British accents

[Arcydas]

The only strange thing is inconsistencies e.g. Sansa and Bran speaking with southern accents, Stannis and Robert with northern ones.

Well, i believe that it's harder for these young actors to speak with an accent they didn't grow up with.

Do you really think Stannis has a northern accent? To me it sounded similar to what we hear from Renly/Brienne which i wouldn't classify as northern english accents.

Davos' Irish accent is the most entertaining one in my opinion. Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish) seems to be changing something about his accent slighty. And this happens from season to season, sometimes from episode to episode. (keep in mind he's Irish)

[Alester Florent]

Well, i believe that it's harder for these young actors to speak with an accent they didn't grow up with.

Do you really think Stannis has a northern accent? To me it sounded similar to what we hear from Renly/Brienne which i wouldn't classify as northern english accents.

Davos' Irish accent is the most entertaining one in my opinion. Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish) seems to be changing something about his accent slighty. And this happens from season to season, sometimes from episode to episode. (keep in mind he's Irish)

Davos sounds more like a Geordie to me. Liam Cunningham is Irish, but he's pretty good at changing his accent for a part.

I'd say Stannis's accent is (appropriately, given he lives on Dragonstone) closer to Estuary English than anything else; certainly not northern, unless you take a crazy definition of the North. Robert's accent is pretty northern, although Renly's is nothing like any of them. That one is a bit of a puzzler, but then they all grew up in different places, I suppose.

I think Aiden Gillen's ephemeral accent is partly down to problems with keeping it under control. Given that Ser Vardis sounded a bit Irish, and LF is also from the Vale via the Riverlands, I'm not sure why they didn't want him using his normal accent, especially since our most prominent Riverlander so far (Michelle Fairley) also has a slight Irishness. Maybe the weird not-quite-English accent he manages most of the time is partly intentional, showing his social climbing from his provincial background. But then I can't imagine LF changing his accent unless he did so perfectly.

With Sansa and Bran, they were probably the closest of the Stark children to their mother (Bran is her favourite, and Sansa takes her as a role model) while the rest of the children took more of their cues from Ned. So that might go some way to explain why Bran and Sansa have southern-ish accents while the other children have northern ones, although it is a bit of a stretch - reverse justification rather than preconceived intent, I think. To be honest, given that child actors are usually terrible, and the ones in GoT are actually pretty good, I'd rather not introduce the additional hurdle of trying to master a new accent, unless absolutely necessary. Richard Madden has done a good job, but he's a bit older.

[Arcydas]

I checked a scene from Season 2 and you were right about Renly. Sounds quite different from Stannis. Probably i had a wrong impression stuck to my mind because he's been... well, dead for some time.

This guy - i believe he's Canadian - does great impersonations of all of the characters' accents! You might want to check this out

[Dragonstoned]

Well, i believe that it's harder for these young actors to speak with an accent they didn't grow up with.

Do you really think Stannis has a northern accent? To me it sounded similar to what we hear from Renly/Brienne which i wouldn't classify as northern english accents.

Davos' Irish accent is the most entertaining one in my opinion. Aidan Gillen (Petyr Baelish) seems to be changing something about his accent slighty. And this happens from season to season, sometimes from episode to episode. (keep in mind he's Irish)

Mmmn I'm not expecting the young actors to act with a different accent. That said Maisie Williams is from the West Country and speaks with a northern accent. Agree with the guy below that Davos sounds Geordie. And Littlefinger is all over the place, some strange Anglo-Irish hybrid.

I'd say Stannis's accent is (appropriately, given he lives on Dragonstone) closer to Estuary English than anything else; certainly not northern, unless you take a crazy definition of the North. Robert's accent is pretty northern, although Renly's is nothing like any of them. That one is a bit of a puzzler, but then they all grew up in different places, I suppose.

With Sansa and Bran, they were probably the closest of the Stark children to their mother (Bran is her favourite, and Sansa takes her as a role model) while the rest of the children took more of their cues from Ned. So that might go some way to explain why Bran and Sansa have southern-ish accents while the other children have northern ones, although it is a bit of a stretch - reverse justification rather than preconceived intent, I think.

About Stannis, I think his accent is more northern than southern. He sounds like a southern guy trying to do a northern accent (which is what Stephen Dillane is). I'm thinking particularly of words like 'city' and 'Renly' where the 'y' is a very short sound, like the 'i' in 'in'. He pronounces his consonants at the end of words but softly (no glottal stop) which is a northern thing. I was trying to find clips of him saying words like 'ask' or 'castle' in but couldn't (it's when Maisie pronounces the 'a' in 'ask' like 'cat' that makes her sound northern), think those would clear it up.

Think you might be onto something with the Bran & Sansa accent explanation.

[Xasthur]

Hey, this is my first post here, and i am not a native English speaker so please don't judge me too hard :o

What most people forget is that the American Accent actually preserved more medieval/old fashioned elements than contemporary British English. In medieval times, English was considered too barbaric and dull for the aristocracy to speak, they spoke French, and when they finally switched to English the pronounciation was riddled with French and German elements. So, what Americans speak in Virgina or Maryland comes way closer to archaic English than British English.

It's a wrong assumtion that European English is automaticly more old-fashinioned only because it's from Europe.

[The BlackBear]

Hey, this is my first post here, and i am not a native English speaker so please don't judge me too hard :o

What most people forget is that the American Accent actually preserved more medieval/old fashioned elements than contemporary British English. In medieval times, English was considered too barbaric and dull for the aristocracy to speak, they spoke French, and when they finally switched to English the pronounciation was riddled with French and German elements. So, what Americans speak in Virgina or Maryland comes way closer to archaic English than British English.

It's a wrong assumtion that European English is automaticly more old-fashinioned only because it's from Europe.

English became the main language of England during the medieval period, America wasn't settled until much later. And whilst royalty would have spoken a variety of languages (victoria and Albert prefered to speak in German) the plebs wouldn't speak much like the aristocracy anyway.

America is a mixing pot of immigrants from all sorts of different backgrounds, the accent reflects that.

Both have deviated I'm sure, but It's hard to say one is more true than others.

[Xasthur]

English became the main language of England during the medieval period, America wasn't settled until much later. And whilst royalty would have spoken a variety of languages (victoria and Albert prefered to speak in German) the plebs wouldn't speak much like the aristocracy anyway.

America is a mixing pot of immigrants from all sorts of different backgrounds, the accent reflects that.

Both have deviated I'm sure, but It's hard to say one is more true than others.

Royality only spoke French until the English civil war (with some exceptions), Richard Lionheart didn't even know English.

But you are a bit wrong about the plebs: England was different from other European countries in which the class society was set in granit and where every nobleman (not matter how poor he was) had class conceit towards low-borns. Several factors in England though where leading towards a growing intermixture between the burgeoisie/middle class and noble families. This resulted in some form of "civil" aristocracy and and adaptation of noble language mannerisms by commoners.

You are right about America, thats why i was narrowing my statement to the East Coast/the origin of the 13 Colonies. But the original American dialect emanated from the language of English-speaking middle class commoners in Britain from the 17. century. And they preserved that accent, while modern British English was established arround the 19.century...

Real High Middle English though is a whole another thing and has pretty much nothing to do with both accents either.

[Penguin king]

Royality only spoke French until the English civil war (with some exceptions)

British monarchs were speaking english as their primary language long before that. Henry V promoted English as the official language of government in 1417, but even before then English had been gaining ground as the language of court.

[Woman of War]

I love this thread! As a non native speaker I have learned so much here, even from your disagreements.

And: Welcome Xasthur :)

[Neds Head]

Davos sounds more like a Geordie to me. Liam Cunningham is Irish, but he's pretty good at changing his accent for a part.

I'd say Stannis's accent is (appropriately, given he lives on Dragonstone) closer to Estuary English than anything else; certainly not northern, unless you take a crazy definition of the North. Robert's accent is pretty northern, although Renly's is nothing like any of them. That one is a bit of a puzzler, but then they all grew up in different places, I suppose.

I think Aiden Gillen's ephemeral accent is partly down to problems with keeping it under control. Given that Ser Vardis sounded a bit Irish, and LF is also from the Vale via the Riverlands, I'm not sure why they didn't want him using his normal accent, especially since our most prominent Riverlander so far (Michelle Fairley) also has a slight Irishness. Maybe the weird not-quite-English accent he manages most of the time is partly intentional, showing his social climbing from his provincial background. But then I can't imagine LF changing his accent unless he did so perfectly.

With Sansa and Bran, they were probably the closest of the Stark children to their mother (Bran is her favourite, and Sansa takes her as a role model) while the rest of the children took more of their cues from Ned. So that might go some way to explain why Bran and Sansa have southern-ish accents while the other children have northern ones, although it is a bit of a stretch - reverse justification rather than preconceived intent, I think. To be honest, given that child actors are usually terrible, and the ones in GoT are actually pretty good, I'd rather not introduce the additional hurdle of trying to master a new accent, unless absolutely necessary. Richard Madden has done a good job, but he's a bit older.

Bran and Sansa don't sound Irish at all. In fact, Sansa has a rather posh sounding English accent.

[Alester Florent]

Royality only spoke French until the English civil war (with some exceptions), Richard Lionheart didn't even know English.

You are right about America, thats why i was narrowing my statement to the East Coast/the origin of the 13 Colonies. But the original American dialect emanated from the language of English-speaking middle class commoners in Britain from the 17. century. And they preserved that accent, while modern British English was established arround the 19.century...

Real High Middle English though is a whole another thing and has pretty much nothing to do with both accents either.

French had died out as the court language long before the Civil War. Edward III was probably the first one to speak English fluently (although it's been suggested that John and the first two Edwards could speak it), the rest of the nobility probably spoke it rather better, and as the Penguin King points out, it had been the official language of government for over a hundred years before the US started to be settled. By the time of the Civil War, the previous two kings had been Scottish anyway - French was probably their third or fourth language.

England changed quite a lot over the Middle Ages - most of the early kings after the Conquest spent an awful lot of their time in France, where they had extensive possessions. Richard I spent almost all his time in his continental possessions, although if I remember rightly French wasn't even his first language (I think it was Gascon, which is closer to Occitan). After most of the continental possessions were lost in the reign of John, kings started to spend more of their time in England and the kingdom became more England-centric. As with everything Mediaeval, what's going on in 1150 is not necessarily a great indicator of what's going on in 1400.

The language exported to the US was the same (early) Modern English spoken in the rest of England; the language of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Sidney and Jonson. There are a lot of places in England where dialects are spoken that are at least equally as archaic as the East Coast American one, especially since Webster and co. actually made an effort to change the American dialect after 1783 to make it sound less British. The American dialect(s) isn't/aren't any more "authentic" than the British dialects; they're just different.

Bran and Sansa don't sound Irish at all. In fact, Sansa has a rather posh sounding English accent.

I didn't say they did... I said they sounded southern, which is also the accent Michelle Fairley seems to be going for (although her natural accent is Irish and it shows ever so slightly at times).

[polarbear]

English replaced French as the preferred language of the Royalty during the 100 years war between France and England. (for obvious reasons)

By 1415, Henry V had fully embraced English for the same reason American politicians like to speak in exaggerated local dialects and colloquialisms when giving political speeches. The English language was more earthy and macho. He was keeping it real.

[Castellan]

If it was all American accents I think I'd just accept it.

However, I think the northern English accents used for the characters Jon Snow, Robb Stark and King Robert sounded great. Sandor too although I remember it as a bit diluted - not sure. I also liked the way Robb Stark varied his according to setting which is something people do. Its a pity the Stark family ended up with different regional accents but they were using child actors who don't have the skills of the adult actors.

Westeros pretty clearly looks like England with a bit of Scandinavia squashed into the north and a bit of southern Europe tacked on the bottom and is full of references to English history (mostly English not Scottish or Welsh) so I think English accents were the best choice. That said, I find Tyrion and Jaime's southern English accents a bit wrong - they sound a bit lock stock and barrel from a voice coach and not quite right or as flexible as they should be. And the Lannisters too have different accents within the same family - although they all sound southern English. But I love their performances overall.

The accents of Sansa and Cersei I find particularly annoying and perceive it very much as a quite modern accent of a particular class and region - it might as well be American as far as I am concerned, doesn't contribute to the illusion of past time at all.

[HouseLark]

I've been meaning to write a long post on this since about the middle of season two but I don't think I'll ever get around to it. I'll declare my hand here: I'm from the north of England and have an interest in accents of English. Rather than my long-arse analysis I'll make a few quick(ish) points:

1. Dillane is using a South Yorkshire, bordering on Derbyshire accent for Stannis. It's not as broad as Robert's northern accent which was closer to Ned's.

2. Renly had a generic accent of no identifiable region, much like Joffrey. This makes some sort of sense as I believe they were both brought up around court rather than learning to be regional lords as Robert and Stannis were.

3. Every highborn women and girls speak with a similar accent (including Arya who definitely does not have a northern accent). You would probably expect this as elocution would be part of their training. Tyrion and Jaime can also be lumped into that category as that sort of pretence fits with the character of the Lannisters (though Tywin has a hint of a northern twang to his voice).

4. Bran should have an accent simialr to Robb, Jon and Theon but I guess it was quite a difficult thing to ask of a child actor.

5.. Liam Cunningham is affecting a Geordie accent and although it's good, it's also odd as no one else in Flea Bottom (or in fact, anywhere else in the TV show) has that accent.

6. I have no idea what's going on with Iwan Rheon's accent and no idea why Roose Bolton doesn't have a similar accent to the rest of Robb's bannermen.

7. The Wildlings seemed to have Lancashire accents until we met Tormund and Orell, but they can probably work around that by claiming North of the Wall is a big place.

8. The Blackfish and the Hound have the same accent, a sort of soft Scottish with clear pronunciation. His the House of Clegane based somewhere close to the Riverlands?

9. I completely pass on Littlefinger's. Aiden Gillen has invented his own accent there, kudos!

The accents aren't bad at all, they're just inconsistent. Why did the Cleftjaw have a similar accent to Theon (who grew up in Winterfell) but not to Black Lorren? How did Stannis and Robert, Stormland lords, end up with accents similar to the Starks' despite being separated by leagues and various other localities. I suppose it's not a problem, the inconsistencies are only noticeable if you have an interest in this sort of stuff but it would have been nice to retain the consistency for world-building purposes.

A more important point is that I think sometimes a few members of the cast are given an easy time for their performance because their stilted delivery is covered over by their accent. Stephen Fry made a point about this a while back when he said "I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our [cut glass English] accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there." Sean T. Collins has criticised Sibel Kekilli's delivery and nodded towards her accent as a possible cause but I'd say there's a few English actors who are getting an easy ride so far for flat performances that are not delivered in a so obviously foreign sounding accent as Shae's. I'm not having a go at the audience here but I have to admit that I would struggle to know if either Dominic West, Idris Elba, Damian Lewis or Hugh Laurie gave poor performances in the Wire, Homeland or House as I can't judge whether their accents were good or not. It's difficult to distinguish accents or attest to their accuracy if you haven't lived in that country for a good length of time.

[Neds Head]

I've been meaning to write a long post on this since about the middle of season two but I don't think I'll ever get around to it. I'll declare my hand here: I'm from the north of England and have an interest in accents of English. Rather than my long-arse analysis I'll make a few quick(ish) points:

1. Dillane is using a South Yorkshire, bordering on Derbyshire accent for Stannis. It's not as broad as Robert's northern accent which was closer to Ned's.

2. Renly had a generic accent of no identifiable region, much like Joffrey. This makes some sort of sense as I believe they were both brought up around court rather than learning to be regional lords as Robert and Stannis were.

3. Every highborn women and girls speak with a similar accent (including Arya who definitely does not have a northern accent). You would probably expect this as elocution would be part of their training. Tyrion and Jaime can also be lumped into that category as that sort of pretence fits with the character of the Lannisters (though Tywin has a hint of a northern twang to his voice).

4. Bran should have an accent simialr to Robb, Jon and Theon but I guess it was quite a difficult thing to ask of a child actor.

5.. Liam Cunningham is affecting a Geordie accent and although it's good, it's also odd as no one else in Flea Bottom (or in fact, anywhere else in the TV show) has that accent.

6. I have no idea what's going on with Iwan Rheon's accent and no idea why Roose Bolton doesn't have a similar accent to the rest of Robb's bannermen.

7. The Wildlings seemed to have Lancashire accents until we met Tormund and Orell, but they can probably work around that by claiming North of the Wall is a big place.

8. The Blackfish and the Hound have the same accent, a sort of soft Scottish with clear pronunciation. His the House of Clegane based somewhere close to the Riverlands?

9. I completely pass on Littlefinger's. Aiden Gillen has invented his own accent there, kudos!

The accents aren't bad at all, they're just inconsistent. Why did the Cleftjaw have a similar accent to Theon (who grew up in Winterfell) but not to Black Lorren? How did Stannis and Robert, Stormland lords, end up with accents similar to the Starks' despite being separated by leagues and various other localities. I suppose it's not a problem, the inconsistencies are only noticeable if you have an interest in this sort of stuff but it would have been nice to retain the consistency for world-building purposes.

A more important point is that I think sometimes a few members of the cast are given an easy time for their performance because their stilted delivery is covered over by their accent. Stephen Fry made a point about this a while back when he said "I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our [cut glass English] accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there." Sean T. Collins has criticised Sibel Kekilli's delivery and nodded towards her accent as a possible cause but I'd say there's a few English actors who are getting an easy ride so far for flat performances that are not delivered in a so obviously foreign sounding accent as Shae's. I'm not having a go at the audience here but I have to admit that I would struggle to know if either Dominic West, Idris Elba, Damian Lewis or Hugh Laurie gave poor performances in the Wire, Homeland or House as I can't judge whether their accents were good or not. It's difficult to distinguish accents or attest to their accuracy if you haven't lived in that country for a good length of time.

The actors who play Sandor and the Blackfish are both Scottish so they're maybe just able to fully hide their own accents haha.

[AdXRoss]

Although there is no real way to know how people spoke in the Middle Ages and in this sense modern British accents are no more accurate than American accents, I think there is a psychology of association at play, which would make North American sound out of place in a medieval setting.

NA accents are of course indicative of nationalities which only came into existence around the mid-18th century at the earliest (and it seems older American accents, from the early 20th century, were often closer to their European relatives, whether English, Irish, German or anything else) and because these nations clearly did not exist pre-1500, hearing them in that kind of setting is quite jarring. Also, the association of America is the association of modernity and therefore inherently anti-Medieval. I think this serves to underline making a strong NA in a Medieval setting sound wrong.

I don't think the accents have to be English to sound natural, other European accents would be fine (the French king Charles in the Borgias, for instance, is naturally played by a Frenchman and speaks with a French accent and this sounds absolutely fine) - but considering GoT has a largely British and Irish cast, asking them to speak with French or German accents would be a little strange (and could result in the show sounding like 'Allo 'Allo - which Britishers on the board will confirm, is not a good sound for a serious show).

[Dragonstoned]

1. Dillane is using a South Yorkshire, bordering on Derbyshire accent for Stannis. It's not as broad as Robert's northern accent which was closer to Ned's.

Cheers for the post, Lark (dirty northern bastard!) And for vindicating me about Stannis.

3. Every highborn women and girls speak with a similar accent (including Arya who definitely does not have a northern accent). You would probably expect this as elocution would be part of their training. Tyrion and Jaime can also be lumped into that category as that sort of pretence fits with the character of the Lannisters (though Tywin has a hint of a northern twang to his voice).

I will take your word for Arya not sounding northern, but how do you account for her pronouncing her 'a's like 'ah' instead of 'ar' e.g. 'passed' at 0:35 in this http://www.youtube.c...h?v=uDGqJRmrlQU . I promise she doesn't have a proper southeast accent either, so what is she do you think? Some sort of midlands / west country thing?

[CrypticWeirwood]

I've been meaning to write a long post on this since about the middle of season two but I don't think I'll ever get around to it. I'll declare my hand here: I'm from the north of England and have an interest in accents of English. Rather than my long-arse analysis I'll make a few quick(ish) points:

1. Dillane is using a South Yorkshire, bordering on Derbyshire accent for Stannis. It's not as broad as Robert's northern accent which was closer to Ned's.

2. Renly had a generic accent of no identifiable region, much like Joffrey. This makes some sort of sense as I believe they were both brought up around court rather than learning to be regional lords as Robert and Stannis were.

3. Every highborn women and girls speak with a similar accent (including Arya who definitely does not have a northern accent). You would probably expect this as elocution would be part of their training. Tyrion and Jaime can also be lumped into that category as that sort of pretence fits with the character of the Lannisters (though Tywin has a hint of a northern twang to his voice).

4. Bran should have an accent simialr to Robb, Jon and Theon but I guess it was quite a difficult thing to ask of a child actor.

5.. Liam Cunningham is affecting a Geordie accent and although it's good, it's also odd as no one else in Flea Bottom (or in fact, anywhere else in the TV show) has that accent.

6. I have no idea what's going on with Iwan Rheon's accent and no idea why Roose Bolton doesn't have a similar accent to the rest of Robb's bannermen.

7. The Wildlings seemed to have Lancashire accents until we met Tormund and Orell, but they can probably work around that by claiming North of the Wall is a big place.

8. The Blackfish and the Hound have the same accent, a sort of soft Scottish with clear pronunciation. His the House of Clegane based somewhere close to the Riverlands?

9. I completely pass on Littlefinger's. Aiden Gillen has invented his own accent there, kudos!

The accents aren't bad at all, they're just inconsistent. Why did the Cleftjaw have a similar accent to Theon (who grew up in Winterfell) but not to Black Lorren? How did Stannis and Robert, Stormland lords, end up with accents similar to the Starks' despite being separated by leagues and various other localities. I suppose it's not a problem, the inconsistencies are only noticeable if you have an interest in this sort of stuff but it would have been nice to retain the consistency for world-building purposes.

A more important point is that I think sometimes a few members of the cast are given an easy time for their performance because their stilted delivery is covered over by their accent. Stephen Fry made a point about this a while back when he said "I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our [cut glass English] accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there." Sean T. Collins has criticised Sibel Kekilli's delivery and nodded towards her accent as a possible cause but I'd say there's a few English actors who are getting an easy ride so far for flat performances that are not delivered in a so obviously foreign sounding accent as Shae's. I'm not having a go at the audience here but I have to admit that I would struggle to know if either Dominic West, Idris Elba, Damian Lewis or Hugh Laurie gave poor performances in the Wire, Homeland or House as I can't judge whether their accents were good or not. It's difficult to distinguish accents or attest to their accuracy if you haven't lived in that country for a good length of time.

Great posting. Last things first: I can assure you that Hugh Laurie’s accent in House was 100% spot on the money, even though he says that it was truly the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. Sure, there are words Hugh claims to have trouble with, but it really is a stunning job, about a billion percent more convincing at sounding American than poor Peter Dinklage’s is at sounding British. Sure Peter has gotten better, especially if you compare the third series with the first, but it still sounds studied at best, whereas Hugh really does sound natural.

I find Nicholaj’s accent really bothersome, mostly because you can hear his non-native-speakerness sneaking through. It is so far from the accent used by either of his on-show sibs that it lifts me out of the show. Also, when Nicholaj speaks English outside the show, he has more of an American accent than any of the UK actors do, and sometimes you notice this. I don’t mean to say he isn’t doing a great job — I love him as an actor. It’s just that his non-native accent sticks out too much.

Charles Dance’s accent is interesting. It sounds slightly more colorful than the stock RP I seem to hear coming from Lena Headly, Emila Clarke, and Natalie Dormer, who all sound like they were in school together to my tin ear. His bio says he was born in Redditch and schooled in Crownhill, but he is such an accomplished actor that I rather imagine that what we are hearing is exactly what he wants us to hear, not just something sneaking out from his formative years.

Being both of them Scots, James Cosmo and Iain Glen are for me at least quite believable as coming from the far northern realm of Bear Island, and maybe even as father and son, although Cosmo does sound a bit, I dunno, gruffer maybe. I’ve not heard enough of them speaking outside their roles to say more.

I have to confess that I’m not particularly taken with how Ciarán Hinds sounds, but I can’t really tell you why. It’s like his accent isn’t rough enough, or too put on, not natural. In one recent interview, Hinds said that he was going back and forth between Game of Thrones and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and that sometimes the Mississippi accent needed for the latter would sneak into the Yorkshire one he was supposed to be using for the former. Eek! That might be the problem. I hope it gets better in future seasons.

[Arcydas]

You need to listen to Lena Headey's natural accent. It sounds so off, after having listened to her as Cersei for so long :D

Aside from that Thoros of Myr is worth mentioning. Can't settle on a specific british accent for the time being.

Actually i had expected that he'd incorporate some foreign sounding accent (he's from Essos after all) but since he's been merged with another Westerosi character.

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=zSjmQFzIwX4

"A houuuuuuuuund!"

[HouseLark]

Cheers for the post, Lark (dirty northern bastard!)

Compliment taken!

I will take your word for Arya not sounding northern, but how do you account for her pronouncing her 'a's like 'ah' instead of 'ar' e.g. 'passed' at 0:35 in this http://www.youtube.c...h?v=uDGqJRmrlQU . I promise she doesn't have a proper southeast accent either, so what is she do you think? Some sort of midlands / west country thing?

It's just a bit of inconsistency from a young actor. Thinking about it, and listening to the scene linked by Arcydas, both Thoros and Arya have similar accents though Maisie's is a bit clearer. I also would have expected Thoros to have a have a foreign-sounding accent but this just again proves how little this all matters to the quality of the show as in the end, I've just been enjoying Paul Kaye's portrayal of Thoros too much to care. More and more as GoT has gone on, I've become of the opinion that world-building is irrelevant to the show compared to the quality of performance given by actors. In a similar vein, I don't care about race-swapping characters - Salladhor Saan is a case in point, good character, needs more screen time in my opinion. Ultimately, TV just isn't as immersive a medium as literature, but that's just my view of course.

Still, it's interesting to discuss these things. I think it gives you a bit of an insight into the development of the show as I think at the outset, D&D clearly wanted to have some degree of homogeneity in the accents of characters from each of the different "kingdoms". At some point, I suppose they found that the trade off in terms of acting quality wasn't worth the attempt at world building.

I do have to say that I had hoped for something a bit out of the ordinary for Jojen and Meera. The Crannogmen are meant to be oddities in Westeros but they are shockingly normal in the show - and you would throw Jojen's accent into the same category as Joffrey, Renly, and Loras. I wonder how that happened?