The M.E. Accent

Well what exactly is an American accent? Naturally I don't consider myself to having an accent, and I don't think anyone really does . There's the newscaster voice, with perfect English. I think I'm probably closest to that . There's the Southern drawl, and Midwestern speech, and New York accents.

Actually, since we are talking about the English language, American speech is referred to as a dialect. An accent is an overlay of a foreign tongue. There are many American dialects. Standard American is pretty much the midwestern newscaster speak. There are many varieties of Southern and New England. There are Urban dialects, too. (Not to mention valleytalk, surfertalk, and the unmentionable dialects of Canada.) Then think of all the British dialects, and the Kiwi's and Aussies, too.

As for Men sounding like American's in the movie, I pretty much agree, if you are talking about Men of Gondor or Bree. They are of the "West," and worldwide, that is associated with America. I'm trying to be careful not to go country/western with anything. Standard will do.

My challenge comes in creating (and maintaining) different character voices for the Characters! I tried John Wayne for Boromir but it was too funny for words. Now I'm trying a modified Worf from Star Trek. Another failure was Ringo Starr for Pippin! (Now he is an Irish Took, like Bilbo picked up from his mother's side.) Would you believe that a little Clint Eastwood works for Faramir?

People seem amused by French for Orcs. Believe me, it works! (Think of the Frenchmen in Monty Python's Quest for The Holy Grail. I'm talking n-a-s-t-y sounding! Nothing beats French for that!)

Swedish (not as thick as the Swedish Chef!) works to me for dwarves since this is representative of the regional mythological basis for Tolkien's dwarves anyway.

Dwarves and Orcs should not speak the Common Tongue with a dialect, but rather with a "foreign" accent.

Many of my choices, quite frankly, represent the limits of my own abilities to mimic rather than what might be best.

As someone wrote in a previous post, if you can't do accents well, it's better not to do them at all! But if you can, then it richly enhances the experience.

That whole image of 'Swedish Chef Gimli' has been cracking me up ever since I read it here.

"Boor dee bleem doy flur dee orky necky, coom dee bloor deeng flan goor boor DEE CHOP-CHOP!"

ARR... I hate to admit that a french accent would be funny for the orcs... your Monty Python point is so true (And that movie is so funny!). So i guess that's the best accent for those baddies.

Orcs: French, German, or Russian? Now Peter Jackson is going to have a big mess on his hand if he attemps anything like that. Stereotyping is not a good idea, and since the orcs are evil I doubt it would be a smart to make their speech sound like any modern day languangue.

I am guessing we will hear both Kiwi, and American (we do have accents to people of other countries ) accents in the movie.

And IMHO the Orcs should have loud nasty voices

It's not MY fault the French sound like Orcs!

what i said above concerned how their accents sounded (developed?) in my own mind, i wasn't trying to make suggestions for the movie. sorry if that misled anyone.

Worf as Boromir - great! and how could i not see that? (i'm a HUGE Trek fan). how about Avery Brooks (sisko) as Aragorn?

Swedish Chef Gimli - he can kill orcs, but can he clean, dress & cook them? Dinner at Aragorn's coronation: broiled Orc! (but i'd bet they taste so foul that Aragorn would then banish Gimli from Gondor for life!)

aryne *

Only if you're another goblin! Gross! Maybe I should have said dwarves sound NORWEGIAN rather than Swedish!

I understand the point about stereotyped voices (shades of Jar Jar Binks, etc.) I certainly don't want to disrespect the French.

It might not even be their fault they sound like Orcs!

The problem I encounter reading aloud, is that there are so many characters from so many races, that it is necessary to provide different accents and dialects (not to mention character voices) just so that the listener is not confused. Mr. Martinez made an excellent point about the difficulties of using accents and dialects in performance. The possibilities that the Politically Correct may be upset is certainly another. But what are they going to say about Pipeweed and a cool mug of proper 1420?

By the way, it's confirmed now that I will read THE HOBBIT in September at the local Barnes & Noble. I know that this string was not started for that, but this discussion has helped me tremendously.

Even though you have all made fun of my Swedish Dwarves! (sniff)

Right now I'm going with Ronald Coleman for Aragorn. I'm on Chapter Four of FELLOWSHIP reading to my wife, so if anyone can come up with better, I'll try it out soon enough. Sisko and Worf would be too difficult for me to keep apart in scenes together. I don't know if I can even do Sisko. How about Piccard? (And NO! I will not attempt Shatner for the part! "Legolas! Target... the Nazgul!")

Sorry to keep posting and I hope that it hasn't become a nuisance, but I just had to share this!

I got to the Old Forest, reading aloud to my wife last night. I still wasn't sure how to read Tom Bombadil.

He came out like a rhyming Santa Claus! Slightly old fashioned standard american dialect. Deep laughing voice.

And it seemed to work!
"Jolly Tom" = "Jolly Old St. Nick"

???

Hey, now...keep in mind that there is no "real" version of spoken English...I don't hear my accent, either, but I'm sure someone from NZ would. Besides...the English have more of a claim to authenticity than we do.

French orcs, eh? Reminds me of the Tolkien meets Monty Python thread...

GRISHNAKH: Allo? Oo eez eet? Zees eez de castle of mah mastehr Saruman Loimbaaaaaaaa! Ah don' wanna talk to you no more, you silly Hhhhh-obbits!

'obbits?

:lol:

It's official (at least under my roof), Aragorn sounds like Richard Burton. In reading to my wife, he started like Ronald Coleman, but wound up more like Burton with every sentence. (Not the drunken Marc Antony, but the regal King Arthur...) This seems to fit the range of Aragorn's personality and emotions better, to my ear at any rate.