Charming imperfections

Charming imperfections

There is an increasing demand of voice-over in English with a foreign accent.

It can offer the added value a company is looking for or reach its target group even more effectively.

It is alway a pleasure for me to interpret a script in English with my Italian accent. I know that my client is just looking for that particular charming imperfection that will endow her or his script with an agreeable nuance.

The following are some of my recent assignments for this peculiar market segment.


Ti Sento – Milano



A TV and Cinema commercial for Ti Sento – Milano


The West Village

Being Italian I cannot but compare the role that the English language is playing at the moment in the world with that of the Latin language in the past. I wonder how it felt to listen to Latin spoken in Albio in the 15th century, for instance…

And thinking about it, I decided to find out more about the origin of the word accent:

The English word accent – also defined as a musical tone or pattern of pitch inherent in a particular language either as a feature essential to the identification of a vowel or a syllable – dates back to 1520-30 and derives from the Latin word accentus, speaking tone, equivalent to ac-ac+ centus, combining form of cantus, song; translation of Greek prosōidía prosody.

And the English word prosody – also defined as the study of poetic metre and of the art of versification, including rhyme, stanzaic forms, and the quantity and stress of syllables – dates back to 1400-1450, late Middle English, and derives from the Latin word prosodia “accent of a syllable”, from Greek prosōidía “song sung to music”, also “accent, modulation”, literally “a singing in addition to”, from pros “to, forward, near” + oide “song, poem”.

Source: Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Greek civilization for all its precious gifts, realizing how much the Western World owes to that peculiar period of the European history.

Simonetta Ronconi

Featured image credit: pixabay.com