10 réponses à ce sujet

[Noatz]

I'm asking this because there is consistency in some areas about this and not in others, and I'm wondering if this is intended for cultural reasons or whether its just in who you chose to do your voice acting.

Some regions have clearly identifiable accents:
Orlais = French Canadian
Dwarves = American/Canadian
Dalish (in DA2 anyway) = Irish/Welsh (loosely celtic)
Antiva = Spanish

Here's where it gets confusing:
Tevinter = English
Free Marches = English (Sebastian is Scottish - does this mean all/most of Starkhaven is Scottish?)
Ferelden = English
Nevarra = I don't exactly know
Rivain = I don't exactly know. Isabela's accent is also English but this could be down to her living in Ferelden.
Qunari = English

I'm willing to discount the Qunari as the accents they have fit their stoic personalities regardless of real world origin. But why does everywhere else, a fairly loose array of nations/city states share the same accent? Is it the legacy of the Tevinter Imperium or some other - not necessarily lore based - reason?

[AlexXIV]

The next question would be, if they have foreign accents, do they have a native language?

[Sammyjb]

They also said City Elves have American accents.

[Oneiropolos]

We know Tevinter has a different language. It's been stated that when Fenris curses, he curses in that language. It's sort of Elvish sounding, but it isn't. I would say Fenris's accent is actually pretty hard to define. Whether that's because he's been a slave, he's traveled several places, or because he's from Tevinter is hard to say to me. One can presume when Fenris says, "Venhedis! Fasta vass!" he is indeed cursing in the language of the Imperium.

I thought Orlais was just French, period? Antiva seems to be Spanish (as in Spain, Spanish, not influenced), Nevarra is Cassandra's, which has people arguing that it's Slavic of some sort. They do refer to cities in the Free Marches as separate city-states, so Starkhaven being the "Scottish" branch makes sense. The Dalish elves are Welsh (Eve Myles, voice of Merril, is a Welsh actress and best known for her role as Gwen in Torchwood). City elves have been stated to have American accents. I actually never could define the Orzammar dwarves.

Of course, we just recently learned that Anders is not his real name and he got it as a nickname from being from the Anderfels, which some people argue are German. But Anders went to the Fereldan circle at a young age, which may be why he doesn't have a different accent by now.

[GunMoth]

Look at the Qunari dialect a bit closer, especially the stuff Sten from Origins says in battle, as well as the cultural titles they give to their officers.

Also, to answer your question about English accents, it could have been something completely overlooked when developing the world. I'm currently watching an anime called "Gosick" which takes place in Europe, but because it is Japanese, everyone speaks Japanese.

It could simply be because people who speak English are making a game, and cultures they feel that don't have an extremely distinct background (like the Dalish) should not have accents? You can assume the Qunari are just speaking English because they are in an English speaking area. I've heard Sten break out into full on sentences that could be their actual language. 


Edit x 2 Perhaps Qunari are above accents. 

Modifié par GunMoth, 20 mars 2011 - 08:29 .

[MKDAWUSS]

AlexXIV wrote...

The next question would be, if they have foreign accents, do they have a native language?

And I'd rather have foreign languages than accents TBH.

Lost in Translation moments be damned.

[Oneiropolos]

I don't know. I played Assassin's Creed II all the way through the first time without realizing you could have subtitles. And all the Italian in it meant I didn't get half of the dialogue. >.> Plus, we know the Qunari have their own language. Fenris also speaks the Qun at one point in a language Hawke totally doesn't understand and you can reply going "...did that help?" and he gives you a wry look and simply says "We shall see."

[Noatz]

Oneiropolos wrote...

We know Tevinter has a different language. It's been stated that when Fenris curses, he curses in that language. It's sort of Elvish sounding, but it isn't. I would say Fenris's accent is actually pretty hard to define. Whether that's because he's been a slave, he's traveled several places, or because he's from Tevinter is hard to say to me. One can presume when Fenris says, "Venhedis! Fasta vass!" he is indeed cursing in the language of the Imperium.

I thought Orlais was just French, period? Antiva seems to be Spanish (as in Spain, Spanish, not influenced), Nevarra is Cassandra's, which has people arguing that it's Slavic of some sort. They do refer to cities in the Free Marches as separate city-states, so Starkhaven being the "Scottish" branch makes sense. The Dalish elves are Welsh (Eve Myles, voice of Merril, is a Welsh actress and best known for her role as Gwen in Torchwood). City elves have been stated to have American accents. I actually never could define the Orzammar dwarves.

Of course, we just recently learned that Anders is not his real name and he got it as a nickname from being from the Anderfels, which some people argue are German. But Anders went to the Fereldan circle at a young age, which may be why he doesn't have a different accent by now.

The accents they use for Orlesians seem more French Canadian, probably because being a Canadian studio they can access a lot of FC VA's more easily than "French French" VA's.

Tevinter isn't just Fenris, look at all the other NPCs we see from there: Danarius, Hadriana, all the slaver fodder characters you beat up. All English. And Fenris' is still an English accent, his VA just has a dinstinctive voice. Merril may be Welsh but the rest of DA2's Dalish elves are Irish.

About Anders - interesting, I never knew that. And I don't think we've had any other NPC from the Anderfels yet, their accent could be anything. German is as good as anything I guess.

As for actual languages - its one thing displaying the odd few words in a made up language, and quite another actually developing said language in entirity in order to have full dialogue in it.

[Vuokseniska]

all i can say is... i hate the elves accent... reason enough to kill them

[Oneiropolos]

If you listen to the soundtrack, though, languages were at least loosely made up. We know Lelaina in DA:O sings a song in Elvish. "Mage Pride" from DAII's soundtrack is in some sort of other language too, but of course, we get no translation for either song. So it's hard to say.

[Kogaion]

looking to all their titles qunari seems to be arabic or mongols (genghis khan style)