Israeli or Arab voice?

[Joe]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/nation/061704-12s.htm

Anyone able to give an informed opinion on whether or not this "hijacker" voice sounds like a typical Israeli speaking English? Or somewhere in the Arab world?

Personally, there was a part where it sounded like Arnie Schwarzenegger to me!

Joe

 

[Keit]

Israelis have a distinctive English accent, Arabs too... ;)
Maybe I can try. But I get an error message that this link is outdated. Can you please give me a direct link?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Maybe I can try. But I get an error message that this link is outdated. Can you please give me a direct link?

It works fine for me. Weird. This is the link in the source, but I can't get it to play by itself. I don't see why the page shouldn't work for you. I blame it on your government. http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/player_short_v2.swf?soundfile=nation/061704-12s.mp3

 

[Keit]

I succeeded to listen to the tape.
In my opinion (and I am not a linguist) they really sound like Arabic speaking people. There is a specific traits to it, like: "Nobody mooooves....everything will be ooookeyyyyy..." Nobody moooves..." We're going baaack to the aaaarrepooort..." It's really faint, like those people spent most of their time in English speaking countries. They are quite fluent in English. But there is a specific part when the "hitchhiker

 

[Keit]

Maybe I can try. But I get an error message that this link is outdated. Can you please give me a direct link?

It works fine for me. Weird. This is the link in the source, but I can't get it to play by itself. I don't see why the page shouldn't work for you. I blame it on your government. http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/player/player_short_v2.swf?soundfile=nation/061704-12s.mp3

Thanks. ;)

Universe works in mysterious ways :D

 

[allenb]

But there is a specific part when the "hitchhiker� says "airplaaane" it’s obvious that he is of Arabic heritage.

I've got to go along with Joe. The guy sounds a bit like Schwarzenegger to me. The sound of his voice made me laugh at first. This was due to the fact that I live in California and so suffer under his governorship.

The thing is, I think this guy could easily have been eastern European. If that is the case, he could easily have been from Israel. If I'm not mistaken, there are one or two eastern Europeans there.

As for Isrealis having a distinctive accent when speaking English, this would be dependent on whether they actually grew up in Israel, wouldn't it? I've had friends who called themselves Isreali but spoke with Russian accents. I've also known Persian Jews who emigrated to Israel and maintained their Iranian accent.

I seriously doubt one can say there is a specific Israeli accent anymore than one can say there is a specific American accent.

 

[Keit]

As for Isrealis having a distinctive accent when speaking English, this would be dependent on whether they actually grew up in Israel, wouldn't it? .

Yes. When I said it I ment "native" Israelis.

I've got to go along with Joe. The guy sounds a bit like Schwarzenegger to me. The sound of his voice made me laugh at first. This was due to the fact that I live in California and so suffer under his governorship.

Maybe it's some other accent, I don't know. But I still think that it has a specific nuances that match Arabic pronunciation (maybe Arabic speaking forum members can check it out). It doesn't match the accent of native Israeli, it still can be an Israeli with Arabic heritage or maybe he has Israeli citizenship, but it can't be verified from the tape anyway.

 

[Muhammad]

This doesn't sound like Arabic accent. It sounded more like Russian or Indian to me (before reading the comments here). Specially "No body move every thing is okay...." sooo eastern European
It seems like somebody is trying and failing to sound Arabic. Could it be computer generated?

Sorry for the late reply, i had to be completely off-line for 40+ days because my computer was broken.
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