British accents or American accents?

[silentsister]

[quote name='DocBean' post='1734341' date='Mar 26 2009, 13.11']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.[/quote]
I agree. Do you think Dotrice could dub all the characters?

[the silent speaker]

Oddly enough, in my head one particular group has what I can only describe as a Dornish accent.

[Knight Of The North]

I feel I should be shot for this, but here's my chart of accents.

Far North (Wildlings, Umber etc) - Heavy Scottish.
Starks, Boltons - Light Scottish Accent.
Baratheons, Tyrells and other such houses- (I should be shot for this) Yorkshire accent.
Lannisters + Targaryens - Royal Accent.
Dorne + Southern Families - Slightly Spanish accent.

I'm sorry, but I'm very British.

[Sandor's Lady]

Oh, yay! I like this thread.

Prepare for a long one! *cracks knuckles*

I actually don't hear accents for most of the POV characters - mainly 'cause they mostly end up sounding like me in my head (and I'm American and don't have much of an accent beyond just generic American).

The main exceptions to this are:
-Sam, who, mainly due to something Pyp says about his accent, has a genteel southern accent. The best way I can describe this for anyone not familiar with American Southern accents is Gone with the Wind, for those of you who've seen it. Picture Sam saying either "Frankly, mah dear, Ah don't give a damn" (which isn't something he'd say) or "As Gawd is mah witness, Ah'll never go hungry agin!" (which he might very well say). For some reason, Sam is the only one with this accent - the Tyrells don't have a southern accent.
-Asha and the Iron-born. They all have Irish accents in my head, though Theon's isn't that pronounced.
-Davos has a cockney accent. Davos and Melisandre talking to each other is interesting.

Dany doesn't have an accent so much as she just pronounces things differently - names, mainly. She pronounces Targ names, Valyrian, and Dothraki words like someone who's really concentrating in a foriegn language class. She rolls r's and enunciates t's and d's differently. For example, she would pronounce "Khal Drogo" with the "kh" as a guttural "h" (as in the German "ch" or Russian "kh,") the "d" and the "r" remain separate rather than blending, and the "r" would be slightly rolled. She would say "khal drrogo" where Jorah would pronounce it "kal jrogo." Likewise, she pronounces Rhaegar and Rhaego as "hray-gar" and "hray-go" where other westerosi, in my mind, say "ray-gar." Also, she makes "valar morghulis" sound elegant while Arya makes it sound like something sticky - Dany: va-LAR morg-HOO-leess. Arya: va-LAR mor-GOO-liss. (I hadn't realised I'd put this much thought into it until I went to write it out... :stunned: )

Arya sounds consistantly annoyed in my head.

Non-POVs:
-I try to think of most of the nobility with British accents, but they don't always stay that way.
-Peasants have a rural Southern/Appalaichan accent, while city-dwellers have a Cockney accent.
-both Oberyn and Syrio sound like Antonio Banderas :D While I think of the Dornish as kinda a cross between Greek and Spanish, every time try and think of anyone from Dorne other than Oberyn with an accent, it ends up sounding like the Dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Doran yelling "Put some Windex on it!" just doesn't work, so I've kinda given up on the Dornish accent.
-Melisandre has an exotic, sexy purr that sounds like something between a Spanish accent and an Eastern European one. She sounds like she'll suck your blood and then set you on fire. Her t's and d's are very light and sound very similar. Rs and Ls are soft, rolled, and drawn out. S's are ever so slightly lispy (but nowhere near like what Vargo sounds like - Mel makes it sexy; Vargo makes it silly). She pronounces Davos as "Dtha-voths" and Stannis as "Thstah-neeths." This is gonna sound very strange, and may only make sense to someone with a lot of vocal training, but Melisandre is all lips and chest - her voice is deep and resonates from her chest, but is also breathy and vibrates accross her lips.
-Roose sounds like Jeremy Irons whispering. Gives you shivers of both the good and bad variety :leer:
-Aemon sounds like a very tired Ian McKellan.
-Viserys sounds like Draco Malfoy (well, as done by Jim Dale...)
-Ygritte has a slight Canadian/Minnesotan accent. really it's mainly a difference in how the "o"s are pronounced...
-Lysa's voice is nasal and annoying. Sweetrobin always sounds stuffy - his m's become b's and his n's become d's.
-Varys sounds like Nathan Lane. When he's playing it up for the Small Council, he sounds like Nathan Lane as Albert in The Birdcage - girly and with a slight edge toward hysterics. But when you catch him not in that front that he puts up (like with Ned in the black cells, or when he's being more honest with Tyrion) its more like Nathan Lane's normal voice - slightly deeper, and not girly.
-The Summer Islanders have ended up with Haitian-sounding accents (except for Alayaya, who doesn't really have an accent in my head).
-The Braavosi kinda go back and forth between Spanish and Italian in my mind, as do most of the other Free City dwellers - except for Saladhor, who sounds more French to me (and Sal talking to Davos also becomes interesting).
-Septa Mordane sounds like Maggie Smith's Professor McGonnogal.


That's all that I can think of now - there are probably some that have escaped me. I honestly didn't sit down and plan these out - they've just sort of evolved this way over time.

[Sandor's Lady]

[quote name='Knight Of The North' post='1736290' date='Mar 27 2009, 18.13']Baratheons, Tyrells and other such houses- (I should be shot for this) Yorkshire accent.[/quote]

:cheers: Awesome! Now Margaery is Martha Sowerby from The Secret Garden! I could hug you.

[The Boar of Gore]

[quote name='the Blauer Dragon' post='1734387' date='Mar 26 2009, 12.31']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.[/quote]

Lol, which ones sound Mexican?

[The Boar of Gore]

[quote name='Rinso' post='1734182' date='Mar 26 2009, 11.09']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]

Ahh, you just think it's neutral because you're American! :tantrum:

[Rinso]

I'm not. I'm not even a native English speaker.

[The_BlauerDragon]

[quote name='Beowulf777' post='1736722' date='Mar 28 2009, 04.33']Lol, which ones sound Mexican?[/quote]
Some of the Dothraki, a few of the people in Dorne, the summer islanders to a large extent and a certain faceless man that befriends a girl.

Also, all of the Lannisters and their bannermen sound sort of South African to me...

[Silverstar]

[quote name='Rinso' post='1734736' date='Mar 26 2009, 21.32']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]

I'd say that's really based on your own natural accent. For example, to me, growing up with a middle-class English accent, the generic 'British' accent is simplified and neutral, and I don't see it as an accent, whereas any American accent at all sounds recognisable and distinctive.

[Silverstar]

[quote name='Horza' post='1735107' date='Mar 27 2009, 02.42']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.[/quote]

Robert [i]is[/i] Brian Blessed. I swear.

[The Boar of Gore]

[quote name='Rinso' post='1736792' date='Mar 28 2009, 08.54']I'm not. I'm not even a native English speaker.[/quote]

I never would have known. Nevertheless I suggest your perception of the mainstream American accent as 'neutral' remains merely that - a perception.

[BrightSider]

[quote name='the Blauer Dragon' post='1734800' date='Mar 26 2009, 18.26']started sounding like members of Monty Python.[/quote]

I may or may not be guilty of using:
Eric Idle's voice for the peasants and for the ghost of High Heart
John Cleese's for all septons/maesters
and Michael Palin's for all general loonies (including Sam when he's freaking out, anyone who's arguing, and Littlefinger during his weird moments.)


I'm odd...

[Rinso]

[quote name='Beowulf777' post='1736975' date='Mar 28 2009, 14.42']I never would have known. Nevertheless I suggest your perception of the mainstream American accent as 'neutral' remains merely that - a perception.[/quote]
Maybe. But it's just that the sound of the British accents is too... tightly connected with Britain in my mind. While I can tie the mainstream American accent with almost anything that is fictional and written in English. But yeah, maybe it's just a matter of perception.

[Branfangd]

The North = British be it galic/celtic welsh Brandons Gift umbers, Scagos Irish, East North lands scotish, Winterfall Southern saxon/norman english

Westerlands = French

Riverlands = English

Ironborn = Danish swedish or norwegian

Dornish = Arabian

Highgarden = English

[Ser Lucan]

Some of them I imagine British, most of them American. The Hound in particular I imagine as a raspy, rough, no-nonsense American accent.

Barristan had a British accent in my mind. Gregor had a guttural American accent. Jaime I imagined with a cocky American accent.

[Joanna vander Poele]

[quote name='Rinso' post='1737194' date='Mar 28 2009, 15.25']Maybe. But it's just that the sound of the British accents is too... tightly connected with Britain in my mind. While I can tie the mainstream American accent with almost anything that is fictional and written in English. But yeah, maybe it's just a matter of perception.[/quote]
For me it is the opposite. I cannot imagine an American accent in Westeros without laughing my head off. It does not easily lead itself to... gravitas and élan the way that posh Brit voice does, I suppose ;)

But then I am biased. Hail the Queen and all that, please come back to Canada wah wah :D

[Ser Lucan]

I think it's the effect of all the American movies on me, but whenever I hear a British accent, I imagine someone trying to sell me something on an infomercial, or a crusty old white guy in a powdered wig

[Mandurang]

[quote name='Devil Hanzo' post='1735380' date='Mar 27 2009, 02.38']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.[/quote]
"Winter is Coming, eh?"

Lol. Moderately on topic, I see a lot of talk about what sort of accent is neutral. Has anyone heard of Mid-Atlantic? Just watch Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane", or Cary Grant. I think the main distinguishing feature is if it's rhotic or not - if the r's are pronounced or not - which makes one think of an accent as British or American.

That said, I agree that "light" British English, or at least American English with a few British affectations (like Mid-Atlantic), would be what I perceive as the norm for the noble-born characters. Perhaps the most forceful speeches would have a tinge of John Gielgud in them, or some Alec Guinness - and they did speak English that was distinctly purer in its enunciation than everyday British English (like that of the children in the Harry Potter movies). I'm sorry if my examples leave something to be desired - just trying to put forth a few well-known examples for the non-native speakers.

Oh, and what is up with people perceiving the Dornish as having a Spanish accent, of all things? The "Dornish drawl" sounds much in my head like an Australian or slight Southern accent.

[kadvael]

I think the answer for this question might depend on where you live. Americans would see Canadians as wildlings and Mexican as Dornish :D while for British, Scots are wildlings and Spain could be Dorne.