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What is the dialect people speak in Baldur's Gate?

AlonsoAlonso Member Posts: 806
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
I'm curious about the way people speak in the game, some words and grammar are a bit different from standard English. Not being a native English speaker, I've no idea of what kind of dialect it is. For instance, a line from Cromwell: "There YE go, ME friend. Use it well. And if YE COMES across anything else of interest, YE KNOWS where to bring it, AYE?"

Things like "me friend" and "aye" I have heard IRL, although not often. Others, like "ye comes", I've never heard outside this game.

Comments

  • smyth25smyth25 Member Posts: 219
    I think most of the characters don't have any particular dialect of English, but it seems nearly all dwarves have Scottish accents and dialects. From my experience at least there aren't many different dialects in the game but there are a lot of different accents.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    The vast majority of characters are using standard English with an American accent, with certain modern-sounding words cut out and the occasional Faerunian phrase thrown in (saying Hells instead of Hell, tenday instead of week, etc.). Dwarves are nearly always given Scottish accents; that's pretty standard stereotypical dwarf stuff in fantasy. Aside from that, characters will use alternate accents and dialects for flavor and to connote character traits. Farmer Brun has a distinct Southern American accent (not "South American," but the southern part of the United States) to indicate his rural upbringing, and some characters, like Scrooloose, will use some extra slang to indicate a lower-class background.

    No idea why Gaelan Bayle sounds Australian.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    edited April 2019
    Kagain and Yeslick don't have a scottish accent , mind you.

    I that Jaheira's accent would be Tethyrian , but Khalid's is nowhere near what we would expect from a Calishite. Of course that in both cases I'm considering real world resemblance (Tethyr being inspired on Spain and Calimshan being middle eastern). Rasaad's would be the real calishite accent.

    Viconia has no accent, but she turns on her drow accent when speaking her native language.

    Yoshimo has definitely the accent of Karaturian (japanese) who's fluent in common (English ,in case of English version of BG2)

    Irenicus and Ellesime sound british , in Jon's case because David Warner is such a brilliant actor who had voiced many powerful villains and in Ellesime's case I think it's because it makes her sound more like a queen.
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    I may be wrong, but all elves sound British to me.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    Raduziel wrote: »
    I may be wrong, but all elves sound British to me.

    Kivan and Aerie's voices are in american English . Drizzt , Xan and I guess Coran sound british but I don't believe they hired a british voice actor for sounding "elvish" , more likely snob or posh.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I like to think of Kvan's accent as "Eastwoodian." ;)
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    In the Forgotten Realms setting, it is called “common.”

    What you are highlighting (the ye’s and thy’s of the game) are the writer’s attempt to put accents in the game as other people mentioned.
  • AlonsoAlonso Member Posts: 806
    DJKajuru wrote: »
    I that Jaheira's accent would be Tethyrian , but Khalid's is nowhere near what we would expect from a Calishite. Of course that in both cases I'm considering real world resemblance (Tethyr being inspired on Spain and Calimshan being middle eastern). Rasaad's would be the real calishite accent.
    Are you telling me that Jaheira is Spanish? That's crazy! She's the most "unspanish" woman I've ever seen.

  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    Alonso wrote: »
    DJKajuru wrote: »
    I that Jaheira's accent would be Tethyrian , but Khalid's is nowhere near what we would expect from a Calishite. Of course that in both cases I'm considering real world resemblance (Tethyr being inspired on Spain and Calimshan being middle eastern). Rasaad's would be the real calishite accent.
    Are you telling me that Jaheira is Spanish? That's crazy! She's the most "unspanish" woman I've ever seen.

    That's highly debatable , but Tethyr may be inspired on christian spain while its neighbor calimshan is most likely inspired on both moorish spain and middle eastern or muslin african countries. On the other hand , Jaheira did grow up among druids so her accent could be Ent mixed with Faun . We will never know...

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