Circumspect Accent

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

In the movies, some Imperial (dogs) citizens had a mildly out of place English accent, and as someone who spends a not-insignificant amount of time thinking about languages and how they shape our perception of folk and our perception of ourselves, I've always wondered how and why that decision was made. Surely if the intention was to point out "HERE THERE BE BAD GUYS" to a late 70`s America, a German accent to match all the other cues taken from the Nazis would have worked?

Anyway, I am rambling. The Galaxy is a relatively big place full of relatively diverse peoples who naturally have a huge array of languages. Where there's languages coming together and a common tongue, dialects and accents are unavoidable. Does your character speak Galactic Basic with a hint of her mother tongue? Even if it's so minor that it isn't worth writing out, how do you imagine it in your mind? (if you do)

For my part, I've always imagined Aleidis` native language to sound a good bit like Parisian French - light and airy at times with a plethora of wandering vowels, and some glottal stops mixed in. Cosmopolitan girl that she is, Alei speaks a couple of languages. Like anyone else, most of the time she sticks with Basic. When I imagine her dialog, it is spoken with a breezy French accent that is strong enough to flavor her words but not enough to be written out.

How about you folks? Do any of you imagine your character speaking in non-standard basic? If so, do you write it out, or simply leave it implied? Is there any distinct dialect you associate with someone else's character that they perhaps don't know about? Personally, I've always read @[member="Sarge Potteiger"]`s dialog with a South African bend to it, I have no idea why.

 

[TiCira D'Arr Hawk]

I always imagined TiCi having an accent.
Mainly, think of a Columbian chick talking in english.... like Shakira

http://youtu.be/j8pbVQS73Eg?t=13s

Non standard basic for her, as "Dathomiran" has always been Native American Lakota.

http://youtu.be/I_F1VWvioLQ

 

[TiCira D'Arr Hawk]

Eep double post!

 

[Darth Isolda]

Isolda... has always had this.. mystical accented voice to me. When I first saw Prince of Persia, Princess Tamina hit it on the spot.

The "The Gods have a plan for you. A Destiny," is her xD So much I've used this in roleplays as a quote!


But in terms of non standard basic, when she's in her mystic mode. Definitely Gaelic.
http://youtu.be/BwyWnWdEqtk

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Lilith was born on Coruscant... So Galactic Basic Standard is her mother tongue. Since I use British English, she may have a British-sounding accent

Appakha would have a strong Balinak-stuff accent.

Jasmine's native language is GBS, so she's like Lilith.

Aliannah would speak with a tiny little Meadowian accent. Same goes with Cameron Paté. Meadowians have a little stress on all vocals.

Lorcan wouldn't have strange accent, I think. I'm not sure yet, though. He sounds a lot like an American.

Equa Dominator has a strong Umbarese accent, but it's slowly disappearing.

Richard... GBS, just like Lilith and Jasmine.

Logan William Hack'awin's mother tongue is GBS, but he has a fake Hack'awinese (their family's unique language) accent. Hack'awin sisters have a natural Hack'awinese accent. It's quite strange... a combination of Russian and German, maybe. it's hard to describe it.

Roman has an extremely strong Niok-Ulkirappa accent combination. It's like... British English combined with Finnish and Estonian (maybe some other Scandinavian languages too...).

 

[Ordo]

Ordo is Corellian born so his basic has a Northern United states accent he speaks 3 other languages well two but with enough drink he may attempt to vocalize shyriiwook.

Ordo also sometimes is written with more rural sounding grammar because he was a farmer years ago when I first made him for the west end games pen and paper rpg. The Mando thing came later so yeah...sounds like a country deep toned Han solo.

 

[Kerri Aislinn]

I don't know how Elvira sounds, she might have a slight Spanish accent. I do know that her voice can be scratchy though. I have no idea what her home world is, I just made her... So accents? I don't know.

As for Carona, she was born on Shili so her accent would just be basic - if she did have an accent. She's mute!!

 

[Corey's OOC]

Marek would have a bit of a southern accent, think Mobile, or New Orleans, without the definitely Cajun undertones. So not like Gambit from X-Men but not unlike Gambit.

Jared, my Fel pilot is definitely closer to GBS, or North-East USA tons

Peyton Steele, my gunslinger from Eclipse speaks with a Texas Accent, similar to what you'd find in Houston.

And Token definitely speaks with the proper southern accent you'd associate with the State of Georgia.

 

[Fabula Caromed]

When she first crawled out of her freezer, the first speech in Basic Fabula ever heard was from a Cavataio. As a result she has a very slight Italian accent, but she's been away from her relatives for so long that it's basically vanished.

Due to the manipulations of @[member="Aleidis Ijet"], Codi has a southern US accent. It's pretty strong, actually. I've started writing it phonetically in her posts.

Razelle's accent was forcibly coached out of her voice during mole training. Originally, it probably sounded very Welsh. Or maybe Russian.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

@[member="Aleidis Ijet"]

I imagine because you've seen Elysium and Sarge is remarkably similar to Kruger.

Also, I see what you did with the title

 

[Cira]

I'd have to ask what accent @[member="Sarge Potteiger"] reads me yelling at him

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

mostly american. I read most people in American.

But like, 60% of the time it's British.

 

[Soeht]

If only Star Wars had Earth in it so people can easily describe accents without breaking immersion.

The next best thing would just be to research spelling of words depending on location - such as the difference between British and American English - as well as to go along the lines of certain species that have distinct accents in canon. There's a list in Wookieepedia that makes this easier - probably to the point that it could be used to describe a character's accent without breaking immersion.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

Jorus' accent is Midwestern. Ashin's is upper-class Californian. The Bard's is from Brooklyn. Velok's is urban, upper-class Scottish.

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

@[member="Daella Apparine"]

That's a nice little list, but given how it describes a tiny fraction of the potential languages - heck, aside from Corellia, Naboo and Coruscant, I haven't seen anyone from those listed planets at all. And most of them don't even give examples of accents. They link to planets, they explain that a dialect is there but not what it sounds like. Some of them even even just link to planets or other languages.

Scrolling down, Wookiepedia explains that some characters have accents because their actors have accents, except when they don't. Imperials speak with a British lean and Stormtroopers have American accents, except when they don't. The reverse is true of the Rebels, except when it isn't. Like the rest of Star Wars, there's very little logic to it and nearly no consistency, and anything they're referencing here on Wookie kind of goes hand-in-hand with my first post; the Galaxy is a big place, etc.

I'd find my immersion more strained by picturing flavor-of-the-week anime characters leaping about than I would by people talking a little differently, but that's just me.

 

[Chloe Blake]

Jorus' accent is Midwestern.

This. With a slight drawl here and there.

 

[Danger Arceneau]

We are talking "Southern" here with Danger.

Deeeeeeeeeep South. You got your Southern bell deal going on with folk from Tatooine-- I always figured they were kinda the hillbillies of the galaxy, with some quality Southern drawl tossed in.

 

[Hamish McNair]

Hamish's accent is mainland Irish without the slang.

I've never associated an accent with Menoetius, it's as neutral as a voice can get.

 

[Voroll]

Since I speak British English I guess I just assumed Voroll to as well. Although it's something that I've never really put much thought into, which I probably should. I feel accents are so hard to describe and are so varied it's just very difficult to write about or attribute one to a character; unless, of course, they're written phonetically.

 

[Steph Zenima]

>.>

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Fit?