have to do with the fact that he had a stutter for most of his life and probably has to be really conscious and intentional when he speaks so as to not stutter.

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[–] jhhayes 9 years ago

No offense, but if you're going to criticize the PRONUNCIATION of the vocabulary of someone, at least spell it correctly.

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[–] amandadewindt 8 years ago

haha touché. I'm usually really good about that.

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[–] popedon1 9 years ago

And speaking of that episode, what did ya think of "harss card"?! In his defense, the Irishman he was talking to needed (and got!) CAPTIONS.

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[–] yamahamama 9 years ago

I'm binge watching previous episodes this weekend & I don't know why I hadn't noticed the way he ends "-ing" words with "ingk".

"hauntingk"
"sayink"
"talkingk"

It's subtle, but it's there-heh.

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[–] heidimsw 9 years ago

Ugh! Zak's Spanish is hideous, though! I get embarrassed for him and actually squirm. However, during the Dracula episode in Transylvania, Zak's Romanian accent (when pronouncing place names, etc.) was quite impressive. I don't speak Romanian, but I do speak Spanish, so maybe he was actually pronouncing the Romanian words with a bad accent, too. I wouldn't even know the difference. He just *seemed* to have a good handle on most of the consonant sounds in Romanian. I tried to look up his background to see if he is Romanian-American, but I couldn't find anything about it. Whether he is or isn't Romanian, it appeared that Zak made the effort to learn the correct pronunciation of the Romanian proper nouns. The same can not be said for Zak's Spanish. There is no real attempt there on his part, and that's a little sad.

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[–] crypticanomaly73 8 years ago

I noticed in the recent Las Vegas episode that Zak pronounced the word "Door" as "Do-er" sometimes it sounds like he drops his accent.

Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.

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[–] heidimsw 8 years ago

Sometimes Zak slips a little back into his midwestern accent. But you can tell that he has worked very hard (perhaps with an inflection coach) to rid himself of all traces of that Chicago-style accent. He HAD to have spoken with a midwestern accent before he became a public figure, since he grew up in the Chicago area. So, I give him props for working on that.

Many stars strive to be "accent-free" (whatever that is) in order to have a wider range of acting roles available to them. The first example that comes to mind is Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Those guys grew up in south Boston. The Massachusetts accent there is THICK and regionally specific. So, Matt and Ben really had to practice and work to remove those nuances from their speech. Then, they got to use their natural accents again when filming "Good Will Hunting". :)

I didn't notice Zak's specific word you mentioned ("door"), but I can totally picture him saying it like that. Sometimes, he'll pronounce a word or two midwestern-style. It seems to be a midwestern thing to pronounce one-syllable words like two-syllable words. Check out the way they say "fire" ("figh-yer"). Lol.

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[–] crypticanomaly73 8 years ago

So it's accent thing? I'm not American so I thought it was just a personal quirk he has.

Makes sense now.

I like accents, especially regional accents and I think it is more interesting when they have them, then when everyone tries to sound the same.As an Aussie we love picking on the New Zealander accent, now those guys can make some words sound odd!

Sometimes a movie or tv show plot is so stupid that only the stupid can understand it.

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[–] popedon1 8 years ago

No, it's not an accent thing. Heidi's saying he may have worked with a vocal coach to get rid of his mid-west accent. And the way he speaks now is... all his own. He developed his own, ah, "style". So, you're right, it's personal.

I'm not stuck on how people talk usually. I like his show, so I'm more focused on the scares. But he does a lot of narration, and not only that, he has a really irritating habit of repeating things people say to him (when he's interviewing locals), v - e - r - y sl - ooo - w - ly, so the audience doesn't miss that nugget of profundity. Or, maybe the demon possessing him is s-l-o-w.

A lot of the everyday words he says are pronounced in such a weird way, I almost always mock what he says or just roll my eyes. He's just friggen weird. Or he plays up his weirdness because of the subject matter. Or he's on tranquilizers.

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[–] heidimsw 8 years ago

Lol. I think Zak does play up his weirdness AND he's probably on tranquilizers, too! :D The voiceovers he does are always super dramatic and OOOO-VER-LYYYYY inunciated. I mock him, too. And, yes, he DOES repeat the the words of people he interviews, and does it slowly. It's like, "Soooo, what you're sayyy-ing is that...essentially...there are THREEEEEEE diff-er-ent entities you've encountered PERRRR-son-a-LYYYY? (Then he pauses and looks at the camera). Ha, ha!

While it may seem that I'm focused on accents and speech patterns to the exclusion of the scary stuff or the findings, I try NOT to be. I know I am more in-tune and critical of accents than most other viewers are. :( . In my defense, I'm an ex-language teacher. So, as a word nerd, I pick up on language stuff on TV. I always noticed in the olden days that Nick had a slight Massachusetts-type accent, but only with certain words. He used to say, "I have chills all over my bawdy (body)". I told my husband, "Nick has to be from Mass or the surrounding area". My hubby looked up Nick's bio and saw that he was from (San Jose?) California. He was happy to prove my accent-radar wrong. Lol. I kept saying, "Then his parents might be are the MA area. Often we speak like our parents do. There's some connection to the MA area". Eventually I learned that Nick actually spent much of his childhood and early adulthood in New Hampshire. I guess his family moved there from California when he was very very young. So I had been hearing that slight nuance in his voice (with certain words) that most people wouldn't have nocited or cared about.

I hear no discernible accent in Aaron, but his vocabulary is pretty much limited to "Dude!", "Bro!", "No way!" or "It just said ___!" (repeating whatever the entity/spirit/demon supposedly said). The faces he makes are hysterical, too. And you can always count on him pointing at the camera/Ovilus/spirit box/whatever equipment at least once or twice per episode. I can't help it but love Aaron, though. He's such a goofy dude and doesn't take himself too seriously.

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[–] SvenHozz 8 years ago

Zakisms! "Me-ur-crey" Mercury. "Claudes-Dale Horse" Clydesdale. Like John Zaffis. "Lie-Berry" Library. Love what you said in the first paragraph. So true.

~^~ "All Games Contain the Concept of Death" James Douglas Morrison ~^~

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[–] heidimsw 8 years ago

Lol. "Zak-isms". Love it! :)

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[–] melissa2-3 8 years ago

I'm fond of "tuh-WAR-word" for "toward" and "eth-RE-uhl" for "ethereal."

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[–] heidimsw 8 years ago

I caught another "Zak-ism" on tonight's show. Lol. It's one he says a lot. He said "meer" for "mirror". That's a regular thing, now that I think about it. He was asking the older lady to face the "meer" and speak to her deceased mother. I'm not sure why Zak doesn't think that "mirror" has two syllables. Lol. It's not annoying to me; it's just quirky. I wanted to throw that "Zak-ism" in here to see if anyone else noticed it. Now that he said it again tonight, I was reminded that he uses that one regularly. Some of the others that you guys have mentioned are hysterical, but actually, I hadn't even noticed (or I don't remember) his pronunciation of those particular words. I'll be sure to pay closer attention whenever I re-watch the older episodes.

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[–] yamahamama 8 years ago

You want to re-watch older episodes even though you think it's all so fake? Why? This is entertaining for you?

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[–] popedon1 8 years ago

Yes, I remember the Bela Lugosi MEER episode from "Zak's Crazy Haunted Museum". I must've blocked that out -- well, there're so many -- because I remember mocking him. "It's a magic murder meeer!"

Do you think he poses in his gas mask in front of the Lugosi Murder Meeer...?!

I don't think you pick on his strange pronounciations much. I think we should all be more "vigilant", and use his example on how not to talk. And any laugh you can get from his show, or any show, is fair game (or as he'd say "farr gaaame").

And, yes, I noticed Nick definitely speaks with a New England accent. Sometimes he drops his "R"s. I'm almost positive he's said more than once "that was pissah". He may have said "wicked pissah", but that's probably wishful thinking.

I think this Saturday, there's a new Dead Files. Should be wicked pissah! ;p

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[–] heidimsw 8 years ago

Hahahahaha! I swear, you must moonlight as a standup comedian. I always laugh when I read your posts.

I'm looking forward to a new ep of Dead Files. It will probably "wicked pissah" indeed. I'm interested to see what Amy has done to her hair and makeup as of late. I have now have paid attention to her transformation over time. You once asked me if I'd noticed, and at first, I couldn't tell which episodes were from which seasons and she always looked different in each ep. Now I can tell the difference. In the earlier days, she wore a lot less makeup, was a bit heavier, and cursed less. She's always wearing falsies nowadays (the eyelashes, not the boobs) and I like her hair lately - curly/wavy and not purply-orange.

If I weren't vegetarian, I'd probably eat some "lawb-stah" and "chow-dah" while watching Zak on Saturday night. That would be in honor of Nick Groff, whose new show I have yet to see. :(

Have you ever seen those ads for "The Haw-pah" (Hopper)? I LOVE those ads, but I haven't seen them in quite awhile. Maybe people outside of New England didn't appreciate them, so they pulled them off the air.

By the way...Based on your geographic location, I'd bet you say, "That's wicked pissah" quite a bit - especially after a few bottles of Sam Adams!
;-)

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[–] Lumaxorb 8 years ago

It is they're (or their), not ther!! Lol

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