Do we have Peter Dinklage?

[Ser Monte]

[quote name='Aoede' post='1736330' date='Mar 27 2009, 18.53']That depends on which dictionary you're using, Kingthlayer. There is no standard English pronunciation; we don't have an Academy.[/quote]

What he meant is that most Canadians speak the language with the least bit of regional slang (no we don't say eh and aboot, in fact I've met more Americans that say eh without realizing it).

We are taught to pronounce the words properly in the Queen's English. Also Canadians can mimic accents better (See Scotty in Star Trek? Canadian OR how we can pass for French, American, English and even some German if we know that language) because like he said, there is only a few pockets of Canada that speaks with a regional accent.

Back on the original topic, whats the big deal with Dinklage? Its not like he is the only little person who can act in the world and he looks NOTHING like how Tyrion is described.

[ohmahgaw]

[quote name='Ser Monte' post='1736422' date='Mar 27 2009, 21.03']What he meant is that most Canadians speak the language with the least bit of regional slang (no we don't say eh and aboot, in fact I've met more Americans that say eh without realizing it).

We are taught to pronounce the words properly in the Queen's English. Also Canadians can mimic accents better (See Scotty in Star Trek? Canadian OR how we can pass for French, American, English and even some German if we know that language) because like he said, there is only a few pockets of Canada that speaks with a regional accent.

Back on the original topic, whats the big deal with Dinklage? Its not like he is the only little person who can act in the world and he looks NOTHING like how Tyrion is described.[/quote]

sorry i had to butt in to this, but everyone has an accent
saying canadians dont have accents is like saying there is not an accent for english speakers
i think you will find that the 'neutral american' accent (the one in which it is impossible for you to gage what state they are from) is EXACTLY like most canadian accents
and since i have lived with canadians who CLAIM its impossible to tell where they are from, i will tell you mostly they dont know what they are talking about(aboot)
they say a lot of words differently, like sorry is sorey and many others. to them, they dont think they have an accent
anyway, i find that for the most part, its pretty difficult to separate the standard american accent from the standard canadian accent

[quigon87]

Too be honest, I would be absolutely floored if the cast didnt use tradfitional english accents, Roy Dotrice has surely set the bar here... besides that, it completely fits the mood and setting of the books, thats just me though...

[Ser Monte]

[quote name='ohmahgaw' post='1736477' date='Mar 27 2009, 22.01']anyway, i find that for the most part, its pretty difficult to separate the standard american accent from the standard canadian accent[/quote]

This is exactly what I was getting at. And for the record I know 0 people who say "aboot" or "sorey". I lived in 2 states growing up and no one could tell I was Canadian. I didn't say we didn't have accents, I said that we speak proper english (pronounce words more correctly than Yanks with less slang).

[ohmahgaw]

[quote name='Ser Monte' post='1736804' date='Mar 28 2009, 10.10']This is exactly what I was getting at. And for the record I know 0 people who say "aboot" or "sorey". I lived in 2 states growing up and no one could tell I was Canadian. I didn't say we didn't have accents, I said that we speak proper english (pronounce words more correctly than Yanks with less slang).[/quote]

well to be fair, the reason why americans have so many different kinds of acents and slang words is because of its diversity, something canada lacks. besides there are over 300,000,000 people in america, who come from diverse backrounds like mexico, somalia, china, japan, guatemala, russia, germany etc. who all say things differently. the neutral american accent however is one that can be found all across the country. this is the accent that is shared with many canadians. i lived in maine for almost half my life, so i do know a lot of canadians, and i would honestly say that many of them did sound different.
i know that non-americans call americans 'yanks' but i find it funny considering that the word actually only refers to people from the northeast united states. call a southerner a yank and you will know what i mean ;)
but, alas i am a true yank
basically, the 'canadian' way of speaking isnt the "correct" or "proper" way infact it shares 0 difference with that of standard american. if we want get technical, the closest dialect to original english would be something more like scotish, just sayin

[Aoede]

Have you not gotten my point yet? There is no "proper" English. There is no "standard" English. There are standard[b]s[/b] of English, but there is no one proper English.

[Kingthlayer!]

[quote]Request for obligatory Candian joke granted:

"So, Winter is coming, eh."[/quote]

hahahahaaaahh. I laughed at that one.


[quote]That depends on which dictionary you're using, Kingthlayer. There is no standard English pronunciation; we don't have an Academy.[/quote]

In most dictionaries, isn't the pronunciation guide the same, though?
Close to that is what I meant.
I'm not firmly conclusive on this, it's just what I've heard. Or read.

[ohmahgaw]

[quote name='Aoede' post='1737200' date='Mar 28 2009, 19.30']Have you not gotten my point yet? There is no "proper" English. There is no "standard" English. There are standard[b]s[/b] of English, but there is no one proper English.[/quote]
yes i understand this
i dont think there is any RIGHT way to say anything really, i was just responding to that person saying that canadian english is somehow more correct, which i do not believe, nor do i believe that american accent is more correct or closer to the original english, which sounded nothing like modern english dialect

[Brude]

Accents are largely a matter of perception and it changes depending on where you are from or the part of society you grew up in.

To most Americans, even those with wildly different regional accents, the most "accentless" accent is from the Mid-West, specifically from certain regions of Iowa and Nebraska. This is why many U.S. broadcasters were traditionally from this region, or very close by - Walter Cronkite, Johnny Carson, Tom Brokaw - back when that mattered more. Now days people are more forgiving of regional accents in their media so this isn't a big concern anymore.

For the British, accents are partially regional but also just as much about the social strata one comes from. There really isn't "accentless British" as I understand it, your accent is part of what defines you in British society. At some point it was decided by the BBC to train all of their broadcasters to speak in "received pronunciation," which is often called "BBC English." Received pronunciation is considered one of the most, if not the most refined of British accents - some call it the "Queen's/King's English."

Mid-Atlantic English is the closest thing to an "accentless" form of English as exists between the various North American English and British English accents. It was more common in the past, being used on stage and screen, especially by American actors but has fallen out of favor. It's also the natural accent that Americans tend to adopt when living in the U.K. for long enough, or when Brits live in the U.S. for a long time. It was also generally the upper class accent in the North East until probably the middle 20th Century. Even still, you hear it a lot among this particular strata. Just think about how Kelsey Grammer speaks or how FDR spoke and then you'll get what Middle-Atlantic is.

[quote name='Ser Monte' post='1736804' date='Mar 28 2009, 10.10']This is exactly what I was getting at. And for the record I know 0 people who say "aboot" or "sorey". I lived in 2 states growing up and no one could tell I was Canadian. I didn't say we didn't have accents, I said that we speak proper english (pronounce words more correctly than Yanks with less slang).[/quote]
I've known many Canadians, I have Canadian family and while it largely sounds accentless to me much of the time, after speaking long enough to any Canadian it's usually pretty easy to tell where they are from as soon as one those little Canadianisms slips out. And yes, most Canadians I've known will say "aboot."

While growing up, my fairly light Baltimore accent sounded accentless to me, as did the slightly stronger accent of my father. Yet when I got to college in New York, my friends had trouble understanding what I was saying sometimes. I've lived away from Baltimore for about 13 years now (not including the better part of 4 years in college) and have mostly lost my accent. Now Baltimore speakers (my own father included) sound to me like they have a pretty strong accent. So, what sounds accentless to you might not sound accentless or "proper" to anyone else.

"Proper English" is a phrase that makes sense when talking about grammar but not accents. Accents occur for various reasons: mostly they are regional but they can also occur due to class, upbringing, influence on other speakers around you over a period of time, etc. One accent isn't necessarily more proper than another, especially in the modern concept of such things. Grammatically, some people or groups might be more inclined to speak better (loaded term, I know), but that has more to do with either education or with other, underlying stronger influences on the language like whether or not they are speaking in a different dialect instead of using just a different accent

[silentsister]

Back on thread, I think Dinklage is a great choice for Tyrion and I would love to see him in the role. There is just one problem (which I assume can be solved with make-up): he seems much better looking than Tyrion.

[silentsister]

Back on thread, I think Dinklage is a great choice for Tyrion and I would love to see him in the role. There is just one problem (which I assume can be solved with make-up): he seems much better looking than Tyrion.

[Kingthlayer!]

Good, idea, back on topic. My argument didn't produce a whole lot of fruit anyway.

-

I'm sure they could uglify him up sufficiently; they do stuff like that all the time now. Two-face from The Dark Knight is an example.

[Brude]

I saw him in Richard III, the whole point of Richard III (well, part of it) is that in the play he's a hunch-back and people see him as hideously ugly. Having that role played by a dwarf worked equally well. Remember, in the world of ASOIAF anyone who is unfortunate enough to be born a dwarf is considered ugly. Before the battle of Blackwater, his most notable unusual feature is probably his two colored eyes but his other features always seemed to me to be features that are common among most people born with the common type of dwarfism.

All that being said, if they want to "uglify" even more, it's not hard to do that sort of thing with make-up. It's done all the time.

[fitheach]

[quote name='Ser Monte' post='1736422' date='Mar 27 2009, 21.03']What he meant is that most Canadians speak the language with the least bit of regional slang (no we don't say eh and aboot, in fact I've met more Americans that say eh without realizing it).

We are taught to pronounce the words properly in the Queen's English. Also Canadians can mimic accents better (See Scotty in Star Trek? Canadian OR how we can pass for French, American, English and even some German if we know that language) because like he said, there is only a few pockets of Canada that speaks with a regional accent.

Back on the original topic, whats the big deal with Dinklage? Its not like he is the only little person who can act in the world and he looks NOTHING like how Tyrion is described.[/quote]


I lived in Quebec for 5 years and I noticed ALOT of Eh's and long O's (as in aboot) from the Anglophone population. My husband is from there and doesn't have as strong an accent (probably from living in NYC for a while), but his sister and other family members do.
Also- the accents in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are very strong and to me somewhat distinct. New Brunswick sounds very maritime to me- similar to New England, but still different with certain sounds in words.
One of my closest friends is from Ontario and says aboot all the time! He has what seems to be a typical Canadian accent.
The only non-accented Canadian I've heard were from newscasters, same as here in the States.
So would I say that accents from Canada and the States sound the same?
Yes and No.
If you live by the border the accents are interchangeable- but the further south you go-and really only by a few hundred miles, you start getting accents in the States that you won't ever have in Canada.

But Canadians are very good a mimicing accents, this is true.
But so are the Australians and British.

Also, Pinter Dinklage is the top contender because he is the best actor for this role. Period. They can dye his hair blond and change a bit of his image with makeup.
But it's the quality of acting that needs to be right- more than the look.

[Mme Erzulie]

[quote name='Kingthlayer!' post='1739326' date='Mar 31 2009, 02.49']I'm sure they could uglify him up sufficiently; they do stuff like that all the time now. Two-face from The Dark Knight is an example.[/quote]

An example of how to misuse technology. Two-face looked absolutely ridiculous, and completely ruined any suspension of disbelief. Looked more like Achmed the dead terrorist than anything else.

[McCloskey]

[quote name='Kingthlayer!' post='1739326' date='Mar 30 2009, 20.49']-
I'm sure they could uglify him up sufficiently; they do stuff like that all the time now. Two-face from The Dark Knight is an example.[/quote]


I dont think they'd need to ugly him up too much. Give him mis-matched eyes, a scraggly beard and course hair and I think that would do it. I always thought that Tyrion's ugliness was 50% genetic and 50% perception. Westeros isnt a non-tolerant, superficial society where any birth defect is highly noticed and abhorred. I think to our standards Tyrion wouldn't be considered attractive but we would also not think of him as an "imp". So I really don't think they will need to do much to hammer home the point that Tyrion is not beautiful.

[Kingthlayer!]

[quote]An example of how to misuse technology. Two-face looked absolutely ridiculous, and completely ruined any suspension of disbelief. Looked more like Achmed the dead terrorist than anything else.[/quote]

I suppose. But it goes to show it won't be hard to change his face completely, even if it's not neccesary.

[pablonohablo]

[quote name='Erzulie the Unruly' post='1744579' date='Apr 4 2009, 22.06']An example of how to misuse technology. Two-face looked absolutely ridiculous, and completely ruined any suspension of disbelief. Looked more like Achmed the dead terrorist than anything else.[/quote]

So wait. An insane criminal mastermind with near-clairvoyant planning powers running a group of thugs with absolute loyalty to a leader they know makes a habit of killing his own men is no problem when it comes to suspending disbelief, but Two Face's face is? That doesn't make sense to me, but I suppose there's no accounting for taste.

That said, I don't think they'd have to use CGI to uglify Tyrion. Regular makeup and contact lenses could do that job just as well. As Peter Jackson proved in Lord of the Rings, low-tech is best whenever possible (false perspective, putting hobbit actors in pits to make them looks smaller, etc.).

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Not bothered about the accents. But British actors are better than americans in general, so ill go with them.