Dialects in games/movies etc.

[Thorwyn]

This is mainly a question for the native english speakers of FHOT...

There´s a phenomenon I encountered a couple of times in the past that I could never quite explain. When you see a movie or play a game with voice-over cutscenes and one or more of the characters are not speaking pure english but some dialect although the action does not take place in the real world... why does that seem to work?
I particulary remember Pipin in Lotr with his rather thick scottish dialect and I never heard any complaints about it. Why?

Whenever someone tries to do the same in german, the entire atmosphere goes KABOOOM. In Baldur´s Gate 1, the designers decided to let some NPCs speak in various german regional dialects and the result was so horrible that I had to download an english language patch.

Can anyone explain?

 

[Olgaline]

it just does....

I could just imagine a danish languege pack... :s eeek!
I sometimes cant help but overhear the danish cartoon dubbings on cartoon network
or disney when the boy is watching tv..makes the hairs on my back stand on end.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

I think its down to sterotyping of accents by either home or foreign audiences. Differeing English dialects are so widely used in media anyway people are just used to it. Perhaps in other languages certain dialects are too strongly associated with certain regional sterotypes it breaks suspension of disbelief.

One of the more interesting cases where it goes a bit wrong is in Jurassic Park. Richard Attenborough wanted to play his char as someone who had picked up bits of accent throughout his life and lost some of the Scottish accent. However, on screen it just looks like someone who can't consistently play a Scottish accent - even though the actor himself is more than capable of sustaining the accent if he had chosen to.

 

[Vasconcelos]

Its the same when we have to endure translations made by latins, their gazillion of dialects (caribean, central american, southamerican....) sound like watching a soap opera

 

[Ezteq]

lol I'll tell you what gets me; and this is mildly related to what you are saying...kind of. But in movies and things where they are pioneers just discovering america (or australia) and yet they all have strong american (or australian) accents already Oo

what is that, there's like an 'accent in a can' vending machine at the docks or something? I mean would it kill the directors to actually research the accents people had at the time that all merged to create the modern accent.

 

[fettoken]

it just does....

I could just imagine a danish languege pack... :s eeek!
I sometimes cant help but overhear the danish cartoon dubbings on cartoon network
or disney when the boy is watching tv..makes the hairs on my back stand on end.

Really? I can compare it when i hear swedish dubs of certain cartoon shows or for example Spongebob Squarepants i mostly think they are spot on. Esp compared to the godawful english dub crap. But yes, dialects in swedish for certain games/dubs is a no-go as well, makes you cringe.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Eurotrash used to be amusing for using all kinds of regional accents when dubbing interviews with foreign-language speakers.

 

[Calaen]

Eurotrash used to be amusing for using all kinds of regional accents when dubbing interviews with foreign-language speakers.

HAHAA, I had forgotten all about Eurotrash!!!!!

 

[Ezteq]

Eurotrash used to be amusing for using all kinds of regional accents when dubbing interviews with foreign-language speakers.

oh god yes rofl I remember the naked housekeepers and they had like brummy accents or something, was very funny

 

[pez]

Pippin, and in fact all the hobbits, affected rural accents to a greater or lesser extent. If the hobbits had had Manc or Scouser or even Glaswegian accents it probably would not have worked.

As it is, they were rural and they sounded rural.

 

[Sparx]

The Dwarves had the thicker Scottish accents. And Hobbits had all country type accents, which i thought was all rather pleasant

 

[TdC]

well I'm currently playing The Witcher, and tbh the voice acting is particularly dire. other than that...meh.

 

[crispy]

it just does....

I could just imagine a danish languege pack... :s eeek!
I sometimes cant help but overhear the danish cartoon dubbings on cartoon network
or disney when the boy is watching tv..makes the hairs on my back stand on end.

Ever played World In Conflict? The NATO missions have a danish accent transport truck, its hilarious: 'Yæs yæs, ajm ån maj væi nao!'

 

[liloe]

Whenever someone tries to do the same in german, the entire atmosphere goes KABOOOM. In Baldur´s Gate 1, the designers decided to let some NPCs speak in various german regional dialects and the result was so horrible that I had to download an english language patch.

Can anyone explain?

Best … localisation …*ever ^^ Quote: "Jetzt gibts glei mächtich eens aufe Rübe" Even friends from "the east" were laughing their ass off.

But to start off: It's important to not mix different terms in such a discussion. There is a difference between dialect, register, accent and a few others. The generic term for all these is "variety" (see my links at the end of the post).

By the way, I don't think that every German dialect is perceived that way. Of course the dialects from Saxony, Bavaria or Berlin were so often subject of different jokes, that most people will laugh when they hear them in a movie or game.

It's kinda different for mixtures of dialects and sociolects, though. Let's say you have a dwarf speaking some "Ruhrpott", "Berlin" and "working class" mix of language. I don't think that this would sound strange, because it's not a variety that really exists, but rather a mixture of different ways of expressing things that most people would relate to "hard working", "mining" or similar things … i. e. dwarves.

My problem is of course, that I don't really know the various dialects present in the UK, but I'm quite sure that having someone sound like a person from Manchester would be quite amusing, even for people from the UK.

The same thing counts for France, by the way. If you had someone speaking like a person from the south, the French would be laughing their asses off.

So to come back to my first point. What you need is a mixture of dialect and sociolect, to reflect the speech register of a certain group of people that normally doesn't exist (like the Hobbits). Now to reflect that register, you have to use linguistic varieties that existing people know.

I'd like to write a bit more, but my English kinda comes to an end here. I guess I could write more in German, but I'm not sure this would help here

Just for those who're interested, here's an article from Wikipedia about that topic. I gave the German one as well because I for myself am more familiar with the expressions used there (diatopisch, diastratisch, etc.) and well, mainly for Thor =)

Linguistic Varieties

Linguistische Varietäten (German)

 

[Thorwyn]

It's kinda different for mixtures of dialects and sociolects, though. Let's say you have a dwarf speaking some "Ruhrpott", "Berlin" and "working class" mix of language. I don't think that this would sound strange, because it's not a variety that really exists, but rather a mixture of different ways of expressing things that most people would relate to "hard working", "mining" or similar things … i. e. dwarves.

A dwarf saying "ey, ich muss getz aba ma auffe Aabeit" would make me laugh just as well. It doesn´t make a difference. Any dialect in german just doesn´t work.. at least for my tastes.

My problem is of course, that I don't really know the various dialects present in the UK, but I'm quite sure that having someone sound like a person from Manchester would be quite amusing, even for people from the UK.

But you can tell the difference between Oxford English, Scottish and Aussie dialect!?
Roo Stercogburn mentioned stereotyping of accents. And as far as I can see, there´s a lot of stereotyping in German, so why is English different?

So to come back to my first point. What you need is a mixture of dialect and sociolect, to reflect the speech register of a certain group of people that normally doesn't exist (like the Hobbits). Now to reflect that register, you have to use linguistic varieties that existing people know.

I see your point but it still doesn´t seem to explain the difference. Pipin just speaks with a scottish dialect. The same in german wouldn´t work and I wonder why. It must be more than just speech register and social background.

Thanks for the links though.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Here's my take on it;

No one thinks of their own language as a "working" language in voice over. Sometimes it works, but most the times it doesn't.

English is a very working language because it's, well, corny enough and it is the mainstream language. This makes it a language we're used to in hollywood etc. It's basically been forced into our heads as the defualt language. It's expected and for example, i could never watch dubbed movies. It's just wrong on some level, it doesn't fit.

The main reason is though, people just don't think of their own language as cool. It's regular, off the mill, mundane and yes, sometimes funny, like someone saying "I'll be back!" and it just sounds lame or funny.

Ask a scotsman and they don't see anything special in the dialect. Ask someone outside germany and they will say that people talking german in games is cool.

To me, some guy shouting in german sounds a lot different then to you.

Now, why english accent works?(more to the point as i explained that)

As the englihs language is the default language, different dialects of the english language are like subtle variation to characters. Much like say, a scar over the eye or a eye patch and a cigar. If you hear someone talk in a pure english "I do say" accent, you instantly get the feeling "this guy si like this", but(key here) you don't have to concentrate on understanding it. Unless it's drunk scot ofcourse

Then there's the whole regional rivalry. You find a dialect funny, because you have a pre-determined idea of the people living there. If you heard, for example, your own dialect being spoken, it would be normal as it's as daily as english.

So in short; english is the brainforced language we are used to in cinema, games and series. The dialects are a character trait. Voice overs in your own countries dialects is funny, partly due to the regional "rivalry".

 

[Bugz]

Some of the responses on this thread have confused me to no end - i.e. I have no idea what half of you are meaning lol

 

[liloe]

A dwarf saying "ey, ich muss getz aba ma auffe Aabeit" would make me laugh just as well. It doesn´t make a difference. Any dialect in german just doesn´t work.. at least for my tastes.

Sorry for the German now =) But would it disturb you if a dwarf said: "Wir ham malocht wie die Schweine"

I really thought quite long about what you wrote and somehow you're right ^^ It's harder to fit in a German variety. So the outcome is the above, which is about as close as I can get without making it sound like a dialect.

Maybe what Toth said is right. As German is our native tongue we instantly relate a variety to a certain region and by this to a certain stereotype.

But you can tell the difference between Oxford English, Scottish and Aussie dialect!?
Roo Stercogburn mentioned stereotyping of accents. And as far as I can see, there´s a lot of stereotyping in German, so why is English different?

Frankly, no ^^ I know what Oxford English is, but I couldn't tell from what region a certain speaker is from