American accents sound too ‘modern’ because American English wasn’t a thing until the Medieval period had long passed, and most fantasy is medieval or medieval-adjacent.
I’m all for broadening the use, though. I love that the Witcher games gave Geralt and the other Witchers of the School of the Wolf American accents. And Dragon Age (back when it was good) giving the dwarves American accents.
I heard it was Southern English which was closest to Elizabethan English.
In any case, reality doesn’t matter. Perceptions matter. Britain is an old country, and America is a new country - so in ‘translating’ an accent to a past period, we tend to see the accent of the ‘old country’ as more appropriate.
well for one from times and places where there was a lot of casual writing there are just straight up people writing about how people speak, which is pretty convenient.
but additionally you can compare different recorded and modern speakers to figure out trends which let you at least vaguely reconstruct what people from the past would probably have sounded like.
and more specifically with new england that’s just wholesale a bunch of people from england who settled a colony, so you effectively have a twin study where you can compare it to modern england.
Actually, modern American English apparently is closer to the English from old days than modern day British English is. Always found that to be an interesting tidbit.
Shakespeare apparently rhymes better in American accents than British ones, since it was written before the Great Vowel Shift. I’m not cultured enough to notice but I like this piece of trivia.
Xenoblade 2 had a nice use of the various English accents, generally each nation/group in the game used a particular accent (eg Mor Ardain = Scottish, villain group Torna spoke American English). One unique character (a blade) had a southern grew-up-on-a-farm accent.
This is actually a misconception. The modern English accents are a result of fashionable language of London. This developed after the United States of America was formed. So after the Middle ages. It’s more likely English speakers in the middle ages sounded more American than English.
American accents sound too ‘modern’ because American English wasn’t a thing until the Medieval period had long passed, and most fantasy is medieval or medieval-adjacent.
OP mentions Australia, which wasn’t even established as a penal colony until 5 years after the US was recognized as an independent nation under the Treaty of Paris.
American accents sound too ‘modern’ because American English wasn’t a thing until the Medieval period had long passed, and most fantasy is medieval or medieval-adjacent.
I’m all for broadening the use, though. I love that the Witcher games gave Geralt and the other Witchers of the School of the Wolf American accents. And Dragon Age (back when it was good) giving the dwarves American accents.
New England accent is actually closest to English of the Middle Ages.
I heard it was Southern English which was closest to Elizabethan English.
In any case, reality doesn’t matter. Perceptions matter. Britain is an old country, and America is a new country - so in ‘translating’ an accent to a past period, we tend to see the accent of the ‘old country’ as more appropriate.
Pahk the caht.
Dahn ehn Cahmahlaht.
I wonder how they measure such a thing
well for one from times and places where there was a lot of casual writing there are just straight up people writing about how people speak, which is pretty convenient.
but additionally you can compare different recorded and modern speakers to figure out trends which let you at least vaguely reconstruct what people from the past would probably have sounded like.
and more specifically with new england that’s just wholesale a bunch of people from england who settled a colony, so you effectively have a twin study where you can compare it to modern england.
That may be true for regional us dialects, but the core of American pronunciation is older than Received Pronunciation
Actually, modern American English apparently is closer to the English from old days than modern day British English is. Always found that to be an interesting tidbit.
Shakespeare apparently rhymes better in American accents than British ones, since it was written before the Great Vowel Shift. I’m not cultured enough to notice but I like this piece of trivia.
Same with the Quebec French
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Xenoblade 2 had a nice use of the various English accents, generally each nation/group in the game used a particular accent (eg Mor Ardain = Scottish, villain group Torna spoke American English). One unique character (a blade) had a southern grew-up-on-a-farm accent.
This is actually a misconception. The modern English accents are a result of fashionable language of London. This developed after the United States of America was formed. So after the Middle ages. It’s more likely English speakers in the middle ages sounded more American than English.
OP mentions Australia, which wasn’t even established as a penal colony until 5 years after the US was recognized as an independent nation under the Treaty of Paris.