Apparently my brain really hates when names have A, U, and R in them, because without fail, every time I go to type Arthur my brain wants to spell it “Aurthur” or perhaps “Aurthr” and every time I go to type Marius my brain wants to type “Mauris” or maybe “Maurius” or maybe “Maurias” its unclear because I *usually* notice my mistake by the end because it’s clear to me those ending are wrong. Brain just really wants “AUR” together.
landlord sent me notice that my rent is being raised at the end of the year with a very specific amount of cents at the end so I know before even checking that he raised it to the absolute maximum he could based on the current percentage cap <3 eat shit
Shoving a tampon up my wrecked teenage hole
Gostosas na piscina se pegando
very hot cam girl reaches orgasm
Bel Ami a Melhor
Me, masturbating, jerkin off, rubbin on my dick
Gym teen fucked hard in her tight pussy by her trainer
Foxy lesbian chick gets big shaved vagina screwed with toys
she so cute **
two cuties on periscope lez it up
Darkkos Black Cock Whores
I was only a crescent moon, a curved half circle, curved in gaping, dolorous craving, bowed around emptiness, arms surrounding to meet nothing, a line unfinished, a life unrounded, a curve unfilled, suspended over the world, pale with unfullness,
Anaïs Nin, Incest: From a Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin 1932-1934
previously looked at what aziraphale was mouthing in the final fifteen, and whilst im not 100% certain on it, it gave me the hubris to look at the mouthing in 1941. because don't get me wrong, i know that crowley refers to "trust me" later on in the minisode, despite it not being voiced earlier on, and neil confirmed that that is indeed what aziraphale mouthed, but i... do not buy it.
full disclaimer, once again: not an expert in phonetics by any stretch, but was really into it when i was younger, and i have used it occasionally in my job. actual phonetics experts' input is most welcome!!!
so yeah, let's again begin with a capture of that moment, and slowed down to 0.9x, 0.8x, and 0.7x:
because whilst im not certain on exactly what aziraphale's saying, im really not convinced that his initial mouth movements bear much, if any, resemblance to what i would expect from "trust".
"trust" /tɹʌst/ is broken down into multiple movements, which i'll explain in four distinct stages: /tɹ/, /ʌ/, /s/ and /t/.
the first is the trickiest to explain, insomuch that broadly speaking, the /tɹ/ consonant cluster isn't spoken like one might think at first glance - instead of the 'tuh' and 'ruh' consonants merging exactly as they sound individually, it often evolves into a "ch" or "jj" cluster, and instead it sounds like 'chr' /tʃɹ/ (by the by, it happens often with the 'dr' cluster too!). so, in terms of what the mouth is actually doing during this, the tip of the tongue is placed up and resting behind the top teeth on the alveolar ridge (AvR), the teeth are closed, and the lips tense, or tighten, and become rounded. /ʃ/ is a voiceless fricative, and so there is some aspiration as the sound rolls into the /ɹ/. as this happens, the teeth/mouth opens, the lips relax/pull back, and the tongue falls from the AvR and pulls back to prepare voicing the vowel.
'uh' /ʌ/ is technically the open-mid back unrounded vowel; the tongue pulls towards the back of the mouth, it is not-quite-but-biased-towards the bottom of the mouth, and the lips are relaxed (ie. not rounded). so you expect to see a rather relaxed, open mouth with this vowel, just before it closes for the next consonant.
'ss' /s/ is another fricative, and so is aspirated. with this, the tongue tip instead moves forward from the back (where it sounded the /ʌ/ vowel), to behind the bottom row of teeth. the teeth are closed, and the lips are still relaxed/not rounded, resulting in the sibilant sound being made by passing air through the teeth.
to round off the word, we then move the tongue back up to the AvR, and a flick off the ridge/behind the teeth completes the hard /t/ sound. this abrupt movement stems the airflow from the /s/ sibilance (ie. a plosive). the teeth remain closed up until the flick, where they then quickly open for the plosive, and the lips remain relaxed.
and then (very quickly glossing over this for completeness) we have "me" /mi:/, which is formed by contact of the lips together, and the push of the 'ee' vowel behind it (being the close, frontal non-rounded vowel) which opens up the lips as it vocalises.
again... i personally dont see any of this movement in aziraphale's mouth during this scene:
okay yeah, the lips come together and purse slightly, but that's honestly as far as i can see any resemblance between whatever he's saying, and "trust"? so what could he be saying instead?
it's difficult to say, especially towards the end of the above gif. his mouth moves so quickly, and i think it's a realistic possibility there's more than two words - maybe three, even four? i also think that just before the shot changes, he's not actually done speaking - it looks like he's cut off mid-sentence. and overall, aziraphale is obviously mouthing very 'sotto voce' (literally) - ie. to presumably avoid detection from the audience, his mouth movements are not as exaggerated as they would be in normal, overt speech... which affects how his mouth would normally move to form these words, and therefore how accurately we can read them.
to this end, like a madman, ive a) split the clip into three, and b) slowed them down ever further to 0.3x. first one:
aziraphale is really slow in forming this first word: its initially hesitant but then very deliberate. but the first thing we see is his jaw drop minutely (i think his jaw even pushes forward slightly?), and his neck tenses.
id also hazard that whilst obviously the quality is pants, and we can't see the placement of the front of his tongue, it's set behind his bottom teeth, and the rest is high and back in the mouth (ie. not behind the top teeth, on the AvR, where the 'tr' /tʃɹ/ cluster is formed).
after this, his lips then purse/round slightly, before relaxing again (again, not what would be indicated by the /ʌ/ vowel).
so all this to me suggests that a) it begins with a voiced sound (the neck tensing implies engagement of the vocal chords), and b) it transitions into a closed, rounded vowel, set in the back. the most logical construction that fits this, for me, is 'you' - /ju:/.
the rest of what he's mouthing? honestly god only knows what's going on here, but im gonna take a stab at it. i think it can be broken down into another two words at least, maybe even three with the middle one being a very short vowel. the issue is that the clip cuts off sharply when the shot changes, which makes it difficult to see how aziraphale's mouth results at the end of the whole thing*.
but let's start from where we left off with the /u:/ sound - where the lips are pursed:
two thoughts here:
1) after aziraphale says 'you', his mouth just simply relaxes, and doesn't say anything. it's a very quick rest, and the movements that follow it are even quicker, making it (for me) difficult to read.
alternatively, 2) he is saying something. so breaking this movement down, as his mouth relaxes from 'oo' /u:/, and his lips pull back from that rounded position, i think two things happen: his lips pull back, opening the mouth a fraction, and his tongue pulls down and slightly back. both of which could possibly suggest an /h/ sound, which is breathy and voiceless, transitioning into a vowel which in this case is most likely in this case to be open, or near-open, and unrounded - in which case, /æ/ would make sense.
for the next sound, this is where it's not very clear at all - im tentatively saying it's a /v/, which is a labiodental fricative phoneme, meaning that it is primarily formed when the top teeth make contact with the bottom lip. aziraphale's mouth certainly closes back up from the open position, but it's not entirely clear whether his teeth do contact his lip. that being said, if aziraphale is saying anything here, completing the word with the /v/ is logical - 'have', /hæv/.
okay deep breath, we're onto the last couple of movements now-
im going to scream, this last bit is so difficult-
one thing is that i do think, is that aziraphale is saying two words here: watching closely, his lips part so, so minutely before coming together again, and forming the start* of the next word. most likely? that tiny little word he's forming in that small, minute gap is 'a', which aziraphale has previously pronounced in the show (and i think he is here, too) as 'uh', /ʌ/.
after this, his lips return to contact, before parting again into the last movement that we see - the shot changes, and the word is cut off (so far as i can tell)*. but if you return to the 0.6x gif up above, you can see that all of this movement is so quick that im definitely having trouble being certain on what the last one is. because all of the lip-presses are in quick succession to each other, i think he might be forming a 'ww' consonant - /w/, but can't be sure.
so, possibly: "you have a w-", /ju: hæv ʌ w/
so look - altogether, this is a massive amount of unhinged speculation and, as ive said previously, i am nowhere near a professional at this (fancy terminology is all well and good, but i was just really into linguistics and phonetics when i was younger). im sure i will be eating humble pie at some point over this but... i really don't think, regardless of what he is actually saying, that he is saying 'trust me'.
and in a way - it's the implications of it that are more interesting to me: because if aziraphale doesn't say 'trust me' in this bit, but both he and crowley acknowledge that he says it at some point, when does he say it?
[a] open front unrounded vowel - cinéma (cinema, m); hat
[ɑ] open back unrounded vowel - château (castle, m); hot
[e] close-mid front unrounded vowel - clé (key, f); may
[ɛ] open-mid front unrounded vowel - père (father, m), chêne (oak, m); bed
[ə] mid central vowel/schwa - jeu (game, m); bird
[i] close front unrounded vowel - souris (mouse, f); free
[o] close-mid back rounded vowel - rose (rose, f); UK yawn
[ɔ] open-mid back rounded vowel - océan (ocean, m); thought
[ø] close-mid front rounded vowel - jeudi (thursday)
[œ] open-mid front rounded vowel - peur (fear, f)
[u] close back rounded vowel - chou (cabbage, m); boot
[y] close front rounded vowel - tu (you); UK few
This vowel diagram shows the inside of the throat from the left side (pronounce /i/ "eee" and /ɑ/ "aaa" to feel the difference). Antérieur: front, postérieur: back, aperture: opening of the lips.
Les voyelles nasales (when followed by a consonant except -h- or ending a word)
[ɑ̃] > am, an, (é)en, em, aon - temps (time, m)
[ɛ̃] > aim, ain, eim, ein, em, (i)en, im, in, um, un, ym, yn - pain (bread, m)
[ɔ̃] > om, on - ombre (shadow, f), bonjour (hello)
[œ̃] > um, un - humble, un (one, m); dying, turning into [ɛ̃]
N.B. When a nasal sound is produced, despite being made of two letters, they are to be pronounced as their own sound: in Bonjour, the /o/ and the /n/ shouldn't be heard at all since they are followed by the consonant /j/, as opposed to the usual dragging of /o/ then /n/ like in Bonne journée.
Les semi-voyelles
[j] voiced palatal approximant - lieu (place, m); you
[v] voiced labiodental fricative - violon (violin, m)
[z] voiced alveolar fricative - maison (house, f)
[ʃ] voiceless postalveolar fricative - chocolat (chocolate, m)
Les consonnes nasales
[m] voiced bilabial nasal - miel (honey, m)
[n] voiced denti-alveolar nasal - nez (nose, m)
[ɲ] voiced palatal nasal - montagne (mountain, f)
[ŋ] voiced velar nasal - connexion (connection, f); sing
Voiced sounds are those that make our vocal chords vibrate when they are produced; voiceless sounds are produced from air passing through the mouth at different points. Fricatives are consonants with the characteristic that when they are produced, air escaped through a small passage and make a hissing sound; plosives are a type of consonant produced by forming a complete obstruction to the flow air out of the mouth.
Movie: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain - Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001