And Conan should have a ??? accent?

[Aramax]

Ebonic.

LOL(racist Don Imus comment ommited)

 

[Huw]

Since when were the Caucasians not Indo-European?

The Caucasians have never been Indo-European. According to some theories, Indo-European is an offshot of Caucasian, but Caucasian linguistics is so complex and archaeological remains so scant and inconclusive, it's hard to say for sure. Other theories link Caucasian with Sino-Tibetan, and there's plenty of evidence for that as well.

To be fair, there's evidence linking the Cimmerians with both the Indo-Europeans and the Caucasians, as well as several other groups who were hanging around central Asia at that time.

And since when were the Cimmerians from Caucasia? The Cimmerians lived, according to Roman and Greek geographies, either (a) north of Scythia or (b) where present-day London is.

8th Century BCE near modern day Azerbaijan, according to Earlier Persian and Chaldean sources. Bear in mind that there might be other groups who called themselves Cimmerians or claimed descent from them.

 

[Huw]

Generally, Indo-European describes a language group. The Indo-European language group mostly consists of the various European languages.

<pedant>Actually, the Indo-European group mostly consists of Asian languages. However, the languages of Europe are mostly Indo-European.</pedant>

 

[blargney the second]

Therefore Conan should be played with a Swedish accent.

Bork bork bork!

 

[Frostmarrow]

Bork bork Crom bork!

 

[BadMojo]

That's actually a good point. Its been years since I read the books. Where did Conan grow up (as a slave, as I recall), and what accent would be expected of that land? Take that, add in a slight pinch of Irish or Scottish, and I think we have a winner.

Actually, I don't think the slave thing was something that came from Howard. It was either created for the movie or maybe in one of the awful pastiches written over the years.

As far as I recall, Conan was never a slave and grew up in Cimmeria. He did travel enough that it's not unreasonable to assume he lost a good deal of his accent by the time he became king.

 

[Hypersmurf]

As we all know Amra is one of Conan's aliases. Therefore Conan should be played with a Swedish accent.

Vladimir Kulich played 'The Swede' in Smokin' Aces.

We're sorted!

-Hyp.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Where did Conan grow up (as a slave, as I recall), and what accent would be expected of that land?

He grew up in Cimmeria. He was never a slave in anything Howard wrote. Maybe a prisoner for a brief time, but never a slave. That's one of the many things that bugged me about the movie. According to Howard, Conan became a man in Cimmerian culture when he participated in the Cimmerian attack on an Acquilonian outpost, Venarium. He was about 15 or 16. He seems to have left Cimmeria soon after that, to wander on his various adventures.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

If someone says something everyone agrees with do you all get to growl and repeatedly pound your weapons on the table? Because that would be a real employment benefit.

I had a D&D strategy meeting a few weeks ago in a seldom-used conference room. So I go in for my meeting and the room looks like a bloody armory. There must have been 25 swords in there including claymores, long swords, short swords, scimitars, and a few we could not identify. It struck me that at that moment there might be no other business meeting happening in the world in a room full of swords. It made me realize that at moment if a horde of barbarians attacked the building we'd be sitting pretty good in the sword dept.

The advertising creative team uses this room for concepting (AKA screwing off). They had been working on a M:TG photo shoot and a few days prior had posted a company wide email request looking for swords to use as props in the photo shoot. This was the room they were storing them in along with a 9-foot tall platinum angel statue.

 

[BadMojo]

I had a D&D strategy meeting a few weeks ago in a seldom-used conference room. So I go in for my meeting and the room looks like a bloody armory. There must have been 25 swords in there including claymores, long swords, short swords, scimitars, and a few we could not identify.

That could be interesting in the corporate world. I can just imagine someone shooting down a suggestion in a meeting and the subsequent sound of steel being drawn in the conference room.

All we have in the conference rooms where I work is a telephone that looks like an alien spacecraft from a '50s Sci-Fi flick.