Nilfgaardian & Elven Accents

+
Nilfgaardian & Elven Accents

So here are the clear-cut accents for the English games that we know:
Aedirn: Welsh
Kaedwen: Southern Irish
Redania: Northern English
Temeria: Southern English
Novigrad: London
Skellige: Northern Irish
Toussaint: Danish
Dwarves: Scottish
Ofir: Persian/Arab

My question is what the hell is the Nilfgaardian accent supposed to be analogous to? Obviously they're inspired by ancient Rome, but seem to also draw considerable influence from the Holy Roman Empire. But their accents are clearly not Roman nor German. They almost sound Dutch to me, but I really can't put a finger on it. The dwarves clearly have Scottish accents, and it seems that the elves sound a bit different than humans in general, but I can't quite tell what sort of British Isles accent they have; maybe its received pronunciation? IDK, somebody clear this up
 
cajsoccer;n9790311 said:
They almost sound Dutch to me,
I seem to recall this was mentioned as the choice for their accent. Although, sometimes, I can't quite hear it for all Nilfgaardians.
cajsoccer;n9790311 said:
The dwarves clearly have Scottish accents, and it seems that the elves sound a bit different than humans in general, but I can't quite tell what sort of British Isles accent they have; maybe its received pronunciation?
The REDs followed the now rather standard modern fantasy tradition of a Scots brogue for Dwarves, and Received British for Elves. From what I understand, when they first made The Witcher, they were required to use these standards for the localisation, and simply chose not to break with tradition in the subsequent games.
 
Riven-Twain;n9795681 said:
I seem to recall this was mentioned as the choice for their accent. Although, sometimes, I can't quite hear it for all Nilfgaardians.

The REDs followed the now rather standard modern fantasy tradition of a Scots brogue for Dwarves, and Received British for Elves. From what I understand, when they first made The Witcher, they were required to use these standards for the localisation, and simply chose not to break with tradition in the subsequent games.

Interesting. So the elves do speak with received accents? I suppose that is pretty standard for fantasy universes.
 
I agree with the choice of Dutch for the Nilfgaardian Empire -- it would be interesting to see if someone (unlike me) whose knowledge of (especially Low) Germanic languages was not derived mainly from books and from a shaky acquaintance with the IPA would agree.
 
Last edited:
The whole evolution of dwarves is ironic, since their fantasy lore is ironic as well, but how DID the iconic dwarves lore come to be? Woman having beards, and scottish accents. I guess it just fits so well, nobody cared to change it from the first pass.
 
PatriciusAlbus;n9804531 said:
I agree with the choice of Dutch for the Nilfgaardian Empire -- it would be interesting to see if someone (unlike me) whose knowledge of (especially Low) Germanic languages was not derived mainly from books and from a shaky acquaintance with the IPA would agree.

The butler in the Royal Palace in Vizima does, indeed, have a Dutch accent - for the most part, in any case. I know this as Dutch is one of my native languages. For other characters it depends. General Voorhis doesn't sound Dutch at all, for instance. I think that the actors' brief was simply to sound 'exotic' with bit of a west Germanic 'twang' if possible.

The accents in Toussaint are similarly diverse, with some actors attempting for a 'French' accent (the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood being the best example of this), whilst others just seem to go for 'exotic'.
 
Ghaisos;n9866951 said:
The accents in Toussaint are similarly diverse, with some actors attempting for a 'French' accent (the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood being the best example of this), whilst others just seem to go for 'exotic'.

Ambient music in Toussaint reminds me of France a bit.
 
Last edited:
i would say that nilfgaurd is more based of the holy roman empire as in germany austria and prussia, this makes sense as the accent sounds kind of southern german the actor that plays voorhis is polish so that kinda lines up also geralt mentions the fresh alpine air in southern nilfguard in the sunstone mission to eilhart
this sounds like the black forest or the alps
Post automatically merged:

I think that the Nilfgaardians have an English accent that has been changed a bit.
emhyr sounds english but the soldiers dont and neither does voorhis
Post automatically merged:

ophir with a "ph" is mentioned in the bible and sounds similar to ofir, it exports spices and precious metals, archaeologists believe it to be in modern day Zimbabwe but the torah hints its in india somewhere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophir
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom