Character speech

[nickbeat]

How does everyone express their dialect through text? I play around with that sort of thing, but I always find it hard to judge how comprehensible the words can be.

For instance a refined wizard might say, "Thine breath offends! Return forthwith upon resolution of your most despicable halitosis."

While a krusty old dwarf might say, "Oi, what ye been eatin' fella?"

But you could go too far and be very hard to understand, "Ah what then! Me thunk ye ginna tik yesef oot ta da dentalist mate!"

[Aries1918]

But you could go too far and be very hard to understand, "Ah what then! Me thunk ye ginna tik yesef oot ta da dentalist mate!"

What's wrong with going too far? I do that so people have a hard time understanding Zacho on purpose. Its fun trying to get a translation though with his speach.

[nickbeat]

Nothing wrong at all! I think it really brings out the character really. You could even have a crazy german accent and be almost impossible to understand. Thieves cant for instance was designed to be hard to understand so people couldn't catch them plotting. Which begs the question: What does an elven accent sound like?

I always figured Gnomes are from Zurich, Dwarves are like Scottich, Elves are maybe French, and Humans are just typical American english. What about Orcs? Tieflings? I think I am gonna play around with the DMFI language tool and see if I can sort out some way to express the elven accent.

[nickbeat]

Here is a cool example. Great comic too! Read it from the beginning.

Raising Hell

[Jaeram]

If you've seen the elvish speak in the Lord of the Rings movies I think they did a pretty good job of it, I always imagined it being a lilting, lyrical, language like they depicted it, very smooth.

[Sammael]

How does everyone express their dialect through text? I play around with that sort of thing, but I always find it hard to judge how comprehensible the words can be.

For instance a refined wizard might say, "Thine breath offends! Return forthwith upon resolution of your most despicable halitosis."

While a krusty old dwarf might say, "Oi, what ye been eatin' fella?"

But you could go too far and be very hard to understand, "Ah what then! Me thunk ye ginna tik yesef oot ta da dentalist mate!"

I reckon being misunderstood because of your accent could be a great twist to a character, if used properly. Especially if the character is horribly arrogant/touchy.
(Another good one is "Hey, pal! Ken yer mither stetch, pal?")

[rustediron]

The problem with using accents like that is that some people's first language isn't english.

On a side note, I've always thought Humans would use STANDARD, ENGLISH ENGLISH, from ENGLAND. With cockney being the main accent among the commoners, and a more refined, upper class tone among the... upper class xD.

Gnomes, my opinion is just two words: Jan Jansen.

Elves are a hard one, though I agree, LoTR does do a very good job.

[Drider-man]

Well, concerning humans I suppose it's relevant to look at where they come from. The Sword Coast and the Western Heartlands, are pretty much the american wild west, while Waterdeep could be equivalent to London or somesuch.
Amn is medieval/renaissance Spain, so a bit of a haughty attitude and formal speech is probably common, while Thay is pretty much the evil soviet empire of the Forgotten Realms, so dash of russian might apply there.
In the end though, it's hard to define since we all make our own assumptions.
Dwarves has pretty much been equaled to scotsmen, for some strange reason, gnomes usually dwell in human cities and halflings are often rural, if they're not from their racial kingdoms of course

[Gairun]

I really enjoy hearing different people use accents for their characters. Seriously well done everybody. I will say I've always tried to stay away from saying X area in forgotten realms sounds like X real world country. Just always seemed silly to me

[Kangleton]

What's wrong with going too far? I do that so people have a hard time understanding Zacho on purpose. Its fun trying to get a translation though with his speach.

Its people like you that make people like me hate people like you.

[Aries1918]

Its people like you that make people like me hate people like you.

Then I'm doing my job

[Sammael]

The problem with using accents like that is that some people's first language isn't english.

On a side note, I've always thought Humans would use STANDARD, ENGLISH ENGLISH, from ENGLAND. With cockney being the main accent among the commoners, and a more refined, upper class tone among the... upper class xD.

I reckon you should have cockney commoners for city-dwellers and Summerset accents for farmers + villagers, though that may just be me

[rustediron]

Yeah, you're probably right there. A farmer speaking cockney would just be... odd.