Accents

[nya across the narrow sea]

I think they should all speak some variant of British English. No American accents PLEASE (this coming from an American.) The way GRRM writes the dialogue (at least for the Westerosi), they all use medieval-speak (ie "craven" for coward, "jape" for joke). There are no medieval Americans (now, there are pre-Colombian American Indians, but that's another matter). Only medieval Europeans. In my opinion it would sound fairly unnatural to hear "Must you always jape?" spoken with an American twang. No thanks.

It'd be even cooler if they kept to the regional/class dialects of the Brits. GRRM even kind of writes it that way -- you notice that the smallfolk speak in a much coarser manner and use more slang, while the Noble houses should all speak in the Received Pronunciation manner, especially for the wealthier Houses like Tyrells, Lannisters and Baratheons. The northmen should speak with Northern English accents, and the wildlings' Common Tongue speech is obviously based off of Scottish English.

I wouldn't mind it if the Tyrells spoke with French accents or the Dornish spoke with Spanish accents, either.

[Morrigan]

Good post, nya, said exactly what I wanted to say but better. :)

[The Man Who]

[quote name='nya across the narrow sea' post='1588616' date='Nov 14 2008, 08.05']I think they should all speak some variant of British English. No American accents PLEASE (this coming from an American.) The way GRRM writes the dialogue (at least for the Westerosi), they all use medieval-speak (ie "craven" for coward, "jape" for joke). There are no medieval Americans (now, there are pre-Colombian American Indians, but that's another matter). Only medieval Europeans. In my opinion it would sound fairly unnatural to hear "Must you always jape?" spoken with an American twang. No thanks.

It'd be even cooler if they kept to the regional/class dialects of the Brits. GRRM even kind of writes it that way -- you notice that the smallfolk speak in a much coarser manner and use more slang, while the Noble houses should all speak in the Received Pronunciation manner, especially for the wealthier Houses like Tyrells, Lannisters and Baratheons. The northmen should speak with Northern English accents, and the wildlings' Common Tongue speech is obviously based off of Scottish English.

I wouldn't mind it if the Tyrells spoke with French accents or the Dornish spoke with Spanish accents, either.[/quote]

I broadly agree with you, but I think that any accent will have to be softened in order to be used. I can think of several English accents which make the speaker incomprehensible, especially to foreign people (Geordie and Scouse).

Also I can't imagine any sort of American accent, even a supposedly accent-free one being used. It makes no sense on a logical level, but to me it would be anachronistic.

[Horza]

I'd recommend British accents over American - provided the actors are capable of pulling them off - US accents are going to sound anachronistic (cf. Gladiator - why would Roman soldiers have mock-cockney accents and Senators speak RP? They wouldn't, but it works thanks to centuries of Brits leading the historical drama world) though you could make a region like the Westlands have blandish Yank accents.

On the Aussie Actor Accent Mastery Mystery - the standard Australian accent (the one that 80% of us speak, not Irwinspeak) is very flat and even, so taking on another accent is just a matter of twiddling the pitch knobs and learning to roll r's.

[Naknakkus]

[quote name='The Man Who' post='1588827' date='Nov 14 2008, 12.42']I broadly agree with you, but I think that any accent will have to be softened in order to be used. I can think of several English accents which make the speaker incomprehensible, especially to foreign people (Geordie and Scouse).[/quote]

I'd very much like it if some of the Wildlings speak in such gutteral Glaswegian that subtitles are required.

I imagine Dolorous Ed as a morose Scouse, and Pyp as an excitable Geordie.

[Wargonaut]

[quote name='RobbJKJ' post='1588613' date='Nov 14 2008, 01.03']As an English teacher in a foreign country, Midwest American IS considered accentless English (for the person who suggested Ohioans, nicely done, we would have also accepted rural Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and parts of Nebraska and Kentucky). That's the reason that a lot of news reporters in cities around the US are Midwesterners.[/quote]

So, midwestern is considered accentless English as far as American English accents go, or as far as worldwide English accents go? So if Aussies, Brits, Southerners, etc., etc., withdrew their accents, it would come back to midwestern American? Interesting.

[quote name='Mister Manticore' post='1588641' date='Nov 14 2008, 01.29']The problem with this is that the American accent is the one more like the way English was spoken in medieval times. British pronunciation has actually changed more.[/quote]

Really? I mean, how do you know? I'm not trying to be a smart ass. I'm just curious.

[Robb19]

[quote name='Wargonaut' post='1588986' date='Nov 14 2008, 09.32']So, midwestern is considered accentless English as far as American English accents go, or as far as worldwide English accents go? So if Aussies, Brits, Southerners, etc., etc., withdrew their accents, it would come back to midwestern American? Interesting.[/quote]

World-wide English. When explaining pronunciation rules there are fewer times when a Midwesterner will have to say "that's just the way we say it."

Again, as an ESL teacher, I don't agree that specific regional pronunciation should be taught. Midwestern is just easier to teach and for the students to learn.

[Morrigan]

Likewise, Québécois French sounds closer to the kind of French that was spoken in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance than the current French accent.

[The Blackfish]

I always imagined everyone with an American accent, although I tend to read the words, and not exactly hear them in my head (as if it was a film).

There should be some diversity of accents however, in the series. Westeros is not 14th century England. Everyone should not have British English accents. Mix it up a bit.

[Black Wizard]

[quote name='Falstaff' post='1587452' date='Nov 13 2008, 04.52']I was just thinking about this, what accents would the actors have to use to play the parts. I've read that some people think that British accents would be fitting but I personally think that British accents would ruin it for me.[/quote]
British accents is a very, very broad term. We don't want any Scousers, Geordies or Cockneys, but the Wildlings are so blatantly similar to the Roman perception of the Scots that there'd just have to be some Scottish accents there. A lot of the Northmen would fit the whole Northern England sterotype of not being able to say t' word t'.

[Maltaran]

[quote name='nya across the narrow sea' post='1588616' date='Nov 14 2008, 06.05']It'd be even cooler if they kept to the regional/class dialects of the Brits. GRRM even kind of writes it that way -- you notice that the smallfolk speak in a much coarser manner and use more slang, while the Noble houses should all speak in the Received Pronunciation manner, especially for the wealthier Houses like Tyrells, Lannisters and Baratheons. The northmen should speak with Northern English accents, and the wildlings' Common Tongue speech is obviously based off of Scottish English.

I wouldn't mind it if the Tyrells spoke with French accents or the Dornish spoke with Spanish accents, either.[/quote]

Rome did the class distinction accents quite well - Caesar and the other patricians were obviously upper class, while Pullo was very very common.

[nya across the narrow sea]

[quote name='The Blackfish' post='1589163' date='Nov 14 2008, 09.23']There should be some diversity of accents however, in the series. Westeros is not 14th century England. Everyone should not have British English accents. Mix it up a bit.[/quote]

Oh but British accents [i][/i]are[i][/i] diverse. I can think of as many as 8 different British English accents off the top of my head, and that's only taking into account regional and not class differences. And that's not to say they're subtle differences either. I tend to think that yes, there are different dialects in American English but we don't sound [i][/i]that[i][/i] different. There are a few things here and there, but for the most part we order our words the same way and share a large part of the slang, ie it wouldn't be strange to hear someone from Boston use "dude" nearly as much as someone from Southern California. The dialects in British English are VERY different from each other, in that the sentence structure varies depending on dialect, and also slang usage varies (ie there are some slang words used only in the North, some only in the South.) So if they keep to this regional/class distinction, which I think GRRM does to some extent in the books anyway, then there should be alot of diversity, regardless. I don't think (well, i hope not) that everyone will run around speaking the Queen's English from peasant to lord to wildling.

[naz]

[quote name='Maltaran' post='1589299' date='Nov 14 2008, 14.02']Rome did the class distinction accents quite well - Caesar and the other patricians were obviously upper class, while Pullo was very very common.[/quote]

I agree. [i]Rome [/i]did an excellent job. The decided that all Romans were to have British accents (surely wouldn't be the first time) and worked from within that construct. I'm not sure how easy it would be to do the same with ASOIAF, but you could do worse than base your Accent Strategy (tm) on what [i]Rome[/i] did.

[The Blackfish]

[quote name='nya across the narrow sea' post='1589354' date='Nov 14 2008, 14.26']Oh but British accents [i][/i]are[i][/i] diverse. I can think of as many as 8 different British English accents off the top of my head, and that's only taking into account regional and not class differences. And that's not to say they're subtle differences either. I tend to think that yes, there are different dialects in American English but we don't sound [i][/i]that[i][/i] different. There are a few things here and there, but for the most part we order our words the same way and share a large part of the slang, ie it wouldn't be strange to hear someone from Boston use "dude" nearly as much as someone from Southern California. The dialects in British English are VERY different from each other, in that the sentence structure varies depending on dialect, and also slang usage varies (ie there are some slang words used only in the North, some only in the South.) So if they keep to this regional/class distinction, which I think GRRM does to some extent in the books anyway, then there should be alot of diversity, regardless. I don't think (well, i hope not) that everyone will run around speaking the Queen's English from peasant to lord to wildling.[/quote]

Oh, I definitely agree with you. There is just a tendency in dramatic, period pieces to fall back on upper class Queen's English, regardless of location. My definition of British English was far too broad. If there is a wide sampling of English dialect and speech patterns, I will be very happy. If not, I understand why. Many actors for which this sort of undertaking would appeal to may come out of traditional theater backgrounds.

Simply put, to hell with the accents. I'm just excited we might see this happen, and the showrunners are actively taking an interest. Huzzah!

[Kwasimitsu]

"It's just a shame, I mean who decided that ancient Romans and made-up worlds spoke British English? Seems unfair to me and I'll just have to work on my accent all the harder when they finally call me and ask me to play Jon."

Well said RobbJkJ. Im actually really tired of British English being used as the default accent for any movie concerning European based stories. Its pretty clear Martin based the world of ASOIAF on medievil times in Europe, but I dont see how that means everyone has to sound like they are from Leeds. As others have stated, i'm not terribly vexed over accents, as long as they are consistent.

[The Blackfish]

One thing that has always bothered me is seeing Germans in film speaking English with a German accent to fellow Germans. Same with Japanese, or Italian, Spanish, Russian etc. Making it a neutral accent, unaccented English, makes it seem a bit more natural. I just imagine they are speaking their native tongue, and I can understand it.

The upcoming film, Valkyrie, apparently does this. It makes a film seem a bit more immersive, in my opinion.

[Kwasimitsu]

:agree: Well said. it drove me crazy in the movie 'Enemy At The Gates', that almost all the Russians spoke with English Accents!

[Robb19]

[quote name='Kwasimitsu' post='1589452' date='Nov 14 2008, 15.54']:agree: Well said. it drove me crazy in the movie 'Enemy At The Gates', that almost all the Russians spoke with English Accents![/quote]

I was just going to mention Enemy at the Gates. I spent most of that movie trying to figure out what they were doing with Ed Harris's accent. Were the Russians supposed to be British and Ed Harris (the German) supposed to be American pretending to be British? It was absolutely insane and completely took me out of the movie even more than the ridiculous sex scene.

[The Wolf Maid]

[quote name='Lady Blackfish' post='1587505' date='Nov 13 2008, 14.11']For the North I usually think northern English or Scottish accents. The Reach tends slightly toward French accents in my head, and for the Dornish I'd take anything vaguely Mediterranean. The rest of Westeros is some kind of English accent, and the eastern continent and free cities are my best recollection of whatever influences Martin drew from there. But I really don't care about the particulars as much as what LoB said, regional consistency. That would be keen.[/quote]
I remember GRRM once saying that the Reach was supposed to be based of sort on France or something like that, so I wouldn't be surprised if the Reach had a French accent.

(I truly think it would be odd if anyone had an American accent in ASoIaF. Thanks to various fantasy films and the fact that well, this is pretty much set in a medieval European world of sorts, I expect English accents. Even when I read the book, this is the accent that I hear.)

[Mister Manticore]

Get over your false expectations and preconceptions!

It'll spare those of us who have had to live through the dreaded bad accents from hell!

Won't somebody think of us!!