From Newsgroup: sci.lang


Recently watched the 1953 crime movie "Vice Squad" (with
Edward G!) which is about an average day in the life of
a police captain. Good movie.

One of the day's incidents concerned a woman whose
mother was being romanced by an Italian prince and she
(the daughter) was sure this prince was a fake and a
con man. So the police captain has the prince brought
in and engages a professor (of languages?) to smoke
him out.

The movie is online at

https://archive.org/details/1953-vice-squad-investigacion-criminal-arnold-laven-vose

The sequence with the professor setting up the prince
(talking Italian to him) is at the 1 hour mark, and his
report to the captain is at the 1:06:28 mark. But there's
a nice site that has the dialog. Super Linguist to
the rescue! Yay!

<https://www.subtitlecat.com/subs/1070/Vice.Squad.1953.1080p.BluRay.x264.AAC-%5BYTS.MX%5D.html>

01:09:36,219 We had a nice talk.
01:09:37,511 What did you find out?
01:09:39,219 The count's an imposter.
01:09:41,844 - You sure? - Absolutely.
01:09:43,719 First, he wasn't born in Italy.
01:09:46,719 His Italian is one generation removed.
01:09:48,719 Second, he isn't a de Montova.
01:09:50,927 Because his idiom is from southern Italy,
01:09:52,677 the kind used around Naples.
01:09:55,761 The de Montovas are from Milan in the north.
01:09:57,469 Third,
01:09:59,302 he was born in America.
01:10:01,344 His English is disguised,
01:10:06,427 but his flat A's and his hard R's betray a background of
the Middle West.
01:10:09,761 I'd say, uh, Cleveland or Chicago.

Don't know why the times are different but the dialog
is what's in the movie.
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From Newsgroup: sci.lang

Tilde <invalide@invalid.invalid> wrote or quoted:

01:09:46,719 His Italian is one generation removed.

Basically, he learned it from his parents, who spoke the kind of Ital-
ian they used back when they lived in Italy. He never picked up the
newer stuff that came later.

01:10:01,344 His English is disguised,

So, the way he speaks English sounds kind of deliberate, like he's
tweaking it to cover up where he's from.

01:10:06,427 but his flat A's and his hard R's betray a background of
the Middle West.

"Flat A" means a lower, more centered version of the short "a" sound
(/|a/ like in "cat," "trap," or "dance"). It's different from the more
raised or tense /|a/ you hear in places like New York or up North.

"Hard R" means the strong American-style /r/ sound, where you still
pronounce the "r" after a vowel, like in "car" [k+a+|] or "hard" [h+a+|d].

01:10:09,761 I'd say, uh, Cleveland or Chicago.

You get that mix in the Inland North, like around Chicago or Detroit.


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From Newsgroup: sci.lang


Ar an t-ocht|| l|i d|-ag de m|! Feabhra, scr|!obh Stefan Ram:

[...] 01:10:06,427 but his flat A's and his hard R's betray a background of >the Middle West.

"Flat A" means a lower, more centered version of the short "a" sound
(/|a/ like in "cat," "trap," or "dance"). It's different from the more
raised or tense /|a/ you hear in places like New York or up North.

"Hard R" means the strong American-style /r/ sound, where you still
pronounce the "r" after a vowel, like in "car" [k+a+|] or "hard" [h+a+|d].

Movie was set in Los Angeles but this thinking seems to be New York oriented, at a point when New York was still non-rhotic.
--
rCyAs I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stoutrCO
(C. Moore)
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