What Do The languages Sound Like?

[circadianwolf]

I personally use Hebrew for Dwarven. *shrug*

Old English would be pretty hilarious (though mostly because I know Beowulf nerds that speak it).

 

[senna]

My Dwarves speak German for the most part, with a few Russian cues here and there, i play one named Erbeck Dracheneisen.

 

[I'm A Banana]

A good Dwarven speaker uses a strong, regular rhythm when he talks.

This sentence has instilled in me an irresistible compulsion.

I must now play a rapping dwarf.
[sblock=You are now about to witness the strength of dungeon knowledge]

Straight outta Iron Mountain,
Crazy goblinkilla named Steel Cube
From a gang called Beardz With Attitude.
When I need one, got a ten-ton,
swing the hammer down and beat on everyone.
You too, boy, if you f*ck with me!
Town guard are gonna hafta come and get me
off yo hide. That's how I'm goin' out
For the goblin tunnelf*ckers that's showin' out.
Gobbies start to mumble, they wanna rumble,
Mix 'em up and cook 'em in a pot like halfling gumbo.
Goin' off on a tunnelf*cker like that,
wit' a mallet that's comin' up yo ass.
So give it up smooth.
Ain't no tellin' when I'm down for a jack move.
Here's a murder rap to keep you wit us,
with a dark record like Dark Lord Orcus.
The two-handed maul is a tool.
Don't make me act the tunnelf*ckin fool.
Me you can go toe to toe, no maybe
I'm knockin gobbies out tha box, daily,
yo weekly, monthly and yearly,
until them dumb tunnelf*ckers see clearly
that I'm down with the capital I-M-T.
Gob, you can't f*ck with me!
So when I'm in your neighborhood, you better duck,
Cuz Steel Cube be crazy as f*ck!
As I leave, believe I'm stompin
but when I come back, boy, I'm comin straight outta Iron Mountain

[/sblock]

 

[MacMathan]

Dwarves are usually Scots, Russian or German accents depending on what region they come from IMC. I can always picture them or Duergar mining while pounding out the rhythms of Du Hast.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBkqYmaAE2Y]YouTube - ramstein- du hast.[/ame]

 

[amerigoV]

I figure them Draconians/ Dragonborn sound like this

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oyr_MKABY]YouTube - Muppets- Swedish Chef[/ame]

 

[TarionzCousin]

... as well as Draconian from 3e.

It's exactly like Draconian from 4E--only less balanced.

 

[Ravilah]

On the first day of my current campaign (a year ago) we had a player new to Dnd playing a dwarf cleric. Somebody told him that dwarfs have a Scottish accent and he said, "I can't do a Scottish accent. All I can do is a southern drawl." So at that moment it was decided that dwarfs had various southern accents, ranging from "plantation owner" to "texas cowpoke" depending on their clan.

This was revolutionary for my game, in terms of dwarfs anyway. The accents led us to visualize them as cowboys or good-old-boys rather than quasi-vikings or Gimli-clones, which put a very different spin on their culture and their motivations. It's been awesome. (By the way, we're all from Georgia, so none of us get offended by any of this.)

So I've since decided that Eladrin talk like Russians and Dragons talk like Oxonian Brits. It gives the Eladrin that exotic yet cold and aloof feel, and Dragons come across as hoity-toity but incredibly intelligent.

 

[NMcCoy]

I actually spent last night working on a writeup for Draconic in the campaign I'm in (I'm playing a Dragonborn) - the official WotC "alphabet" didn't feel quite right to me, so I decided that that's the old/formal writing system and devised a new "modern draconic" script that's more suitable for writing with a pen rather than claws. Of course, this led me into speculative research on dragonborn phonotactics and so on... I decided, for example, that Draconic would probably lack bilabial plosives (P and B), and on the other hand could have snorting or hissing sounds as consonants. All in all it turned out to be a rather fun project.

 

[Jools]

We have a lot of fun with Drow in our game. Welsh is one of the two languages Tokien based Elvish on and DnD has particularly embraced this with the Drow (many Drow names are Welsh, Drizzt's panther etc etc). So Drow must clearly speak in a lilting Welsh accent. The best part of this is that two consecutive "L"s are pronounced as a voiceless lateral fricative, completely changing the pronunciation of Lloth to something utterly monstrous and demonic. It all adds up so nicely I'm starting to think that maybe someone intended that way!

 

[Wepwawet]

My take on D&D languages:

Common: Whatever your language and accent is.
Draconic: German accent. It's a bit sibillant, and you know, nazis.
Dwarven: The typical scottish accent. If you're scottish it probably doesn't work
Elven: French. I think the stereotype is similar to french people and elves
Giant: hm... there's giant? Well, just speak as loud as you can (you know, 'cause they're big)
Supernal: An angelical choir sounds in the background, anytime you speak
Abyssal: Speak like goth singers. If your throat can handle it.
Deep Speech: Russian?
Goblin: For me they sound like the old ugly witches from children's movies.
Primordial: This one's interesting. I imagine it as several people speaking at once. Or Saruman at the top of his tower invoking that storm on LotR.