1. African Americans in The Lion King
For her role as Shenzi the hyena, actress Whoopi Goldberg uses African American vernacular English. Goldberg's street-like dialect strongly contrasts the "good characters" of the film who use mainstream United States English (Gabler). African American actors play the voices of Mufasa, Sarabi, and Nala, yet the hyenas are the only ones who speak with African American vernacular English. ... Based on Schiffman's theory of foreign language usage in cinema, the accents are intended to add flavor to the characters (Schiffman). ... Therefore, the use of African American vernacula...
- Word Count: 1585
- Approx Pages: 6
- Has Bibliography
- Grade Level: Undergraduate