122 réponses à ce sujet

[Serelir]

Thanks! I love New Order. I'm so glad that non-RP accents became popular in Britain so that we can still hear them - a friend of my brother's was telling me how she lost her Devon accent when she went to Oxford. A few years ago, I was reading Albion's Seed and was fascinated to learn how groups coming from different parts of England shaped our American regional accents. I was thinking about the American accent used in DA - we don't have a standard like RP, though we are losing our regional accents. I'm always excited when I hear a particularly interesting accent still alive and well.

[Serelir]

I'm French, but I play in English. I've tried the French voices for a little while just to see what they were like and I was utterly disappointed to hear they ALL had the usual French accent. Not even a little Spanish for Josephine. Nothing at all. Just basic French all over the place...

That's so disappointing!

[YourFunnyUncle]

Thanks! I love New Order. I'm so glad that non-RP accents became popular in Britain so that we can still hear them - a friend of my brother's was telling me how she lost her Devon accent when she went to Oxford. A few years ago, I was reading Albion's Seed and was fascinated to learn how groups coming from different parts of England shaped our American regional accents. I was thinking about the American accent used in DA - we don't have a standard like RP, though we are losing our regional accents. I'm always excited when I hear a particularly interesting accent still alive and well.

That's of course another interesting phenomenon. Sometimes people lose their accents completely on attending educational establishments but also they can be softened. The playwright Alan Bennett attended Oxford but he didn't lose his Leeds (a city in Yorkshire and my place of birth) accent entirely. (Actually he sounds quite a bit like my dad!)

 

 

However when you compare him to someone with a less "educated" Leeds accent you can certainly hear the difference. These three guys are all sportsmen from Leeds.

 

[JenMaxon]

There are plenty of famous rock stars from Manchester. I could show you a clip of the Gallaghers from Oasis, but I'll go with Bernard Sumner of New Order of New Order, as that's more my style and he has a Mancunian accent.

 

That's a Salford accent (says the Mancunian reading the thread).  To my ears quite different.

[YourFunnyUncle]

That's a Salford accent (says the Mancunian reading the thread). To my ears quite different.

Fair enough. It just underlines what I was saying about how accents can change in a small geographical area.

[Serelir]

I'm glad that didn't come to blows! Hey, I was chatting with that Avvar guy in the Mire, and his accent sounds vaguely northern. Is it anything specific?

[YourFunnyUncle]

I'm glad that didn't come to blows! Hey, I was chatting with that Avvar guy in the Mire, and his accent sounds vaguely northern. Is it anything specific?

The sky watcher sounds like an actor doing "Northern" to me, but maybe he's from somewhere specific that I don't know. I don't claim to be the knower of all accents and I'm quite willing to be corrected. Certainly the Avvar in Jaws of Hakkon have Northern accents.

[Serelir]

 I don't claim to be the knower of all accents

Yeah, well, the people are all saying you're the the Chosen One!

[YourFunnyUncle]

Yeah, well, the people are all saying you're the the Chosen One!

I'm not the messiah!

[Qun00]

I'm still not sure what the "Fereldan accent" is supposed to be. Nobody in Ferelden sounds like Sera.

On the other hand, the Orlesian accent is simple enough. French people.

[YourFunnyUncle]

I'm still not sure what the "Fereldan accent" is supposed to be. Nobody in Ferelden sounds like Sera.

On the other hand, the Orlesian accent is simple enough. French people.

Fereldans have English accents. As has been discussed we have many accents in England. There's far more variety than the size of the country would suggest. Sera's VA has an accent from Derbyshire (possibly softened a bit by living in London) which is close to the northern accents we've been discussing but not quite the same.

Sera's speech patterns, however, are entirely her own, which does make her sound quite distinctive.

[Neuro]

I'm French, but I play in English. I've tried the French voices for a little while just to see what they were like and I was utterly disappointed to hear they ALL had the usual French accent. Not even a little Spanish for Josephine. Nothing at all. Just basic French all over the place...

 

DIsappointing indeed, though I would have been impressed considerably had they maintained accent-variety for all of the available languages in the game.  But, it's frustrating because (as evidenced by me starting this thread) the accents in the game are a huge thing for me.  

[Neuro]

Thanks! I love New Order. I'm so glad that non-RP accents became popular in Britain so that we can still hear them - a friend of my brother's was telling me how she lost her Devon accent when she went to Oxford. A few years ago, I was reading 

Going to check out Albion's Seed to be sure.  

 

I got into British and Irish accents originally by first loving regional US accents-- and, definitely, we are losing ours/achieving a more normalized, standard accent all over.  It's so great to hear an old school regional American accent every once in a while; my great uncle has a very strong old New York accent, and it's wonderful to listen to. 

[FemShem]

In BioWare games if BioWare wants us to hate a character they often give them an outrageous French accent (true in both DA and ME).

I have no idea why, but with the exception of Leliana (who's accent is more subdued) this appears to be true.

[Neuro]

That's of course another interesting phenomenon. Sometimes people lose their accents completely on attending educational establishments but also they can be softened. The playwright Alan Bennett attended Oxford but he didn't lose his Leeds (a city in Yorkshire and my place of birth) accent entirely. (Actually he sounds quite a bit like my dad!)

 

 

However when you compare him to someone with a less "educated" Leeds accent you can certainly hear the difference. These three guys are all sportsmen from Leeds.

 

^ Yeah, the difference between these two is quite noticeable.  

 

It's interesting, the friends I have who come to the US with non-American accents (Australian, Irish, British) do talk about losing their accents, but it's something that rarely worries and/or happens to Americans.  A friend of mine anecdotally stated that this is because our accents (Americans) are stronger, flatter, and less subject to regional variation.  These are all sort of murky and abstract terms though, so I'd love to hear some real science behind it.  

 

In general, it appears to me/from what I've read that an accent gained in youth & adolescence is maintained throughout life-- i.e. a 35 year old American who moves to Liverpool will not suddenly or slowly gain a Scouse/Liverpudlian accent.  However, a 12 year old will, even if they're only in Liverpool for 5 years, etc.  The stage of development is key, essentially, with diminishing returns as the individual ages.  

 

I've always wished I had an accent, so, sadly, my dream of moving to the UK or Ireland and developing an exotic accent seems unlikely .  Though, hilariously, as a form of instinctual mimicry and the natural inclination to communicate as efficiently as possible, I've noticed I use UK terms when with UK people (tube, lavatory/WC, mobile, flat, etc.).  But, I believe that's more to my personality and less a sort of global/linguistic trend.  

 

Cheers-- the responses/links you've posted have been really awesome & informative.  

[YourFunnyUncle]

^ Yeah, the difference between these two is quite noticeable.  
 
It's interesting, the friends I have who come to the US with non-American accents (Australian, Irish, British) do talk about losing their accents, but it's something that rarely worries and/or happens to Americans.  A friend of mine anecdotally stated that this is because our accents (Americans) are stronger, flatter, and less subject to regional variation.  These are all sort of murky and abstract terms though, so I'd love to hear some real science behind it.  
 
In general, it appears to me/from what I've read that an accent gained in youth & adolescence is maintained throughout life-- i.e. a 35 year old American who moves to Liverpool will not suddenly or slowly gain a Scouse/Liverpudlian accent.  However, a 12 year old will, even if they're only in Liverpool for 5 years, etc.  The stage of development is key, essentially, with diminishing returns as the individual ages.  
 
I've always wished I had an accent, so, sadly, my dream of moving to the UK or Ireland and developing an exotic accent seems unlikely .  Though, hilariously, as a form of instinctual mimicry and the natural inclination to communicate as efficiently as possible, I've noticed I use UK terms when with UK people (tube, lavatory/WC, mobile, flat, etc.).  But, I believe that's more to my personality and less a sort of global/linguistic trend.  
 
Cheers-- the responses/links you've posted have been really awesome & informative.

I think that it's true in general that people's accents tend to get fixed in childhood, although some people retain a greater facility to adapt them later in life. I learned Spanish in my late twenties and early thirties and these days I've been told that I sound like a Chilango (someone from Mexico City, which is where my wife is from). I tend to reflect the accent and speech patterns of those around me quite quickly. 

 
I recently got to know a guy from Middlesbrough, a town which is right on the northern edge of Yorkshire and is closer to Newcastle and Sunderland than to the major population centres of my county. The rock singer/guitarist Chris Rea is from there (as a side note it's interesting how different his singing voice is from his speaking voice.)

 

 

Anyway the guy I know lived in Canada for a while, and people had problems understanding him so he decided to change the way he spoke. Interestingly, instead of adopting a Canadian accent he switched to this:

 

 

Basically he doesn't quite sound RP but he adopted an "educated south-eastern English" accent, because that's what people could understand when he was over there. Now he lives back in Middlesbrough but he hasn't changed his accent back. (Maybe because his new voice sounds more "authoritative" in his YouTube vids. )

 

On topic, some actors are better than others at adapting their accents. Jennifer Hale and Sean Connery spring to mind as standing at opposite ends of that spectrum...

[Serelir]

I'm not convinced it's completely true that people's accents don't change. My brother has lived in England for twenty years, and a friend of mine married a man from Belfast and moved to his home in Lancashire: their American accents are definitely changing to some hybrid that's neither fish nor fowl. Anecdotal, yes. I'll have to keep my ears perked up for other examples.

 

When I moved to the west coast, I deliberately re-trained myself to rid my accent of its flattened o's and extra r's. I'm a little sorry now to speak so blandly!

 

Re: the French accents and evil characters. I agree, and it's such a shame, because there's one male French accent that I adore. I always want to flirt with those Orlesian nobles who are attempting to goad me into a duel! There's more than one way to win a fight.

 

It's a cheap shot preying on the English/American cultural distrust of the French.

[YourFunnyUncle]

I'm not convinced it's completely true that people's accents don't change. My brother has lived in England for twenty years, and a friend of mine married a man from Belfast and moved to his home in Lancashire: their American accents are definitely changing to some hybrid that's neither fish nor fowl. Anecdotal, yes. I'll have to keep my ears perked up for other examples.

 

When I moved to the west coast, I deliberately re-trained myself to rid my accent of its flattened o's and extra r's. I'm a little sorry now to speak so blandly!

No you're right. Some people change a lot, some a little, but not many lose their original accent entirely if they move when they're adults. That happens a lot more with younger kids.

 

Ex Liverpool and Denmark footballer Jan Molby has a great hybrid scouse(Liverpool)/Danish accent which has got more scouse over time. You can still hear some bits of Scandinavian pronunciation there, though.

 

[Potato Cat]

Whoop! Chris Rea! Always nice to hear another Smoggie.

[S.W.]

Changing accents I think is highly dependent on personal circumstances.

 

My mother is from Glasgow, and has lived in the south of England for twenty five years now, since her early thirties. Her accent has definitely softened, but not to the extent that when she meets friends of mine, they don't notice it - in fact, it's the first thing they pick up on. Whenever she visits family Scotland, her accent gets noticeably stronger within the space of a few days. This is despite the fact that RP is absolutely everywhere down here - it dominates TV and the Radio, it's what you hear in the streets, in shops, on the bus, etc.

 

I'd be skeptical, then, of the claim that more popular accents - such as a standard American accent, or RP - tend to stay longer than others.

 

I think it also varies greatly person to person. A close friend of mine lived in Vancouver for the first five years of his life and he still, at the age of 21, has a strange amalgamation of Canadian vowels and RP consonants.

 

I speak with RP myself, have always done, have found great difficulty recognising and imitating other accents (this is to great amusement with my family: every member of my intimate family, from my mum's soft Glasgow to my dad's mixed Midlands, has a different accent, and even more amusing to my relatives north of the border). Personally, I couldn't imagine my accent ever shifting. (Then again, I couldn't ever imagine being rich enough to move to America, so )

[Gilli]

This discussion about what the accents should be (canon or otherwise) in English makes me wonder if there's any consistency to the accents when the game is played in other languages. I'll have to ask my Spanish friend, though he's probably just playing it in English. I couldn't get him to give an opinion about Zevran's accent. He just shrugged in a Galician sort of way.
 
Also, does anyone have a video link to the Lancashire vowels? I have an American friend who lives there and is always posting odd news stories about Lancastrians.

 
I'm Swiss and play in German, sadly beside some Orlesians no one really has an accent. 
 
Tho as far as I know, Germans don't have accents, they have dialects, but if a movie/series not explicitly plays in a particular area of Germany, no one, or only stereotypes, have an accent.
For example: Der Bulle von Tölz took place in Bavaria and everyone talked with a Bavarian dialect, same with SK Kölsch with was set in Cologne and the cops would talk in "Kölsch".
 

 

At 2:24 Arcee beginns to talk. She's voiced by Martina Treger who also voices Vivienne. Tbh I don't hear any difference in how she voices Arcee and Vivienne, tho I think Vivienne sounds a little more noble.

 

Sadly that also means, that there's no difference between the various races, sometimes they even share the same voices through the races. (probably a reason why I will never use the older female voice for the Inquisitor, she voices so many NPCs on Skyhold, it's getting annoying. =/ ....tho Anke Reitzenstein (who voices the older female voice) also voices Seven of Nine, so I could see it as "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."     )

 

All in all I like the German dub, but a little more "acting" would be nice.

[Neuro]

This is such a fun discussion; sorry, to be clear above, those who have difficulty/inflexibility in changing their accents, I was referring to Americans in general there, I just didn't make my antecedent clear. 

 

But I too am skeptical of this, and would love to see some data on it.  I'm similarly skeptical of those Americans I do know who move to a place for a year and their accent changes dramatically, and remains so, *even upon return* to the States.  I have an American friend who grew up in the Virginia area with a fairly standard American accent, moved to Australia for a year, and now speaks like a full-on Australian.  My other friends and myself find it a bit odd, haha, but all good.    

 

In contrast, I dated a woman for a brief period who grew up in New Zealand and moved to the States when she was in her teens-- her accent was a wonderful mix of the traditional Kiwi accent blended with American, but she was always worried about losing her accent (while living in the States), and I imagine it did adjust accordingly, as well.  

 

@YourFunnyUncle-- Another/a secondary language is a fascinating thing as well, partially, I think, because that's a conscious effort to maintain/perfect an accent (i.e. I don't work to sound American, but I do work consciously, deliberately when speaking a foreign language to sound a certain way)  I grew up speaking English, and learned Spanish in my youth-- I learned to speak it with a "Central American" accent, but when I began re-learning it recently, I now know that I have a more traditional accent sounding Spain-like, because that's the context in which I've re-learned it.  And similarly, I learned Italian in my 20s from a Sicilian professor, and now whenever I speak Italian people assume I'm from Sicily, or the south in general.  (I also think part of this is because my Italian accent is somewhat Spanish-sounding, which sounds Sicilian to native Italians).  

 

I've noticed my accent is also highly flexible to the people around me, as above-- not simply the lexicon and phrasings, but certain tones and accents, too.  (I imagine) I even sound convincing/normal, as well, but the thing is that my accent always returns to normal upon return to my homebase.  The lexicon remains though (I didn't grow up saying "y'all," but I do now, since many of my friends are from the southern US).  It's really interesting, I think.

 

Cheers!

[Neuro]

^ Continuing this topic:

 

Gillian Anderson is a fascinating case study for our discussion.  She was born in Chicago (US), and shortly thereafter moved to Puerto Rico, and then England, where she lived until she was 11.  At 11, her family moved back to the US, to Michigan.  She felt out-of-place having a British accent, so she adopted a midwestern accent, and, as Wikipedia states: "She is bidialectal. With her English accent and background, she was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwestern accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location."  A lot of people have been semi-alarmed by her shifting accents though, haha (just type in her name and "interview" and the first words that come up in the search bar following are ""british" or "british accent," etc.)  She now lives in the UK again, permanently.  

 

in the UK, December 2013:

 

and then, four months later, when in the US:

 

Isn't that fascinating?  And I wouldn't even say the Jonathan Ross show is the strongest example of her British accent-- there are other clips that demonstrate her British accent as even more pronounced.  Also, if you haven't watched the BBC show The Fall yet, I highly recommend it.  One of the best shows of the last five or so years, in my opinion-- she's brilliant in it, Jamie Dornan's brilliant, the setting is brilliant, it's all brilliant.    

[Serelir]

The Fall was excellent! It's a little strange to hear her flip accents. I remember feeling a little confused when watching The Fall about where she's from, though I expect good actors to be able to change accents. It's noticeable when they don't (John Malkovich is always John Malkovich, for example).

 

I've noticed that I tend to mimic the people I'm talking with, and always worry they'll think I'm making fun of them. But I think it's a subconscious desire to get along with and be accepted by strangers. Some have called changing one's pitch submissive, while I prefer to think of it as diplomatic. I remember a speech analyst saying that Bill Clinton was the only speaker she'd heard who never changed his pitch to match the person with whom he was speaking.

 

Have you heard of Foreign Accent Syndrome? I found it fascinating that the woman in that story could imagine herself singing in order to regain her native accent. There's another woman who prefers her new accent.

 

I've drifted quite far from the topic, but it's sad that the German version of DAI, like the French version, contains so few different voices.

[Gilli]

-snip-

 

I've drifted quite far from the topic, but it's sad that the German version of DAI, like the French version, contains so few different voices.

 

Yeah. I don't know exactly why, but I think in German VA's are meant to lose their accents when they're doing their job. (tho there ARE exceptions)

 

I think, if they'd voiced DA in Switzerland, by Swiss you would hear more differences between the charas. Cause here people foster their dialects. Even the newsreporters talk in their dialect. The drawback would be, that Germans wouldn't understand the charas anymore.   

But the positive thing would be, here in Switzerland we have four languages, Swiss-German, French, Italian and Rhaeto-Romanic, so there would be no problem in giving Orlesians a french, or Tevinterans an italian accent.

 

Example of different dialects in a swiss music video.

Spoiler

 

Baschi is from the Canton Basel-Land, he sings in Basel German

Bligg is from the Canton Zurich, he sings in Zurich German

Ritschi is from the Canton Bern, he sings in Bernese German

Seven is from the Canton Aargau, he sings in English

Stress is from the Canton Vaud, he raps in French

 

And here a video of Carlos Leal, he was born in Spain, grew up in Lausanne (Canton Vaud) and lives now in Los Angeles. (he had a role in Casino Royale) You can hear his french accent when he speaks Swiss German and English, but it's there.

 

Spoiler