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Marc Alaimo - Blog Posts

10 months ago

one of the things I think about a lot with dukat is the way he pronounces the word "bajoran"

pretty much every other character on the show (including the overwhelming majority of actual bajorans) pronounce it with a hard j sound. but marc alaimo nearly every time says it with a much softer consonant, closer to bazhoran or even bashoren.

it's such immaculate flavor that dukat of all people doesn't just mispronounce the name of the people and planet he's subjugating out of like laziness to use vowels/consonants that are closer to his dialect, but that he instead opts for a pronunciation that makes it feel like he's overcompensating. using the zh consonant over the j consonant is honestly less congruous with common patterns in american english of voiced vs unvoiced consonants. he makes the word 'bajoran' feel more exotic and foreign, not less. it gives dukat the flavor of someone who tries sooo hard to pronounce something ~authentically~ that they end up completely missing the mark and sounding totally detached from reality. but of course in his case it's purposeful.

this is why dukat goes so hard as a villain, because yes his text is hyper un-subtle about how much he's the living embodiment of colonialism and racism, but marc alaimo is regularly serving us these acting choices that just take it to the next level. that man and his neck really found his calling huh.


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