British accents

[scotcat]

Not to a Scot it isn't. Although the actor has a strong Scotish accent, the character he plays has a northern English accent.

Agreed. I'm scottish and have to agree with you. His natural accent is totally different to the one he uses for the part - as is James Cosmo's and Ian Glen's.

As for the subject of the thread, i don't think the accents have anything to with fantasy, exactly - I think it has more to with the pseudo historical setting fantasy tends to have. The accents just seem to fit better.

[Northern]

Yeah, well done Natalia Tena for being more than able to talk proper like what I do! ;)

Check out her quick interview from yesterdays opening of the HP Studio Tour to hear her normal accent. As a bonus. she even talks a little about GOT series 2!

[Francois Clegane]

Maybe it's because the culture of Britain relates more to the show than in any other parts of the world? I mean, Westeros is a land you could relate to Medival Britain, were swords, axes, and spears were the weapons used, and Yorkshiremen and Southerners were the ones wielding them. The USA never had a time similair to the Medival period throughout their history, which is why we get the thick accent of someone like Sean Bean to accompany Ned Stark, as opposed to a New Yorkers accent.

[Greyjoy67]

To me, at times he sounds like he is speaking with a very posh Scottish accent. It reminds me of Richard Wilson (One Foot in the grave, Merlin etc.)

I'm sorry, but take it from a Scot, he definitely has nothing that resembles a Scottish accent in the slightest. In the slightest. There are no Scottish accented characters in the show that I'm aware of.

[Brienne the Beauty]

The USA never had a time similair to the Medival period throughout their history, which is why we get the thick accent of someone like Sean Bean to accompany Ned Stark, as opposed to a New Yorkers accent.

With the way that accents change over time, the New York accent is probably about as similar to the accent of mediaeval Yorkshire as the modern Yorkshire accent is.

[Francois Clegane]

With the way that accents change over time, the New York accent is probably about as similar to the accent of mediaeval Yorkshire as the modern Yorkshire accent is.

True, but this, "Mediaval", period we had was situated in places like Yorkshire, so it probably made sense to producers to make the people who live their now act out these parts, as opposed to actors from different countries

[Thallus]

While I do believe that "british" is the default for olde, I think there is something more interesting to think about as an American. Calling an accent British is wholly insufficient, while the ears can hear the difference between accents of burroughs, or a Liverpudlian or a Welsh etc. etc., we don't have the associations between these accents and the class that usually accompanies the accent.

Do any of the forumgoers here from across the pond have any insight between class of accents and the relative political class of the character.

That is to say; Does anyone have RP/Queen's English? Does it jar that the nobles lack it.

Are there low class characters (Gendry, Men of the NW, soldiers) who have accents that you would not associated with unlearned people?

As far as I know the dark -l (or an [o]/[w] substitution) is a related to dialects indicative of low socio-economic class in the UK and a cursory listen of mine only hears this in our peasanty, but none of the noble.

Probably a silly idea, but maybe they thought that British English is easier to tunderstand for non-English-speaking audiences? It definitely is for me.

I completely disagree.

The variance in British English is probably more extreme as American English, definitely if you get rid of the outliers (looking at Atlantic Seaboard fishing villages here).

If you were to say RP is easier to understand than Brooklyn English, that is obviously correct. But if you were to Compare Hollywood (West of the missouri Mutt English), Old Newscaster (Centered around Virginia) and British Radio English (close to RP), They are all equally as accessible. Once you start pointing at pikey or geordie you lose the point of what you're talking about for the extremes.

[Greyjoy67]

Do any of the forumgoers here from across the pond have any insight between class of accents and the relative political class of the character.

Class? We don't live in the Victorian ages anymore. I suppose the home counties accent (Queen's English) sound more posh, but even in London ere is a distinct London 'working class' accent (more or less everybody) that doesn't sound posh. I reckon there's 'posh' versions of every british accent. For Liverpool, just go to the Wirral; for posh Scottish, there's parts of Edinburgh; I've met a fair few 'posh' sounding Yorkshire accents too.

[Brienne the Beauty]

That is to say; Does anyone have RP/Queen's English? Does it jar that the nobles lack it.

Nope. The "posh" British accent is a recent invention. In mediaeval times, the nobles would have had the same accent as the local area they lived in, assuming they were from there (many would have actually been Norman French in the earlier parts of the Middle ages).

[Francois Clegane]

Do any of the forumgoers here from across the pond have any insight between class of accents and the relative political class of the character.

That is to say; Does anyone have RP/Queen's English? Does it jar that the nobles lack it.

Are there low class characters (Gendry, Men of the NW, soldiers) who have accents that you would not associated with unlearned people?

I wouldn't say your accent shows your class, though it may be percieved that way in the show. A thick Scouse or, "Liverpudlian", accent will be found within the city, whilst the further you get, the more it changes, like Manchester which isn't to far. As for accents in the show, I suppose you could tag classes to accents

The Starks and Northeners have a thick Yorkshire accent, many of the poorer class in King's Landng speak with a thick Cockney accent, whilst upper class people in places like Casterly Rock speak Queen's English, with the likes of Charles Dance playing Tywin, who was born in Worcestershire and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who would have learnt Queen's English being from Denmark

[Joslin9]

I feel the British/English accent is appropriate for this setting, as I only think of Kings being English.

One thing though, with the character Jaime, half the time I can't understand him. I might have to put the "closed captioning" on, when I watch future episodes. No offense to the Brits or anyone with a non American accent, but it seems to me that Actors in today's movies speak too fast and don't enuciate well. not like in the old days. When I rent a DVD, these days, I have to put the "closed captioning".

On or else I miss a lot of the dialogue. But I digress, I'm just old, I suppose.

[Ser Blonde]

To the American members, Peter Dinklage does _not_ have a passable English accent. It's a contrived mess! Perhaps good enough to American ears. The rest of his performance is fantastic!

Richard Madden has no trace of Scottish accent in his performance, YouTube his interviews to confirm. The ability of non-American actors to sound "American" definitely exceeds the reverse. I'm not sure the need arises enough.

The only actor who would venture into RP would be Charles Dance. That's DARNCE to you in the US of A!

[Skeksi]

^ I think Peter Dinklage does a better job with the accent than Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (sorry for my spelling, I suspect it's wrong...)- both of them are clearly "putting on" accents (in that I can tell what accent they're aiming for, but I can also tell by listening to them that it isn't their natural accent), but I think PD does a better job nailing the accent and lets less of his actual accent slip through- just my opinion. It's done well enough IMO.

[Lady Stormheart]

A good, educated British accent just sounds pleasing and classy to anybody ... :dunno:

This.

But, why does everyone in Got have different accents when they're supposedly from the same regions? For example, The Starks. Arya's sound downright cockney almost, while Robb sounds most definitely Scottish. I mean, they're actors...could've made an effort to sound like from the same area.

[Travy1991]

This.

But, why does everyone in Got have different accents when they're supposedly from the same regions? For example, The Starks. Arya's sound downright cockney almost, while Robb sounds most definitely Scottish. I mean, they're actors...could've made an effort to sound like from the same area.

I wouldn't classify Robb's accent as Scottish at all. If you listen to Richard Madden in interviews...well then you'll hear a proper Scottish accent. Arya's accent does verge towards Cockney at times. I think that's down to Maisie Williams trying to sound a little less refined than Sophie Turner's Sansa. Maybe Williams wasn't able to do a Northern English accent. Overall, I don't think it's a big deal. For her first acting job, she really is incredible and listening to the audio commentary on the S1 DVD, she seems like a real intelligent young girl too.

[Brienne the Beauty]

^ I think Peter Dinklage does a better job with the accent than Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

I agree. Jaime's accent is not great at all. But he looks good so who cares :)

Dinklage has an advantage in that he is a native English speaker, even if he's from the wrong continent!

[The Anti-Targ]

@ Lady Stormheart: Robb accent vs Richard Madden are night and day. Robb sounds North England-ish (or at least some non-posh region of England) to my ears whereas Madden is as Scottish as they come. So for my money RM does a great job at changing his accent in order to play RS.

NCW does a great job of not sounding Danish, even though he doesn't exactly sound English. Dinklage does the typical English accent for which almost all American actors train themselves: him, Robert Downy Jnr, Johnny Depp. Plumb in mouth upper-middle class. Though Depp is also reasonably adept at a lower class type accent too. Just like all non-US actors train themselves to do a typical west coast US accent.

[Brienne the Beauty]

NCW does a great job of not sounding Danish, even though he doesn't exactly sound English.

He sounds kind of foreign to me, even though I am not familiar with the Danish accent.

[Ofaelol]

Maybe not pertinent, but the English accent is frequently used for Romans as well. I don't know how we'd take a Caesar or Marius who spoke with a contemporary Italian accent but I think I'd like to see it. (And while I greatly enjoy the show Spartacus, the Kiwi accents can be somewhat distracting.)

I didn't read the whole thread, but this could be an interesting point of comparison too. The HBO show Rome used British accents too.

[Lady Stormheart]

Mayhap I'm sensitive. I can hear the brogue, slight it may be but a definite burr.