Should D&D be more American?

[Sanackranib]

orks

Wouldn't that mean Orks would speak Elizabethan/Shakesperian English?

-Angel Tears

thats just NOT right!

 

[Wikidogre]

Hmmm.... I'll agree with you if you'll agree that since EN World was created by myself, all posts (and spelling, slang, colloquial speech etc.) here should be in English-English, and not American-English. Sounds like a reasonable exchange to me.

How about cockney..? will that do China?

 

[Desdichado]

That is one subject that has always fascinated me - why, for instance, in England you have multiple dialects of the language all withing relative close proximity to one another, yet in the U.S., you have different dialects, but they cover much wider areas. Most southeastern U.S. citizens will sound close to the same, yet the area in question is much broader than, say, the U.K.

Perhaps the geography in the U.K. promotes isolation between different groups more than I ever realized?

A basic rule of historical linguistics is that small areas with highly diversified dialects indicates that the language has been in the area for a long time. Broad areas of more similar dialects is a sign of a relatively recent spread of the language from a more concentrated area. As time passes, dialects fragment. You'll see the same thing looking at Russian today, for instance, although all the Slavic languages are so closely related that they almost beg to be called dialects of a common slavic. Of course, the dispersion of slavic happened longer ago than the dispersion of English over North America.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

well the better informed, more aware RPG community excluded

oh and do you really know what a Wanker is?

Those words are much more common over here than you seem to think.

 

[johnsemlak]

A basic rule of historical linguistics is that small areas with highly diversified dialects indicates that the language has been in the area for a long time. Broad areas of more similar dialects is a sign of a relatively recent spread of the language from a more concentrated area. As time passes, dialects fragment. You'll see the same thing looking at Russian today, for instance, although all the Slavic languages are so closely related that they almost beg to be called dialects of a common slavic. Of course, the dispersion of slavic happened longer ago than the dispersion of English over North America.

Not sure if I understand what you mean about Russian and Slavic Languages. I can attest that Russian is spoken throughout the Russian Federation and much the Former Soviet Union with remarkable uniformity. Certainly the accents of various regions in the UK are far more diverse than various accents in Russia. There is a Russian 'southern accent' and a 'Ukrainian accent' (not to be confused with Ukrainian, a separate langauge), but I think these accents are no more different than American Southern English is from Northern.

I agree with your point about languages existing in a confined area over a period of time. I would also add that the mass media has also made language, particularly in large countries like Russia and the US, more uniform.

 

[DragonSword]

NOOOOOOOOOO!

English English is fine for me thanks.

Dragon+Sword

 

[Ranes]

Tleilaxu, I laughed so hard at your subway story I nearly fell off the couch and smashed my crooked yellow teeth on the coffee table.

This thread reminds me of a time I was on a train from London to Nottingham. Sitting across from me was an Australian family. About an an hour into the journey, the father turned to me and asked, in a fairly strong Aussie accent, "Excuse me, can you tell me when this train gets to Looga Borooga?"

I tried to absorb what he said and replied, "I'm sorry, where?"

"Looga Borooga," he repeated.

I shook my head and asked if I could see the timetable he was holding.

"Oh, Luffburruh!" said I. (Sorry about the phonetic spelling but if I wrote 'Loughborough', how many of you would have heard 'Looga Borooga' in your head?)

With regard what Morrus and others have said about Brit proximity to medieval architecture, I used to live in Nottingham. Nottingham used to have a beautiful medieval street layout. In the 1960s, half of it was bulldozed and replaced by a horrific dual carriageway lined with concrete monstrosities including a multi-storey car park. This blight on the landscape was then sympathetically named 'Maid Marion Way'. To add insult to injury, in the eighties, the Tourist Board opened a nasty, ultra-modern and rather poorly engineered animatronics attraction called 'The World of Robin Hood' amid the offending concrete.

Still, Nottingham's great. I miss it. Even if Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem's claim to be the oldest pub in the world is a load of hogwash, it's still ancient and serves a decent pint (or used to).

Back on topic: I think halflings should have Devonshire or Cornish accents, gnomes should speak in a southern Irish accent, dwarves should have either a Lancashire accent, a southern American drawl or - my favourite - a German accent, elves in a bad French accent (let's parlez Franglais) and orcs are Australian, naturally. Oh, human wizards and bad guys should sound like Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman et al...

"G'day, human scum!"

 

[Berk]

although all the Slavic languages are so closely related that they almost beg to be called dialects of a common slavic. Of course, the dispersion of slavic happened longer ago than the dispersion of English over North America.

Speaking of slavic and getting into the holiday mood, barring spelling and all.

SILKYNUTZ!!!!!!

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Let me just say to those of you who don't think the Wright Bros invented the airplane, well ... you probably think the Swiss invented something more than the koo koo clock.

 

[Ravellion]

I still don't get why Trolls should speak Dutch all of a sudden... did a Dutch person post a troll lately? Anyone care to do a search for me?

Oh, and there is no such thing as the Belgian Language. In Belgium they speak either Dutch or French. The name for the Belgian accent of Dutch is Flemish (after the region).

Rav