Forsaken Accents

[Will al Seen]

I was just wondering. RJ describes the accents of pretty much all of the nations. Illianers kinda sound like pirates to me. Amadicians talk like everything is a question sometimes. ( you will agree, yes? ), and etc. etc. So, the Forsaken, seeing how their original language is the old tongue they must have had t learn it when they broke free of their prison or something. but i was just wondering what their accent would be like when speaking the common tongue. i'm just scraping for things to talk about now lol. what do you guys think?

[mb]

Aginor and Balthamel seemed to be fairly fluent in the new tongue when they met the Two Rivers people; the Two Rivers people seemed to understand them.

It seems that way with the other Forsaken in their first encounters with Third Age people.

The most reasonable explanation for that would be that the Forsaken were quick learners.

 

The accents could probably be figgured out from their discussions with Third Age people.

 

[DaTaimsta]

I really do think it strange that you don't see diversity among the Forsaken. None of them have Illianer accents or Tarabon braids in their hair. Which makes you wonder whether there was even that type of division amongst the different nations. Maybe they just didn't have any. Semirhage being darker skinned does point to her being a sea folk, as well as Demandred's hawked nose pointing to him being Saldean.

[algspkr]

RJ said that Aginor and Balthamel being trapped close to the surface allowed them to watch the world and learn the modern language while the others slept.  He said that the others were able to pick it up easily as it is derived from, but is simpler than the old tongue.  Semirhage is described as having an odd accent for a Seanchan, but that is the only mention of a forsaken accent.

[Mr Ares]

Illianers kinda sound like pirates to me.

How many pirates have you spoken to? There is some variation in pirate accents.

[GrandpaG]

Illianers kinda sound like pirates to me.

How many pirates have you spoken to? There is some variation in pirate accents.

 

How many pirates have YOU spoken to?  ::)

[DhaiMon]

Can't we just all agree that Randlanders speak some sort of "corrupted" form of the Old Tongue which was already in use in the Age of Legends? The "peasant's" language, if you will?

 

Would explain why the Forsaken are, for the very most part, so sickly arrogant. Not just evil and not-caring, but arrogant.

[Mr Ares]

Illianers kinda sound like pirates to me.

How many pirates have you spoken to? There is some variation in pirate accents.

How many pirates have YOU spoken to?  ::)

More than a dozen. There was some variation in their accents. I don't think any sounded Dutch, though, so nothing like Illianers.

[balefireruinssteaks]

I always thought Illianers were more like Scottish people.

 

Seanchan were like Oriental tongues,

 

Cairhien were maybe English (crisp way of speaking?)

 

Andorans were more likely American-ish accents

 

and I haven't really figured out the rest of them yet.  As far as the Forsaken I imagine they can imitate accents and blend in because it seems like they would have a natural accent from where they were born in the Age of Legends.  Graendal said that learning the language of the Third Age was simple and learning to write it even more so - as well as learning to imitate someone's handwriting, so perhaps imitating another accent (Arad Doman in her case) would not prove too difficult.

 

Or maybe she was just good at stuff like that.  The Age of Legends was astounding but they were still humans, given to all human flaws and various human talents.  Graendal could imitate speech and script, but perhaps Semirhage wasn't quite as good which is why people noted her accent was strange.

[Kaznen]

The Andorans are British through and through.  RJ said the TRers have Irish accents, I think Min has a Welsh or Cockney accent and Elayne talks like the British nobles.

 

Carihien I always thought of as Japanese.

[DhaiMon]

 

Carihien I always thought of as Japanese.

 

Minus martial prowess.

 

Cairhien, to me, seems like some weird combination of Japanese/Asian(doesn't need to be exclusively "Japo", the size) and France. The France that can't really win a war and relies on political means to reach its goals. The "Sun Palace". Louis the so-and-so-th, "The State, I am" or something...

 

 

I can only imagine the fun Rigney had when juggling all that together. :D

[Kaznen]

It seemed that just about every country had asian influences.  I say Japanese for Carahien was their size, uptight devotion to order, their armor and con (samurai), and their taste in decorating. 

 

And during Japan's period of isolation the country was relativity peaceful so fighting was down through dirty politics to gain the Shogun's favor.

 

But I do see the French

[Thor]

 

 

Seanchan were like Oriental tongues,

 

I'm pretty sure Seanchan accent are more like American accent.

[Auld Manriva]

The Seanchan are fairly clearly (to me anyway) ancient Chinese in culture. Accent wise certain of the Chinese accents speaking English sound "drawled" or drawn out to an extent.

 

Other than the beard, which is also 18/19th century American, I can find nothing Dutch about the Illianers. Maybe that they were sea going merchants. They could very well be Venetian, which seems more likely to me with their marshes, canals and such. Their speech, not Scots but seems (to my Scots friend Tay) to sound southwest of England, like Cornish for example. Since many,many of these folk were sailors their speech pattern was very prevalent among sea goers during the Age of Sail, so it affected what most of us think of as Pirate.

 

Cairhien has always seemed French in general but could be Russian just as easily other than the height. Their machinations are easily Florentine as well.

 

Tear Castillian Spanish.

Andor English with it's various dialects among its classes.

The Borderlands nations, various Steppes cultures.

Ebou Dar, Mediterranean somewhere. Maybe Sicily?

Tarabon, Turkish possibly. Though their accent eludes me.

Murandian speech appears definitely Irish to my eye.

 

But don't get hung up on entire countries. Nor each WoT culture mirroring all aspects of some one of our historical cultures. RJ threw us many red herrings and mixed aspects of more than one into each of his countries and more or less city states.

[Mr Ares]

Seanchan were like Oriental tongues,

I'm pretty sure Seanchan accent are more like American accent.

Correct. Texas, specifically.

In March of 2000, Paul Ward received a letter from RJ in which he listed what some of the regional accents of Randland sound like:

 

Two Rivers - Irish/English

Illianers - Dutch

Aiel - somewhat Slavic

Tairen - Spanish

Domani - Indian

Saldaean - Egyptian/North African

Seanchan - Texas

 

Carihien I always thought of as Japanese.

Minus martial prowess.

 

Cairhien, to me, seems like some weird combination of Japanese/Asian(doesn't need to be exclusively "Japo", the size) and France. The France that can't really win a war and relies on political means to reach its goals. The "Sun Palace". Louis the so-and-so-th, "The State, I am" or something...

Louis XIV, the Sun King. "Le'tat, c'est moi" is the quote attributed to him, I am the state. His was an era of France in the ascendant, with martial prowess being just one of the things it had to its credit.

 

Since many,many of these folk were sailors their speech pattern was very prevalent among sea goers during the Age of Sail, so it affected what most of us think of as Pirate.

As did the film industry. AAARGH Mateys!

[motblades]

Seanchan were like Oriental tongues,

I'm pretty sure Seanchan accent are more like American accent.

Correct. Texas, specifically.

 

Thank you for the shout out Mr Ares and RJ but as a native Texan, I do feel the need to say that not all Texans speak as if we have cottonballs permanently attached to the insides of our mouths. My wife and I trained our voices to remove as much of our accents as we could hear to avoid sounding like our hick cousins. =P

 

btw, I sure hope I done spelled your name all correct like Mr Ares.  I done seen hows you've flamed others in the past for messin' it all up n' stuff. Ya'll be good now, ya hear.  =D