The Accents of the Witcher 2

[lilrhys]

The Accents of the Witcher 2

This isn't going to be an in-depth commentary on the politics or the themes or the writing style of the Witcher 2, it's just something I've found really interesting when playing through the Witcher 2. It's also something that I commend CDPR highly for, especially considering that their based in Poland rather than Britain (where most of the accents come from). This is the fact that they've given each 'faction' or at least each cultural group their own accent (in the English version of the game at least although I'm not sure if the same is true for the other languages that the game was produced in).

Temeria

The accents of the Temerians in this game resemble that of the ones found in Southern England. These vary from the more working class accents found in Flotsam to the more 'refined' ones of the Temerian noblemen. Commandant Loredo being a prime example of the first with King Foltest being a better example for the latter.

Aedirn

The main Aedirnian accents in this game resemble various Welsh accents. There are two distinct versions in the game. The one spoken by the common folk (which is most obviously seen when they form a rabble) is one found in the South Wales Valleys (where I live) which is a former heavily industrialised area. The accent held by Saskia and Stennis however is far less 'nasally' and is more representative of the 'official' Welsh accent (i.e really bland and not as distinct as other Welsh accents).

Furthermore, in Flotsam we see an interesting mix of culture. It's explained in the game that Flotsam was stolen from Demaved by Foltest and this division is also seen in game. Within the port the majority of the populace are Temerian and thus hold Temerian accents. However, in Lobinden the townsfolk are still Aedirnian at heart and thus have an Aedirnian accent to match.

Kaedwen

The Kaedweni accent is probably the most obvious one to the majority of people. Nearly everyone in the Kaedweni camp has a strong Irish accent. The only people without this accent is Sile and Dethmold with even King Henselt having as strong an accent as his soldiers (which maybe a representative of his character).

Redania

Although there aren't many Redanian characters in the game CDPR have still given them the same accent. This is a Northern English (or Northerner) accent which King Radovid holds. This is of course a change from the original Witcher in which he had a far more annoying and a far less convincing accent.

Others

As for the other groups seen in the game I can see that the Dwarves share the trope of having a nice vibrant Scottish accent and the Nilfgaardians all speak English as if their first language is German.

Then we come to the weakest part of CDPR's covering of the accents in TW2 this being the accents of many of the major characters. Mainly the random american and [posh] british accents strewn throughout the game and in many of the major characters. This is understandable with characters like Geralt who travel all over the continent and thus create an accent of their own. On the other hand the major mages usually stay at one court or another for a long time so it's a it of a mystery as to how Dethmold hasn't grown a Kaedweni accent or how Triss has an accent similar to Geralt.

Of course this whole argument is far too nitpicky and only exists due to how good the rest of the accents were in the game but it's something that if resolved could make TW3 that little bit better. Even if this isn't possible I hope to god Melitele that the accent scheme is continued in the next title (mainly because I can't wait to hear their interpretation of Crach an Craite and the Skelligs).

I hope you enjoyed this pointless bit of typing and all feedback is enjoyed.

-Rhys

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

Just... thank you for this "pointless bit of typing" - to me, it was a very interesting read

 

[Eadian]

According to the books i get a feeling that Triss spent alot of her childhood in Kaer Morhen so that could kind of explain Triss' accent being similar to Geralt's. But then again Geralt is meant to have adopted the Rivian accent in order to go with his name.

Just an idea, maybe?

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Well, being a Russian-born guy (even with Welsh-born grand-parents), I can discern German accent of nilfs, which is unfortunate. Nilfgaardian language (as well as the Elder) is a made-up language that has Welsh language (plus other Celtic languages) as a base. I kind of expected welsh accent, but it was not going to be. I found it funny that in the country with a lot of surnames as ap Gruffydd, for example, or French ones, people speak with German accent.
Irish accent is so distinct that even I, who is completely tune-deaf, can hear it. All in all, I found sounds of voices and accents in TW2 pretty damn great. I wounder if some people in TW3 would speak with strong Russian accent. That would be real horror-inducing, judging by Russian characters presented by Hollywood.

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Well, here's the thing- the accents we experience in the game might be added just for acoustic aesthetics, and might not have any significance in the witcher universe, game or book-wise.

Accents in our world exist because of the disparities in linguistic evolution experienced by different populations, and most of all they are influenced by the habits formed because of the way we speak our primary language.

There are two different aspects we must especially consider when discussing accents: the influence of the primary language, or that of a dialect on the person with the accent.

I am unaware of the primary languages of Aedern, Kaedwen etc., but any accent which develops in such a region will be influenced by it or by any regional dialects.

Moreover, for accents to have an impact in storytelling, the writer must set up the world in a similar way to ours in order for us appreciate the development and utilization of the fictional language aspects; otherwise what we observe is just speculation, and nothing more.

Finally, we can't just say that an accent is such and such simply because it sounds like it; hearing is subjective. In order to appreciate the similarities between real world accents and those invented for use in a story, we must compare and analyze the language components from a linguistic perspective, e.g. this includes comparison of syllable structure, stress, intonation, etc of both the fictional accent and its alleged real world counterpart.

This is not a criticism of your post, I'm just adding to the discussion; thanks for starting it.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Well, in the beginning the authors wanted to present Nilfgaard as the empire of evil, like Mordor or Nazi Germany (which was not an empire, btw). Probably, that's why nilfs speak with German accent. Thankfully, CDPR dropped this black/white moral crap a la LOTR, and went for gray morality of ASoIaF, when no state is essentially evil. All empires, be that Roman, Russian, or Byzantium, share a lot of similarities with Nilfgaard, but not Nazi Germany.

 

[GuyNwah]

The Nilfgaardians sound more Dutch or Platt than High German to me, but I agree, it should be closer to Elder Speech than it is.

Dethmold is Kaedwen (Ban Ard) born and educated, so he should have the Kaedweni accent, though he is given a different voice for characterization. Sile spent most of her time in Kovir and has only recently moved into the Kaedweni camp, so there is no reason for her to share their accent.

Geralt's accent, whatever it is, is so clearly not Rivian that he's called out repeatedly on it in TW1.

 

[lilrhys]

Well, being a Russian-born guy (even with Welsh-born grand-parents), I can discern German accent of nilfs, which is unfortunate. Nilfgaardian language (as well as the Elder) is a made-up language that has Welsh language (plus other Celtic languages) as a base.

Yeah, I've noticed that recently especially with 'Gwynbleidd' which is extremely close to the Welsh translation of White Wolf (Blaidd Gwyn). I've always liked conlangs and the Elder Speech - Nilfgaardian dynamic is especially interesting.

This is not a criticism of your post, I'm just adding to the discussion; thanks for starting it.

I am by no means an expert on accents and linguistics, I'm just somebody with a passin interest so all discussion is constructive.

Personally I think the choice of accents in TW2 was made on an aesthetic level for the purpose of creating a more immersive world. I don't think that the use of Irish accents for Kaedwen means that the potato is a part of their staple diet (apologies to all Irish people for that).

 

[Blothulfur]

Quite nice as a Tyke to hear the Redanians, all in all the background voices were amazing, with many a local idiom I never expected to hear. CDPR are damn good at this.

Triss and Dandelion weren't up to much though.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Personally I think the choice of accents in TW2 was made on an aesthetic level for the purpose of creating a more immersive world. I don't think that the use of Irish accents for Kaedwen means that the potato is a part of their staple diet (apologies to all Irish people for that).

Given that Henselt looks like Russian Czar, and his troops - like cssacks (Zivik is hilarious in this respect), I half-expected to hear Kaedweni speak with terrible Russian accent. Irish was a welcomed relief.

 

[dragonbird]

Nice analysis, but I think "Northern English" is a bit vague - there's a huge difference between Scouse and Geordie, but they're both Northern English. As Bloth said, it's a Yorkshire accent. />

Regarding

On the other hand the major mages usually stay at one court or another for a long time so it's a it of a mystery as to how Dethmold hasn't grown a Kaedweni accent or how Triss has an accent similar to Geralt.

I've lived in three countries for between 15 and 20 years each, all of them were natively English speaking and all of them had strong accents. I borrowed a lot of vocabulary from the two "adopted" countries, but not the accent. My accent is still that of my native country. That isn't unusual. On the other hand, my grandmother went to the USA for three weeks and came back with an American accent. It really depends on the individual.

Incidentally, I'm curious - is something similar done with the accents in the non-English versions of the game?

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Not in Russian version. In Russian language there is no such diversification of accents as in English. Even though some people claim that they can instantly say I was born in Moscow by the way I speak, I wouldn't be able to do it even to save my life. All native Russian speakers sound the same to me.

 

[bengeddes]

Henselt sounded Scottish to me rather than Irish. Not in the same manner as the dwarves, but maybe more an Edinburgh accent in the same vein as Sean Connery (without the distinctive sibilant 's').

Some of the accents sounded a little wonky to me, and by that I mean that sometimes I would hear an accent phasing in and out so I couldn't place it at all.

Letho was one. He sounded very much like an Englishman going for an American southern drawl (as it turns out this was the case). As a southerner it immediately sounded "off" to my ears.

Saskia was another one. Her Welsh accent phased in and out, often during a single sentence. I couldn't tell if it was a Welsh actor trying to suppress the accent or a non-Welsh actor trying to affect one. That's not to say she didn't sound GREAT though. To me it was the sexiest voice in the game. I'm fairly sure the same voice actress did the Succubus too, and that accent used there was extremely exotic to my ears.

 

[Kinley]

The first game had a lot of Dutch accents, and names too, but in the second they steered away from that completely, wonder why.

 

[dragonbird]

Henselt sounded Scottish to me rather than Irish. Not in the same manner as the dwarves, but maybe more an Edinburgh accent in the same vein as Sean Connery (without the distinctive sibilant 's').

Nope, definitely Irish, definitely not Scottish, and not even a little bit Edinburgh. The vowels are all wrong for Scotland.
I agree that it's a little bit off though - he seemed to change accent a few times. The VA's English, which is probably why.

Saskia's VA is Welsh. And you're right about Letho, he's also Welsh.

 

[bengeddes]

Nope, definitely Irish, definitely not Scottish, and not even a little bit Edinburgh. The vowels are all wrong for Scotland.
I agree that it's a little bit off though - he seemed to change accent a few times. The VA's English, which is probably why.

Alright. Just ignore that then. I should be able to tell the difference but something threw me off.

 

[goopit]

I imagine all sorcerers always want to pronounce things correctly hence why they don't have too much of an accent.

 

[tizleness]

I enjoy that Geralt, Triss, and Merigold have American accents, as I am AMERICAN!
if the OP is correct in saying they have these accents because of traveling all over these 3 do indeed travel quite a bit! in "The Last Wish" Merigold was with Geralt quite a bit, and since Merigold is the most popular poet in the land... he must travel!
I also like the main characters being American because apparently anything FANTASY in setting European accents are the NORM. It's nice to get variety!

 

[dragonbird]

I like the idea that there's probably a booming industry in the UK supplying VAs with "exotic-sounding" accents to video game companies, but yes, I'd like to get a little more variety. Especially as British accents don't sound very exotic to us Brits.

 

[goopit]

wanted to share this adorable kids accent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB3ieNhEsDY