D&D General Accents

[Paul Farquhar]

Not very good at accents - my own is a mixed up jumble of Scouse, Lancashire and Surrey. I switch between long and short vowels at random. I have used broad Yorkshire for a halfing village. Did have a bad attempt at Irish for a leprechaun.

 

[Olrox17]

I am italian, playing with italian speaking people.

Italian accents I can do: Roman (my native dialect), Neapolitan, Sicilian, Milanese, Venetian, a little bit of Sardinian.
Foreign accents I can do: French, Spanish, UK English, very stereotypical German and Russian.

 

[Aldarc]

IME, Non-Southerns attempting to do Southern dialects (1) often do it in offensive ways that attach them to uneducated rural folk and/or villains, and (2) butcher Southern dialects, sounding like screeching cats desperately clawing a chalkboard to avoid falling into a bathtub.

As dialects are often coded with classism, racism, and regionalism, I typically avoid them entirely when gaming.

 

[Coroc]

The ones I know

• NYC
  • Professional
  • New Brooklyn
  • Old Brooklyn
  • NY AAVE
  • NYLE
  • Bronx Female
• Southern US
  • Georgia
  • Atlanta
• West Indian
  • Jamaican
  • Trinidadian
  • Haitian
  • Lesser Antilles
• UK
  • RP
  • Scouse
  • Yorkshire
• Nigerian American
• Russian American
• Ukrainian American
• Mexican American

Though I don't use them often as it is hard to keep them up and I have to listen to speakers to lock accents back in my head.

are there so many different dialects in NY alone? You surely need to be a native to hear the differences, no?

 

[Ash Mantle]

My impressions of accents are usually atrocious, but I can do a pretty good Cockney accent, RP accent (this is the best accent I can do apart from my native Aussie), southern American accent, and passable South African accent. I've found if I get a chance to hear an accent I can imitate it pretty well, but otherwise yeah it's not pretty.

 

[Minigiant]

are there so many different dialects in NY alone? You surely need to be a native to hear the differences, no?

NYC is full of immigrants and it's an old city. And a lot of people. There are several native NYC accents differing from borough or age.

More accurately, my accents as a DM are:

• NYC
  • Manhattan
    • Professional
  • Brooklyn
    • Old Jewish
    • Old Italian
    • Old AAVE
    • New AAVE
    • New NYLE PR
    • New NYLE DR
    • Mike Tyson
  • Bronx
    • New NYLE

 

[Eltab]

As dialects are often coded with ... regionalism

In role-playing context, this part is a feature not a bug. The point is to give an easily-understood cue "you have travelled a long way".

(The other two adjectives could start a mutual Fireball contest, so I will decline.)

 

[prabe]

I cannot sustain any accent other than my own past the second sentence--probably not even to the end of the first if I'm improvising, as opposed to reading--so I don't even try. I occasionally hit on mannerisms or tones for specific NPCs, but I don't try to make them sound like someone other than me. Part of my reluctance, I suspect, is working for more than fifteen years recording people who could do accents; my standards for that are ... higher than I can attain, at least.

 

[Aldarc]

In role-playing context, this part is a feature not a bug. The point is to give an easily-understood cue "you have travelled a long way".

(The other two adjectives could start a mutual Fireball contest, so I will decline.)

I'm talking about real world regionalism with prejudice, not simply communicating long distances travelled.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've tried as a player, but it's just too much of a pain to keep up. As a DM, I've incorperated a few accents, typically cockney for human peasants and scandinavian for dwarves (who are NOT Scottish). I might put a twist of an accent on a special NPC, but overall that's it, as I can't maintain it for long.