How Accents Sound

[Robespierre]

I hope I'm not missing a help file on this: I'd love to know how accents and even languages sound. Is a Southern accent in a drawl? Does Bendune sound like a staccato? It's really minor, but it would be great to be able to describe how people speak, even if you can't convincingly use the accent.

[zealus]

http://armageddon.org/help/view/language

Each language has a little bit of how it sounds, I do not know how the accents sound specifically, but I would assume that a tribal accent shares bendune roots, ect.

[triste]

In terms of accents I notice a lot of people seem to manage it along class lines. In books based on reality, authors like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens did this famously. Fantasy authors like Brian Jacques have also famously translated this to fantasy in his works (the source of Barsook's icon).

All of this said, I noticed that in Armageddon lower class southern concepts tend to be more heavily accented and close to a "'Rinth" accent whereas upperclass southerners are more proper. In terms of what the 'rinth/southern accent /is/ I have noticed some people play it as southern and others as more cockney but regardless it should be "less proper" if your character is likewise "less proper" or lower class.

It is important not to be proscriptive in all of this as I have seen players be great and inventive here and there is no "one" southern concept. Nothing about Armageddon is meant to represent real life as much as critics might accuse the game of that.

[creeper386]

I think the accents can vary even among the different accents. Like southern can cover storm to nak to various farming villages and what not. Same with northern and tribal is certain a catch all for a variety of different tribes and people.

Not sure even nailing down what they have in common to make it one accent is that important. I think even in the US two people with southern accents may sound very different and still have southern accents.

[Shalooonsh]

Desert elf accent is a thick, dockside Boston brogue.

[triste]

Desert elf accent is a thick, dockside Boston brogue.

https://youtu.be/KtZqajiluhk
roleplaying guide for non americans

[Veselka]

why I aughta

[HortaCulture]

Damn I always hear desert elves speaking like Chinese..  when I read staccato I think of languages doing like the huge flux in sounds all really distinct.. Waaa-zuh chee KAH So...

Now I'm confused and scared!

[Veselka]

yeeeeeaaaah sheeee?

(For me I always see them as 1940's gangsters with audacious east coast accents. Don't ask why)

[Inks]

Rinthi accent is always English chav or ocker Australian, ay.

Yaroch I always imagine it as Northern English farmer in my own mind.

Northern accent I always hear it as Amish or Dutch accent for whatever reason.

People in Storm don't talk in public so it is a mystery. . But most of the muls are from Allanak and would have Allanaki accents for a long time.

This post was largely for fun but that is definately how I hear those accents.

[Maso]

Rinthi accent is always English chav or ocker Australian, ay.

Yaroch I always imagine it as Northern English farmer in my own mind.

Northern accent I always hear it as Amish or Dutch accent for whatever reason.

People in Storm don't talk in public so it is a mystery. . But most of the muls are from Allanak and would have Allanaki accents for a long time.

This post was largely for fun but that is definately how I hear those accents.

Very similar to how I imagine it!

I'll add...Allanak is basically southern England for me, ranging from the super posh accent, the regular London accent and the 'rinth is like East-end/Wideboy.

Luir's GMH is like an affected English accent, they're putting it on. Luir's commoner I somehow end up thinking Scottish....I assume because Scotland is North of me....

but then I go posh Europe for North North (e.g. Tuluk...I guess Morin's).

Tribals and elves will range for me depending on how they express their speech patterns and can make me think anywhere between Eastern Europe and India.

[Barsook]

I hear Tribal as Indian for some reason.

[Lotion]

betweenford mentioned that somewhere in official dark sun materials it says staccano is like they speak really fast and then sometimes take short pauses as if even as they speak the desert elves are running and suddenly skid to a stop

[Maso]

I hear Tribal as Indian for some reason.

RL Romani originated from India...so it kinda makes sense.

[triste]

betweenford mentioned that somewhere in official dark sun materials it says staccano is like they speak really fast and then sometimes take short pauses as if even as they speak the desert elves are running and suddenly skid to a stop

This is the closest thing to a legitimate canonical answer we have in this thread so far! Otherwise there is no fixed documentation besides the programmed accent words. People have interpretation inspired from real life, and that is fine (as many philosophers have noted imagination is often just the amalgamation of what we have seen in reality), with the key caveat that no one gets offensive with it.

On the topic of the previous post, be careful:
http://armageddon.org/help/view/Inappropriate%20vernacular

Staff had to make this list because players were taking accents and cultural references "too far." You, personally, can think an accent sounds "Romani," but Armageddon as a game has no interest in cultural appropriation or disrespect and a few Romani words are actually banned IG.

[Decameron]

Always imagined bendune as : https://youtu.be/0cVlTeIATBs?t=6

[triste]

LOL. This and "elves sound like Bostonians," should be canon.

[valeria]

In my head, anyone talking "southern accent" is some kind of British English dialect, with "rinthi accent" being lower class English.  Tuluk's "northern accent" was an American English dialect, since they had that whole too-happy patriotic police state vibe going on.  Luirs, are they talking in a northern accent or a southern accent?  "Tribal accent" to me sounds like different dialects of Arabic.  Whenever I think of the desert elf "staccato accent," I think of Khosian languages, like Xhosa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOvR6K78pBc.

[Maso]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOvR6K78pBc.

The clicking is incredible. IT'S SO HARD TO DO.

[Hestia]

All desert elves have Caribbean island accents.

SLK have Barbados accents.
Sun Runners sound like Jamaicans.
All others have a generic, non-descript patois.

[Maso]

All desert elves have Caribbean island accents.

SLK have Barbados accents.
Sun Runners sound like Jamaicans.
All others have a generic, non-descript patois.

I was expecting the thread to be locked after that! 

[Malken]

They all sound like text ran through an ASMR text-to-speech vocalizer to me.

[slipshod]

Back in 2003 we had a discussion thread about the possibility of introducing "Change accent <region>" into the game.
At the time we also discussed accents being based on a PC's 'first language' in addition to region. 

So a dwarf with Sirihish as a second language would speak Sirihish with a Mirukkim accent.

I still think about this.

[X-D]

All desert elves have Caribbean island accents.

SLK have Barbados accents.
Sun Runners sound like Jamaicans.
All others have a generic, non-descript patois.

Definition of staccato

1a : cut short or apart in performing : disconnected staccato notes
b : marked by short clear-cut playing or singing of tones or chords a staccato style
2 : abrupt, disjointed

Or, in the words of the great and missed RIP Andre the giant, "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

None of the listed by either staffers is anything near staccato.
In fact...Jamaican is so laid back as to be nearly the polar opposite.
Boston...Heh...You are right about Thick, work with a 58 year old just two years out of Boston and Dude, Look at the definition of Staccato...Boston accent is almost as drawn out as you can get. Dude is almost as funny as Jamaican Mike though. Yah Maan.

stac·ca·to speech (stă-kah'tō spēch)
An abrupt utterance, each syllable being enunciated separately; noted especially in multiple sclerosis.

Some African such as Swahili...But even better Inuit, very staccato language and when speaking other languages native inuit  speakers remain very staccato.

Barbados I have been to, not staccato, Jamaica I go to often, fun peoples...and they have what would be considered a very southern drawl... well, A jamaican drawl. In fact, the one I work with today...Heh, his normal greeting is "Yah maan!" Nicely drawn out. In fact, when he is hard to understand is because his syllables tend to run together...exactly the opposite of "staccato".


That being said. I have desert elf accent as being very Yupik, While tribal being far more middle east tribal Bedouin Arabic slightly sing-song. While southern I agree with others, all the accents of the UK. Northern being the nordic accents...think Finland and such.

On a sidenote, the Finland youtubers are all badass... hydraulic press channel you can watch, if you start from the beginning, two people learning english...leo moracchioli is a badass if you like metal covers.

[Inks]

I also hear tribal as arabic bedouin. Nice one Is canon now.

[triste]

Peeks at this thread

If anyone says we are culture appropriating here I am part Arabic*, African, Indigenous Indian, East Indian*, and 5 flavors of European and I'm not offended by people drawing inspiration from some of the cultures I belong to in this game.

I recall I was a grade schooler trying to teach myself Arabic script when I first found Armageddon and it was possible my culture is what BROUGHT me here.

And I know we have Eastern European and Asian players so, um, like, literally everything we are joking about, key word JOKING, um, like, a friendly way, joking about in a good hearted way, just JOKING about here is totes, um, representative and not, um, appropriative or disrespectful. Or, like, something like that! Oh gosh.

It is fine to draw inspiration and parallels if you do not push it offensively, and we are mostly just musing here!

* I know you might have heard me rant about being half Puerto Rican forever but they just updated my results to be more granular and apparently I am the sort of 'Rican with Arabic and East Indian ancestry, my dad always told me we had Arabic ancestry growing up and its cool to see it genetically sequenced and confirmed!

[triste]

Oh, also I am a full time Hashashin and if I ever speak with a hash laced accent IG it's because of all this smoke

[HortaCulture]

Inuit, very staccato language and when speaking other languages native inuit speakers remain very staccato.

Thank god I knew I wasn't crazy. Yupik is even more accurate than Chinese to what I hear in my head.

[Delirium]

I also hear tribal as arabic bedouin. Nice one Is canon now.

I mean it's even called bendune, so I'm pretty sure that was the intention, hah.

[The Great Corn]

Nakki sound like brits, the higherclass you are the more posh, Yarochi sound like Aussies, so do people from Storm. Southern tribal accents sound either middle-eastern or african, and northern tribals sound german or russian, Tuluki northern sounds like french and people from Luirs sound like they're dutch.

[Barsook]

When I think about it, and not kidding, I think d-elves sound more Indian than tribals.

[Iiyola]

Northern accent I always hear it as Amish or Dutch accent for whatever reason.

I personally expected Northern to be more refined than Dutch...