British accents or American accents?

[The Boar of Gore]

Being British, all the Westerosi characters sound British in my head even though GRRM is American, so, presumably, has American voices for his characters. We may have strong feelings about how a character should sound, as well as about how they look, but they're just subjective depending on things about us as an individual, like where we happen to be born.

However, it just occurred to me that perhaps, after all, GRRM would be ok with British accents because a.) it's a medieval world and there's just something odd about John Wayne saying "Yes ma lady, ah shall be yuer good and faithful knight", i.e. the stereotype for medieval people is British accents. Note that this doesn't necessarily reflect how medieval people really sounded because they probably didn't sound much like anyone today, and although we might expect a relationship between modern British regional accents and regional accents of the medieval period, there's reason to believe American English may be closer to 16th century English sounds at least. But the stereotype is still there. Reason b.) is that GRRM has spent a lot of time in the Old World looking at castles and stuff, clearly likes authentic language ('leal', 'barding' etc), and likes to use certain peculiarly British words such as 'fortnight' and 'hedge' (I believe these are not common in the US).

So, questions:

[list]
[*]What accent(s) do people in Westeros have in your head? Do you hear different accents for different regions?
[*]Do you have a preference for a particular type of accent(s) for the actors and, if so, what and why?
[/list]

[The Marquis de Leech]

I think every reader just "hears" the characters as speaking in the accent that the reader themselves use. So I just think of the characters as speaking with New Zealand accents, except when little Americanisms in the writing creep in (bards who rhyme lass with grass, characters who say that they "write someone", rather than "write to someone", the spelling of honour/honor, etc).

[Rinso]

I definately don't "hear" them with British accents. They are not, after all, British and Westeros is not Britain. I "hear" them with very neutral accents which is closer to the dominant American one, I suppose, rather than the British.

[kckolbe]

With Stannis I hear and see a tired and gaunt Patrick Stewart.

[El-ahrairah]

Definitely not American. I agree British is not necessarily closer to real medieval-speak, but what about Scottish?

[DocBean]

All the characters sound like Roy Dotrice to me.

Except for the 4th book. then they sound like Count Chocula.
... not sure why that is.

[The_BlauerDragon]

In my head, when I am reading; Some sound British, some sound Mexican, some sound American, most sound like that quasi half-british accent that has become popular in a lot of movies.

[alguien]

Slightly British.

When they claim that the Mountain promised, "Rich rewards for them as rides with me" I hear a slight British accent. Or use the word 'arse'. We don't use that in the US.

Perhaps its all the courtesies such as "my lady", "my lord," even "m'lord".

Basically I picture many of them the way the characters in the [i]Rome[/i] TV series spoke.

[DomDayne]

Ditto what Nadie said about the Rome TV series...

For me all the vast majority of fantasy characters ahve british accents. There's something about it that sounds, to me, fantastical... I just can't picture gandalf speaking with an australian accent or one from the deep south... Though i may be a little biased being Brtitish myself.
Though the different reagions should have different accents and dialects... for example the North would have a rougher more functional accent, whereas the West of the Riverlands would have a well spoken, drawn out accent. And obviously the foreign lands, Summer Isles and Ghis, would have a more exotic accents, Caribbean and mediterainian respectivly... IMO.

[YellowDogJen]

I'm not good at imitating accents, so the characters sound American to me.

[General_Lee]

That's a pretty difficult question for me since english is not my first language.
I started learning english in school when I was 13. I think we were supposed to be taught British English but I learned a lot by watching movies and TV shows and they are mostly American so when I speak I sound American most of all. I also spent a lot of time in Australia and Ireland, and that's when it got really messed up. So consequently, the characters speak British english in my head :drunk: . At least the upper-class ones. Commoners speak some sort of Irish-Scottish-Mancunian-Northern-English accent. Well, I hope you know what I mean, because I don't. I'm actually really confused right now.



Hodor



;)

[dancer]

[quote name='Rinso' post='1734182' date='Mar 26 2009, 16.09']I definately don't "hear" them with British accents. They are not, after all, British and Westeros is not Britain. I "hear" them with very neutral accents which is closer to the dominant American one, I suppose, rather than the British.[/quote]

[size=1]Hmm, I'm fairly sure that the middle-English way of speaking [i]is[/i] neutral English, in my opinion.

And what is a 'British accent' anyway? Scotland is in Britain and some people have accents so thick that you literally can't understand what they are saying, unless you are one of them. I assume you all mean 'British' to be middle-English.[/size]

[Rinso]

[quote name='dancer' post='1734702' date='Mar 26 2009, 16.58'][size=1]Hmm, I'm fairly sure that the middle-English way of speaking [i]is[/i] neutral English, in my opinion.

And what is a 'British accent' anyway? Scotland is in Britain and some people have accents so thick that you literally can't understand what they are saying, unless you are one of them. I assume you all mean 'British' to be middle-English.[/size][/quote]
I am not in any way a linguist (or a native English speaker for that matter), but what I meant is this - the British English (no matter if we talk about accents in Scotland or England or whatever) sounds very recognizable and distinctive. You just can't mistake it for something else. While the main American accent sounds much more simplified and neutral, which is why I can picture it easier into a fictional universe like ASoIaF.

[wakiki]

Ned Stark - Steve Irwin (the crocodile hunter (R.I.P.))

Robert Baretheon - Canadian

Catelyn Tully - Sean Connery

Naw, kidding. Actually they all have neutral American accents. Tyrion have a gravelly snarkiness to his voice though, and Tywin sounds like a snob. I only imagine different accents for the non-Westerosi like Sallador Saan, but the character's personality finds a way into their voices so they are all unique.

[quote name='Rinso' post='1734736' date='Mar 26 2009, 16.32']I am not in any way a linguist (or a native English speaker for that matter), but what I meant is this - the British English (no matter if we talk about accents in Scotland or England or whatever) sounds very recognizable and distinctive. You just can't mistake it for something else. While the main American accent sounds much more simplified and neutral, which is why I can picture it easier into a fictional universe like ASoIaF.[/quote]

Ummm, I don't think there is such a thing as a "neutral" accent. It's just all based on what you grew up with.

[The_BlauerDragon]

I sat down a minute ago, and tried to let a few scenes play themselves out in my head (using the different suggestions brought up by the posts up-thread), and a great deal of the voices started sounding like members of Monty Python. That's when things just started falling apart.

[Venardhi]

They all sound similar to the neutral semi-British accents they used Lord of the Rings and the like.

[Dracosmith]

Like Roy Dotrice :)

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[Horza]

I've always imagined Stannis speaking a rich Jamaican [i]patois[/i].






Seriously though:

I hear Kings Landingers as cockneys, the court as generic upper class English accents, except Robert who sounds like Brian Blessed, the Dornish are tinged with Spanish accents and to my ears the Lannisters sound generically American.

I've tried imagining the Northmen with Scottish and/or Geordie accents but for some reason they keep coming out Scouse.

[Devil Hanzo]

I picture the viper with an arabian accent, one of those two.

I picture the bravoosi as very italian.

The kingslanders and lannisters as very british, i for some reason view the starks with canadian accents.

[KnightofTheLaughingTree]

I agree with the previous two poster in that I picture different regions having different accents. In my mind the Dornish have always had a slight middle eastern accent, as someone from the Middle East who is very well spoken in English would. I have always pictured the Baratheons and I would guess the rest of the stormlords as having a scottish twinge to their accent. The majority of the world I picture as having a "fake" Olde English accent, in the way someone who wasn't British would try having an Olde English accent(like most of the actors in LOTR).

I also expect that each of the regions have very distinctive accents and would expect the common folk to sound quite different than the upperclass as well.