Elves and Accents.

[spawnloser]

Fair enough.  I hadn't thought of it placed before '-accented' as it shows for people not using the same accent.

[mansa]

I had to dictionary.com Staccato.

–adjective
1. shortened and detached when played or sung: staccato notes.
2. characterized by performance in which the notes are abruptly disconnected: a staccato style of playing. Compare legato.
3. composed of or characterized by abruptly disconnected elements; disjointed: rapid-fire, staccato speech.

–adverb
4. in a staccato manner.

–noun
5. performance in a staccato manner.
6. a staccato passage.

[X-D]

I hate staccato, it is actually something so jarring to me it gets worse every time I see it, not better. I'm really thinking of adding a trigger to my client to remove it.

was that Allundean seemed to have similarities to languages like Japanese or Korean

The funny part about that line is, both languages are FAR from "staccato" And could more easily be described as melodious or sing-song.

If anything in the game should have a staccato accent it is mantis, since they make clicking noises and such.

"clipped-accented" Would be less jarring, even if it is not pleasing to look at/say. Maybe Rapidly-accented, hastily-accented, hell, Fast-accented is better...Harshly-accented.

Elven-accented! Un-accented!

[Kryos]

Staccato is fine for me.  If people find the word jarring because they are ignorant of the meaning, think of it as a good dead.  You just broadened their vocabulary. 

[X-D]

The problem is that I know exactly what it means, this makes it quite jarring, though it can be used in refering to speech, that is rare and more often in refering to music or noise, A staccato playing style or the staccato rattle of machine-gun fire.

Makes me think of some elf sounding like a harpsichord or spitting at you the entire time they talk while all the words sound like PEWPEWPEWPEW! Or a hailstorm on a tin roof.

[RogueGunslinger]

If the mud was interspersed wildly with words you couldn't understand you wouldn't play it. Regardless of how much it broadened your vocabulary.

Looking up words I don't understand breaks my immersion, is time consuming, is distracting, and often leaves me irritated. I'm not saying this is the particular case with 'stacatto' but maybe for some people it is.

[Reiloth]

I can see that point, RGS. I like stacatto personally, but I can see how it is jarring to other people.

Kudos to staff for putting this in.

[LauraMars]

I don't like staccato at all.  Of course, I don't play desert elves at all, either.  But I thought I'd offer my opinion.

[hyzhenhok]

I don't like staccato at all.  Of course, I don't play desert elves at all, either.  But I thought I'd offer my opinion.

Actually, if you never play desert elves, that means you'll see "staccato" in your MUD more than people who do play desert elves. Just saying.

I like staccato, the only issue is that it seems out of place compared to north/south/rinthi/tribal. If it were next to stuff like tonal-accented, slur-accented, nasal-accented, etc.

[musashi]

I like staccato, the only issue is that it seems out of place compared to north/south/rinthi/tribal. If it were next to stuff like tonal-accented, slur-accented, nasal-accented, etc.

And as Nyr pointed out, there are a lot of other accents in game beyond northern/southern/tribal/rinthi, and of those less commonly seen accents, sounds are used to decribe them in place of location so it isn't as strange as may seem at first glance in terms of how accents are seperated.

I don't mind staccato myself, because something like elvish would have made reading delf says/tells really repetitive.

[Booshay]

I move that the accent be changed to "unnaturally elvish".

[spawnloser]

Well, it isn't jarring for me like it is for X-D.  I know what it means, but I also sympathize.  I suddenly started picturing elvish being some language out of Africa with tik-toks and glottal stops, not Japanese or Korean.

[Booya]

What about sharp-accented?

[MeTekillot]

tribal-elf-accented wouldn't be very jarring for me personally.

[Synthesis]

I like staccato.

Especially since it annoys X-D so much.

[X-D]

ONLY since it annoys X-D so much.

Fixed

[Synthesis]

ONLY since it annoys X-D so much.

Fixed

Not ONLY.

I also like it because I can now imagine Soh Lanah Kah elves going kah-kah-kah-kah-kah-kah-kah all staccato like machine guns.

[Thunkkin]

I like it.

[Bogre]

I say give delves a unique accent, like runner-accented allundean or pure-runner accented allundean.

[Synthesis]

staccato is a unique accent for d-elves

next?

[spawnloser]

Yeah, what Synthesis said.  It shows up as 'desert accent' on skills lists and 'staccato-accented' to those not speaking with it.

[Boggis]

I get what Nyr was trying to accomplish with the use of staccato and I don't find it jarring personally. Asian languages such as Korean or Japanese do use that clipped sort of sound but it's often mixed in with long, drawn out sounds. The mixture of sounds allows for rendering more expression and emphasis in the language. For me this is where use of staccato falls down a little as it sort of implies that absolutely everything is clipped all the time. So even if a desert elf is trying to express complete disbelief or sadness at something it's going to come out all clipped when speech would be more likely to slow down and become drawn out. 

If, as Nyr mentioned, that they had in mind Korean / Japanese when imagining Allundean I'm not sure disjointed or clipped properly describes them. They have their own rhythms being syllable-timed languages which maybe sound a little strange to English speakers. Rather than have Allundean as a perpetually clipped accent I'd prefer to see them have more range through the accent being described as having stresses in places that might sound distinctive to others. I can't think of a good appropriate word though. Offbeat-accented maybe. I'm just bored in work and trying to look busy.

[Tiernan]

If, as Nyr mentioned, that they had in mind Korean / Japanese when imagining Allundean I'm not sure disjointed or clipped properly describes them. They have their own rhythms being syllable-timed languages which maybe sound a little strange to English speakers. Rather than have Allundean as a perpetually clipped accent I'd prefer to see them have more range through the accent being described as having stresses in places that might sound distinctive to others. I can't think of a good appropriate word though. Offbeat-accented maybe. I'm just bored in work and trying to look busy.

Actually, my first proposal was "pitch-accented", which I think more accurately represents languages like Korean and Japanese where the difference between "honored" and "reviled" might be whether your pitch was high or low on the middle syllable. 

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_accent