Texas, Kentucky, Bondi… But where does this Kylian Mbappe accent come from in English?

Kylian Mbappe And his Madrid team drooled over his remarkable fluency in Spanish in post-match PSG-Real interviews. Finally before the drama, the betrayal, the denial, the “mercenaries, never in my club again”, and all this nonsense will crumble next summer. The consensus verdict at the time: the Frenchman, influenced by PSG’s strong Argentine colony, spoke Iberian with a slight accent. Buenos AiresAll the Y’s that come back.

If so, the world champion was interviewed in English by EA Sports about the priceless video of his remarks on the FIFA 2023 game, shot during the summer holidays in the United States, which has already received more than 2 million views. In a few hours? Closing our eyes to focus on the sound, we thought back to the masterful hue Donald Trump Recently asked Michael J. Fox. This time? A somewhat obnoxious parody 50 cents Or something like that. “Noowwwwwwwwww defeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeence meeeeen”, seriously?

Mbappé, who has already heard Mbappé speak English without panicking about his behavior, here forces his “West Coast” accent to death, where we have the idea that, well, English is not our best asset. To succeed in life. So, to find out whether or not Kylian Mbappe is over-checked, we turned to experts on the subject, at least English teachers, mostly bilingual and from top to bottom or almost across America. Friday Night Lights Between two greens with PSG.

“We wonder where the boy comes from”

Raphaël, our first witness, listens to the video of the blind man. First impression? “We wonder where the boy comes from. First, we think of an African living America. He sometimes tries to pronounce it the American way. Then there are sounds reminiscent of the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica… it’s a mix of everything. »

We continue with Etienne, who engages in live play: “Give me time to get past the filter of this bad accent. Behind it, it is almost a linguistic thesis. “So there’s a very strong French accent, with African sounds you can hear in there. But no one can tell it sounds like Tennessee or Texas Because most sounds are mispronounced anyway. It is intense in the accent of black Americans, a fixed accent, not regional, but community. »

Like a game, in a way, Kylian Mbappé’s accent has worked very little in his other interviews with English-language media in recent years, Etienne says: “Usually, he has a very French, as if learning a few words from a Spanish speaker who spoke to him in English, with a hint of a Spanish accent. “Damien, our third man, returns half-jokingly: “There’s something about the voice of a second-rate actor on Narcos. A Colombian American, what. » Matching avatar with this photo instagram Some joker disguised as a “gringo” a few months ago?

“Yes, there is always a tinge of African speech, I don’t know where it comes from,” replied Etienne. It may sound like a British West Indies accent at times, with that rapid flow and those flat vowels, but to me it’s a combination of his influences. Jamaicans. »

Finally, what’s fun is watching or hearing Mbappé playing around with different accents, in a language he’s imperfectly mastered, a detail that makes all kinds of academics jump. “What I say to those who have cleared the polls English hats, showing it as consistent as possible, underscores Raphael. Let me take the example of a foreigner who will master Caps of French and start his oral with a Marseille accent before finishing with a Quebec accent. It doesn’t make sense. A neutral accent is best, even if it’s in French”. Good Kylian, turned English teacher at 40 doesn’t smell. It’s stupid, There are free places.