What accents should aliens have?

Eddie the head

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DoPo said:
Eddie the head said:
DoPo said:
Eddie the head said:
I imagine the prothean in ME3 having an african accent
They have Jamaican accents... I don't know if that helps.
I am like 99.99999% sure it was not Jamaican. It might not have been African but I am positive it's not Jamaican.
Well, here's the video with the leaked lines, I saw.


It does sound Jamaican to me, I may be mistaking.
Like I said dude i'm pretty sure that is meant to be African. I might be wrong lets just find out who the voice actor it first ok? I will say I did think it was Jamaican at first but after hearing a longer video it sounded African. Agree that neither of us know for sure?
 

DoPo

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Jan 30, 2012
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Eddie the head said:
Like I said dude i'm pretty sure that is meant to be African. I might be wrong lets just find out who the voice actor it first ok? I will say I did think it was Jamaican at first but after hearing a longer video it sounded African. Agree that neither of us know for sure?
After hearing the longer version, I'm no longer so sure it is Jamaican. It does sound more African-y but I don't really know. I'm not that familiar with African accents. At any rate, the longer video had a better selection of samples.

What I'm saying is that I agree.
 

Bara_no_Hime

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thaluikhain said:
I was wondering, assuming you aren't putting on a made up space accent, do people think some accents just seem more appropriate for aliens than others?
It depends.

In Doctor Who, it is stated that the Tardis 'translates' not only the words, but the accent, into something culturally relevant to the listener. Hence everyone sounding like they're from the British Islands (which works great for a British TV show). The Tardis also seems to attempt to match up certain regional similarities with individuals - a Greek servant, for instance, sounds like a lower-class English woman.

In Babylon 5, all the aliens have actually learned to speak English (because it's an Earth space station, and damn it, if they're going to be on our space station, they're going to learn to speak Earth!). Thus, many of the aliens have very polished American accents, but a few (for no apparent reason) have random other accents. Apart from the obvious reasons (they hired non-American actors for several roles) it can be easily explained by what "Learn English" software they picked up. Clearly the Centauri bought theirs from England, whereas the Narn got the American version. Of course, when one accent doesn't fit (like a certain Minbari), it stands out and just comes across as strange.

In other cases, the assumption is that the aliens (and the humans) are speaking some other language, and that the show is merely being translated for our benefit as the audience. Star Wars is a good example of this - I mean, why would they be speaking English before there was an England? In this case, again, the accent is for the benefit of the audience, and is used to communicate data about the character. Which is great, as long as the accents communicate something about the character.

This also happens while dubbing anime. There are many regional accents in Japanese - how do you portray that in an English release? Copious "Southern Belle" accents appears to be the main solution (to several different regional accents, actually - not sure what the logic there was).

So yeah, in the end I generally don't mind accents on aliens - so long as there's an explanation why. Star Trek was often an offender in the how not-to-do-this school - why would a computerized Universal Translator (which is an absurd concept anyway - you'd hear the aliens speak in their language as well as the translation, not instead of the translation) give aliens random accents? Why did Troy sound nothing like her mother? I mean, other than bad casting?

[sub]To be clear, universal translators that affect the brain directly - like the Babal Fish, the Translator Microbes from Farscape, and the Tardis from Dr. Who - are the only kind where it makes sense to do on-the-fly translation. A pin worn on the front of one's shirt would not prevent one from hearing the alien speech, even if it did provide a translation in real time.[/sub]

Edit: Oh, and in Mass Effect, unless told otherwise, I assume that everyone is actually speaking the Asari language (the language of the Citadel Council) and it merely being translated into English for my (the player's) benefit. Honestly, I hope they just leave it alone in ME - explaining player convenience in canon technical stuff is almost always a bad idea - see Star Trek above.
 

him over there

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There accent is autotune obviously.

Seriously though you could just say that they have human shaped pallets so it is feasible that they have an array of human accents.

Or of course just go district 9 style and have grunts with subtitles.
 

Easton Dark

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All English all the time, because it makes the female aliens more attractive, and the male aliens funnier.
 

geK0

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*monotone*

Confused; I do not think that aliens would share an accent with any human ethnicity.

Hopeful; maybe we will see some creative writers invent exciting, new accents for aliens.

Sarcastic; nobody has done anything like that yet.

 

ccggenius12

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I feel like any aliens using translators would be vocal in a way that is pleasing to those around them. Thus, aliens all sound like Morgan Freeman.
 

FirMothoth

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I think they should/would sound like Stephen Hawking or Anonymous. You know, because the voice speaking english to you is a translator, not the alien's possibly inaudible voice. Or that weird double-voice thing that the Turians, Reapers, Protoss, Angels, etc. seem to have.
 

Mr.Mattress

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Jul 17, 2009
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I believe Aliens should have Eldritch Accents.

For Example:

"I Have Three Pennies to give."
"Let's Go To McDonalds Today."
"I like it when it Snows."

Becomes;

"Shhhhi Haffff Shhhhree Ph'pennies th'to gifffffff."
"Lyyyyyt's Ko th'to McquaDoanyyylds Th'toodeeeeee."
"Shhhhi lyyyyrk ithhhhhhh whun ithhhhhhh Shnowesh."

(Please note, these are rough recreations of an Eldritch Accent when it comes to English and other Germanic Languages. For Romance Languages, the Accent is a bit more hidden. For Asiatic Languages and African native tongues, as well as Native American languages, the Accent is much much Thicker.)
 

Deathmageddon

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Most of the aliens I've personally encountered had a Mexican accent.

(I grew up in Houston, it's not racist if it's true)
 

SomeBrianDude

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They should speak with either really strong Dundonian or Aberdonian accents, so no-one can understand a word they're saying. Or they should all sound exactly like Brian Blessed. I find either alternative acceptable.
 

Leemaster777

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Feb 25, 2010
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I say all aliens should talk like Soundwave:


Tell me that wouldn't make our first encounter THAT much more awesome.
 

octafish

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DoPo said:
Eddie the head said:
DoPo said:
Eddie the head said:
I imagine the prothean in ME3 having an african accent
They have Jamaican accents... I don't know if that helps.
I am like 99.99999% sure it was not Jamaican. It might not have been African but I am positive it's not Jamaican.
Well, here's the video with the leaked lines, I saw.


It does sound Jamaican to me, I may be mistaking.
If not Jamaican specifically, it does sound suspiciously West Indian in general. I may have to get the Collectors Edition now so I can fight the Reapers side by side with Mr Whispering Death, Michael Holding.