Do Americans understand Donald Duck?

Question

I had always assumed that although I understood only about half of what Donald Duck says in his cartoons, Americans understood everything despite his comical pronunciation.

However friends have just offered me DVDs featuring Donald and one 1948 episode, "Donald's Dream Voice", hinges on the fact that he can't sell brushes—he is a sales representative—because nobody understands him (until he buys pills that give him a human voice).

So my question is: do native speakers in the USA actually understand Donald's squawking (but delightful) English?

Answer 1

It's been years since I've heard Donald in English (I live in Denmark now) - but I must say that I've never had an issue with understanding his English - I'm also able to understand what he says in Danish now as well.

It's one of those things you have to 'train' your ear for, in my opinion.

Edited to add:

A translation for the YouTube link:

In the first part of the video he says, "WHAT? Playing again, eh? So, I'll fix 'em!" (then he makes the mask and scares Huey, Duey and Louie back into working). Then while he's mowing he says, "Why those dirty little...(rolls up his sleeves) I'll teach you!

Then the 'mini' Donald appears and says, STOP!

He talks about getting their cooperation, and Donald asks, "How?" and after the mini-Donald whispers into his ear, he says, "Ok, I'll try anything once!"

Like I said, you have to have the ear for it.

Answer 2

We can usually understand Donald Duck except when he goes off on incomprehensible rants. Much of what he says that is comprehensible may be understood from context, and there are a few times when even Americans have to dope out what he's saying. Part of the character's shtick is to blow up and lose his power to communicate except in rapid-fire shouts of nonsense syllables, which suggests that he can no longer find the words for what he is trying to say.

You can hear a small example of this at around 0:30 in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkRtswtxlZc

If you watch the rest of the clip, you'll see an example of the racism of the era. This was from an earlier time in our history.

Answer 3

Actually, I do not ever understand him in the slightest. I gather that some people (like perhaps Darwy and Robusto) do, but I generally have to take what he's saying out of context. He's a pretty reactive character (he reacts to things, rather than initiating them), and it is usually fairly easy to tell what his reaction is, even if the "words" seem to be gibberish.

Back in the 70's there was a fad where people would try to talk like him. I think it started with a popular song called Disco Duck, which featured a similarly talking duck (not Donald for copyright reasons).