How well does Delainy/Durlyle speak?

[Domi]

I thought they did not have accents, just spoke strangely? Wording and structure changes are relatively simple to achieve even if from time to time you will be slipping in the native tongue's word ordering.

 

But if they did have an accent, I think they would keep the accent. The way you speak gets set very early in life. If your native tongue does not have the sounds of your second tongue and you were 'set' by the age of fluency (about 5 or something).... you are 'set' for good. Later you can change it a bit, but the first structure will remain with you for life and you will always have an accent. Accent reduiction can be achieved through painstacking and repetitive excersises when you are an adult but some sounds you will not be able to distinguish and therefore pronounce correctly. Same goes for regional dialects - some of them are considered incorrectable.

 

At least that what I had been told.

[Lord Ernie]

Not entirely incorrect, but a slight exaggeration. I've spoken Dutch all my life, and any other form of pronunciation is not that much of a problem to me, or not yet, in any case. I'm rather fluent (or at least, try to be) in English and French as well, two languages with decidedly different sounds and words. I think my accent in English is a coloured mix of the accents which I've heard most while learning it (on tv, so that's American and Brittish, mostly), rathen than formed by my first language. My accent in French is probably more 'Liegois' (from around the area of Liege) than anything else, considering I learned most of it there.

 

Note that my first 'exposure' to English happened quite early, but probably after I was 5 years old (not being able to follow the subtitles is a bugger at that age), and French even later (my first classes in school started around the age of 10).

 

So, my conclusion: an accent in a foreign language is indeed partially decided by your own first language (take the German and French accents while speaking English, for example), but is also majorly influenced by the dialect and manner of speaking from you main 'source', your main base of learning it.

[Bri]

Language structure, and accent are two different things.

 

Now, as portrayed in Tales of the Sword Coast, Delainy/Durlyle spoke fractured Common with an accent.

 

I always took the fractured Common to actually be a dialect that the werewolves had developed in their hundreds of years of isolation (the last contact they had with the mainland was with the hero Baldur.) One easy, if cheap way to imply someone is speaking a different language is to give them different emphasis on certain words, as well as different structure.

 

Logically, the werewolves language would actually be a hodge-podge of Common (suited for the human tongue, and as shown, they are tool users) and the lycanthrope tongue (for wolf and half-wolf/half-human shape). And just as the Common of the mainland would have changed from when Elminster first learned it, so too would the werewolves dialect be well on its way to being a different language.

 

Having a shared basis in Common, however distant, it is not unreasonable for Delainy/Durlyle to conform to the version spoken around them.

 

I'd also like to hear an accent of some sort in the voicing.

 

But if they did have an accent, I think they would keep the accent.

Well, part of one's accent also depends on how one's voice actually sounds, as well as the structure one speaks.

 

But Cam and me have agreed that it would be good to get as close to the original voices for Delainy/Durlyle we can get.

 

Accent is one thing most people may be able to mute, but they can't get rid of it entirely (though exposure to other cultures can also change it over time).

 

And yes, I was one of those who put her fingers in her ears when I heard Fran Drescher speak...

[Domi]

That is tru that you will try to modify it via later influences (for example my Spanish teacher was able to tell that I started French the moment I opened my mouth in class), but the core will be set by your first, especially if it has very different sounds. It was is generally recognized as 'such and such' accent. For example, Chineese speakers accent, Spanish speakers accent, Arabic speakers accent, Eastern-Europenian. An accent reduction coach will break the similar groups appart to make sure that people 'hear' the mistakes the other person makes.

[Lord Ernie]

And yes, I was one of those who put her fingers in her ears when I heard Fran Drescher speak...

Slightly off-topic here (not entirely), but have you ever heard the dubbed French version of the Nanny? They actually gave her a rather low, mature, sexy sounding voice. Absolutely hilarious (at least the first time).

[Bri]

*nods* And the assumption I made is that Delainy/Durlyle has had enough exposure to Common to pick most of it up without a problem (and this is true of a good many others I knew when fully immersed in another country and their language).

[Domi]

O, yes, of course. Btw, will Del/Dur have voicing?

[Sillara of the Tamari]

Lord Ernie, I have noticed that for some reason, probably the number and type of sounds in your native tongue, native speakers of *Dutch* can learn to speak other languages (at least the Romance ones and English) in a relatively unaccented fashion.

 

I myself began to study Italian as a child, though older than 5, and I was soon able to speak it well enough to pass for a Roman native. Due to the Romance vowel practise I gained in doing this, when I later began to learn Japanese (at 15), I was able to approximate the accent well enough that now I can pass for Japanese over the telephone. (I have even had people offer to give me telephone numbers in Japanese, as that must obviously be easier for me than English! )

 

What I mean to say is, regarding Delainy/Durlyle, you have a good deal of leeway in whether to give them accents. The accents and sounds of their native tongue, coupled with their exposure to common, would determine whether or not they had accents.

 

 

Sillara

[Bri]

O, yes, of course. Btw, will Del/Dur have voicing?

 

Yes, definitely. Total voice if we can. We also think we may offer a version without voice (only things like her/his battle cries would be included) for those stuck with dial-up. (It took me a LONG time to download Kelsey, for example)

 

What I mean to say is, regarding Delainy/Durlyle, you have a good deal of leeway in whether to give them accents. The accents and sounds of their native tongue, coupled with their exposure to common, would determine whether or not they had accents.

 

Delainy/Durlyle's accent really wasn't that thick, so if we just get the actual sound of their voice (call it tone or what have you)...that is my biggest concern.

[Domi]

Nice