Poll: Voiceovers, accents and archaic language

Story & Setting
#185

Lazyness? No, its the simply thing as: People are differant. Im not complaining about you want Czech langauge att all, if that is what you want then fine. But you get Czech language in the game, just go to settings and choose it. But still other people want English, so it does not matter for you what other people use in a single player game, so if most people want English why not make it then when you can still use Czech?

So my point is simple: Most people in this vote want English, you get Czech in the game still, so you can use that, so no the ‘‘solution’’ is not to take away English


#186

Hi! I’m working as an actor in London however I’m Hungarian!
When I had a casting for BBC, my character was Polish. But the point is they don’t seperate really the Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian, Czech, for them is all the same. They simply call Eastern European accent. My agent and the casting director ordered me to use Hungarian and it will be acceptable for Polish. But the Germans are different.
So i think the Bohemians people can use Eastern European accent with the Hungarian characters as well, but if there are some Teutonic, the German will be perfect them. My biggest fear is the British accent.
International English I mean don’t be too old school like Shakespeare.

#187

I think English with an accurate historical accent would be best. If there aren’t enough voice actors for that I’d say fall back on English with a British accent.

Just please no American accent, I’m American and it is really odd hearing it in a game like this. Skyrim used Vladimir Kulich for the Jarl of Whiterun I believe, and that worked very well.

#188

Dear Warhorse

I like it that you are focusing so much on having your game resemble reality so much. You are making a nice work of art. I just want to say a few things about the language used for the English (I am a native speaker of English).

  1. Shortsword/Longsword distinction
    I am glad that you shy not away from using the name shortsword, because it is common in modern English, and was common when swords of that name were used in war. There are some people who say that it is a purely modern term, but they are mistaken. My problem is with comparing a swordsword to a longsword. To most English people to the best of my knowledge, both a shortsword and a longsword are sorts of one-handed sword. This is the very same as it was in the past. The people who mistakenly call shortsword a purely modern term often also call a two handed sword a longsword, as you have done. The way you have done it gives the mistaken impression that the term shortsword simply means a one-handed sword. It also gives the impression of the term longsword simply meaning “two handed sword”, which is even more new-fangled than the terms “chainmail” and “blood groove”.
    In this case I prefer the archaic meanings of the terms shortsword and longsword, which are also their dominant modern meanings, to recent fads.
    (George silver 1599, Joseph Swetnam 1617, MS Harley 3542/Man yt Wol)

  2. Herbalism
    I know people who know herbalists, and I own a book on herbal medicine. The field of study is called herbalism. I also know people who have studied Chemistry. If you wanted herbal medicine in England, you would not ask for an alchemist, you would ask for a herbalist. Asking for an alchemist would spring to mind attempts to transmute substances into gold. Writings on alchemy have nothing to do with herbal medicine, they are basically early chemistry, thither the basically identical name.
    I think you copied that language from video games in which alchemy involved magic, but having people call medicine alchemy is like having Henry talk about how many hit points he has, or having a peasant boast about how many polygons his shirt is made of. Yes, have something called a main menu, but don’t have peasants taking about what they did on their main menus and complaining about the FPS.
    In this case I would prefer the word alchemy to have its archaic meaning, which is also its modern meaning. Don’t worry, you won’t be left without names for herbalism, herbal medicine or medicine. You can use the names “herbalism”, “herbal medicine” and medicine". Chomping on charcoal and nettles just isn’t alchemy.

#189

There are many British accents. For instance we can distinguish between them into Welsh and English accents. The accent I think you are thinking of, the one the queen speaks, is now a common accent in the south, but it is not the English accent, and certainly not the British accent.
I may be missing something but you really have not narrowed down what you mean by international English. It shouldn’t be too old school. If you mean nothing reconstructed by linguists like Shakespearean English, we are still left with almost every single English accent currently in existence. Do you mean no accent that strongly resembles itself one or two or thee or four hundred years ago? I just don’t see how being recently made is the criterion for being international.

#190

As a Czech I want game in
a) English with very little archaic terms, cause it’s international language and it should be easy to understand without pausing the game and looking to dictionary twice per sentence.
b) Czech, but even then archaic Czech would be too artificial, awkward and even then pointless. Archaic terms or german loan words are ok.

#191

It not depends on which English, Scottish or Irish accent are but it would crash the feeling that we are in Bohemia!
International English, I’m partly agree with you when you said that “no accent that strongly resembles itself one or two or thee or four hundred years ago”. Just because it would be very difficult to understand for a non native speaker.
Some words which is not common nowadays can still remain in the dialogues, like curse words etc.

Regards

#192

I think you limit your options too much here. There are many ways to deal with language. First of all, there is no modern English to begin with. Many people belonging to the same linguistic group speak differently, they have variations in accent, but also in vocabulary, grammar, tone and discourse. All these things make up the ‘register’ and there you can have a ton of registers for the same language.

Characterisation can thus happen based on language. But do mind that registers are not random. For instance, if I would just render the following sentence: “Oy, what yu’re doin’”, you would immediatly think of a kind of Manchester working class accent. Such a phrase tells something about my identity, my social position and the cultural practices.

In the Middle Ages, this was very much the same. Even though I am not an expert on Bohemian history (my personal work as a historian focuses on the High Medieval Low Courntries), I am quite sure that it is not going to be too different. For instance, you have a German speaking upper class. Noble families that moved in from the Realm. You expect those men, certainly in the early fifteenth century, to speak in a ‘courtly fashion’. They would have learned the refinements of courtly interactions from a very young age (even the most ‘blokiest’ of knights). Such men would often verse more complicated words, just to show off there education and well-versed manners. You could use a typical South-British accent for this type of people. Clerics, having received a scholastic education, would of course top that with nice diplomatic even semanticly nice wording (do not forget that retorics were a part of the trivium education). A little over the top PE English (think Oxford dictionary) would be excellent for that type of people.

Of course, you would have a more rural class as well. Using simple phrases, simple words, straight to the point. IN many series Northern or industrial city accents such as that of Liverpool or Manchester are often used. Another example can be found in the English of Samwise Gamgee in Lord of the Rings (Tolkien by the way is an expert in using different registers troughout his book and do mind that not all his language is archaic).

For the authentic Czech nobility or lower knighthood you can use for instance Welsh, Irish or Scottisch speach (but subtly, otherwise it becomes a farce). Certainly Welsh is a great example. THe term Welsh is etymologically derived from ‘the other’ (little historical side note, the country I come from, Belgium, has a Dutch and French speaking part and the Dutch have called the French speakers ‘Walen’, which is related to the word Welsh, also to point them out as the ‘other speakers’). In Bohemia, you actually had the same thing going on, being a frontier area with the Slavonic language group.

Now there is much more to be said about this topic, but I hope this might already serve as an inspiration

#193

I think both languages actually got similar amount of germanic influence over the previous, celtic ones (Marcomanni, Vandal, Lombard vs Anglo, Saxon, Jute
). Later influences (slavic / norse, norman ) were rather minor ones. Old czech name for Italy was Vlachy (Wlochy in modern polish) which has quite a similar background as in Welsh / Wallonia meaning (romanized) indigenous population.

#194

@Gryphonheart That is a very good point, while it would be cool to feature other languages than Czech they would almost be wasted. Because your character wouldn’t know what an NPC was saying. That would be cool even though its probably too much to ask.

#195

There’s no such thing as “Czech accent” in English language. Just Czechs with varying levels of English proficiency.

#196

Most people don’t realize this but the dialect spoken in the American South is very much like the common English spoken before Shakespeare.
The above being said, few things make frown like watching Roman soldiers speak like the cast of “As You Like It”. You may as well let Australians do the dubbing.

I must add that I view a lot of foreign films and I prefer the original language with subtitles because a lot is often lost in translation.

#197

I’m lately focused on iranic influence over ancient and medieval history, culture, religion and language and found out that the fragments of the oldest ‘czech’ language can be actually located somewhere north of persia, either caucasus or sogdiana, which is quite interesting
 maybe the game should be in old persian then? Most of the european and some of the asian languages might have their roots there
 :smiley:

#198

Everyone has an accent regardless of what language they speak, i can clearly hear a very distinct accent when i hear a Czech person speak in English.

#199

Yes but put a French, Austrian, German, Czech, Swede, Swiss (fr/de/it), Hungarian, etc; in a room and have them all attempt an american english accent. You will be hard pressed to correctly identify who came from where based on their english accent. So I sorta agree with @snejdarek when he says the above quote.

But, you can say that it would be jarring to have a french dude reading out the english. That would suck. I think maybe you are getting to the point of having a native germanic(?) language speakers attempt an american accent.

Although I would just set it in Czech and play with subtitles haha. Just wanted to offer some insight into the discussion.

#200

Isn’t that like saying “There’s no such thing as an American accent
just Americans with varying levels of English proficiency”?

1 Like
#201

No one said anything about them attempting an American accent, i said i wanted Czech accents. Your accent does not just magically go away just because you’re speaking another language, an American speaking Czech would still have an American accent, and a Czech speaking English would still have a Czech accent, unless you intentionally tried to get rid of it.

#202

I wasn’t clear before. I made the distinction of say an attempted American accent because to have them try for a British or Shakespeare accent would twist it a touch. And I also say this because, it can be confusing to meet someone who’s 2nd language is english w/ a British accent; and they have completely erased any native(Czech for instance) accent.

I don’t mean to make anything more complicated than it has to be but I think its an important distinction to say American because that, in my opinion, is the more difficult english one. So the Czech accent can stand out more.

To ask @VladimirSnegotygr a question: if you asked Americans to speak with a British accent, wouldn’t they have varying levels of proficiency?

#203

Dude i honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. I said i wanted the voices in this game to be speaking English but have Czech accents. @snejdarek then claimed that Czechs don’t have an accent while speaking English which is not true, i can very clearly hear distinct accent when Czechs speak English no matter how well they speak it.

The point i was trying to make is your accent is not dictated based on the language you speak. A person with an English accent will have an English accent while speaking French (unless they intentionally attempt speaking in a French accent).

1 Like
#204

On American and British accents: Everybody has their own impression of a British accent. Most Americans don’t realize that the British Isles have a great many recognizable accents: The London/BBC accent that many of us are familiar with; The Cockney accent (and rich dialect); Regional accents from Liverpool or Manchester are equally distinct, if you watch early movies featuring the Beatles; Lowland and Highland Scot is particularly distinctive.

When asking an American to speak with a British accent you wander into more of the realm of acting, no less than asking a man from Boston to speak like a Southerner from Atlanta -The vocabulary is identical, with a smattering of local dialect but it isn’t a matter of proficiency, is it?

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