Feral Heart

Game & Forum Discussion => Game Discussion => Topic started by: Lady_Alizarin on April 24, 2013, 12:22:02 am

Title: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Lady_Alizarin on April 24, 2013, 12:22:02 am: "Ello govenor! If you chaps need me, I'll be over 'ere with these fine blokes."

"I ain't even gonna talk about them poor ole' helpless youngins over there. There ain't nothin' you can do for em."

"Yall want some of this here elk carcass? There's plenty to go around."

"Well, I didn't want to bother yous."

"I use to run all round these hills with me mum and dah when I was just a wee lass."

"Zhere ist one thing I can't stand about ze volves of ze Black Forest, und its hard to speak of ..."

"I'm gone back to New Orleens to wear dat ball an' chain. Once a gamlbin' man, always a gamblin' man."

Do you have a character, or had a character that had an accent of some kind? Have you ever seen someone roleplay with a character that had some kind of foriegn accent? I have a few of them, and I have seen other characters with accents or dialects. I have 3 different characters that have a very Southern American dialect. Burgundy the WC rogue has a Cajun accent since he's from New Orleans. Kojak the bobcat has a bit of a Texas accent, and Abigail Grey Fox has a bit of a Georgia accent. Bakura the fennec fox has a faint British accent. Whenever Pharaohstar speaks, he has a faint Egyptian dialect to his words. I once had a wolverine character that had a Russian accent, but I no longer have him.

I have seen a few people say to someone whos character has an accent that they were being "illiterate" or had poor grammar. Some have asked, "Why are you talking like that? Is there something wrong with you?" "Do you have a grammar issue?" Well, maybe the character is supposed to say things like that because it's an accent! Some of my characters use words that are considered improper grammar "ain't", "this here" or missing/silent g's at the end of ing. I tell them that I do that on purpose because my character has an accent and is using a few slang words. It's not entirely illiterate, because I am potraying a dialect or an accent. I know, you can't really hear an accent by reading a post on a computer... but you can at least try to potray one with a few changes in grammar and spelling.
Slang words also help make that character seem more... accented. Of course, you need to know what those slang terms mean and how to use them.

Some accents are difficult for me to type out in a roleplay. I tried talking like someone from New York city during an RP, but you wouldn't really "hear" the accent, unless I was really speaking instead of typing. But I try. For me, potraying Southern accents, Brithish accents, German accents, and French accents are easy to type in roleplay.

Here are some character accents I like to use in roleplay

(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110726094255/mlp/images/thumb/c/c9/Applejack_%22I_completely_understand%22_S1E04.png/300px-Applejack_%22I_completely_understand%22_S1E04.png)
Southern

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d9/Pepe_Le_Pew.jpg/250px-Pepe_Le_Pew.jpg)
French

(http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/28600000/iggy-hetalia-england-28668813-500-285.png)
British

(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/275/f/7/profile_picture_by_gamzee_makara_pbj-d5gmsu9.jpg)
Some kind of Southern Cajun

(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100929212723/americandad/images/2/20/AmericanDad_09_Klaus_v1F.jpg)
German

(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100607141929/yugioh/images/b/b1/DMx104_Joey_with_Flame_Swordsman.jpg)
New York/ New Jersey

So there you have it. What do you guys think?
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: WhiteLightHeart on April 24, 2013, 12:36:30 am: Being very forthright with it, I've always seen those who can effectively portray a full-out dialect, instead of just using typical dialogue and saying it's a certain accent, are usually more literate that most.
I am sorry to hear some floofs have been seeing that as 'illiterate', but if they'd take the time to really read your posts, they might catch on fairly quickly that there's a different 'tongue' there. It's like real, and as writers, doing what you can to express the inflections of a certain accent adds an entirely new dimension to the character. Plus, if kept in quotes (since it is dialog), I don't know why it'd be considered illiterate, anyway, if such literate and grammatically correct descriptions are there to contrast the character's speech within the post.
That is neat, though, and I like the variety of voices and accents you use for your different characters. I'd certainly love to meet the Southern Cajun accented character in a roleplay. It sounds like it'd be a treat to read. xD
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: BouncyLion101 on April 24, 2013, 12:41:35 am: I think it's ridiculous that someone calls you "illiterate" when that's just how your character talks. :I
Unless you were non-dialogue text in your post with an accent, they should have no reason to believe you aren't literate. :/ But then again I think the whole "illiterates" and "literate" thing is quite silly.

Also interesting you have such unique characters, Lady. I've never seen a character here that had an accent. c:
The variety in your characters is just awesome.
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: FoxiePlushie on April 24, 2013, 01:13:05 am: >O ~some how feels like I should be offended~ I will have you know that I am from the deep south, and I do NOT have a southern accent! And NO we do not all sound like hicks! Most of us do, but that is besides my point! (lol I'm not really mad XP) But anyways, I see your point, but I feel like portraying an accent could too easily be mistaken for illiteracy. However, I think if done properly, one could understand that you are not being illiterate, and I guess... Manipulating words to create an accent is a form of literacy... BUT! I really don't have experience in this area. (Although.... I have read a book that was completely in a DEEP Southern dialect. No specific dialect (from what I can remember) just words that had most of their letters missing. XD They looked like this: 'K ma' sup' Mur' herpderplol It was an interesting book) But anyways, I think if you can convey your accent right, it will be a success. And if they just cannot understand your concept... Then just put something along the lines of ""Lalalalalalalalala," She said with her usual, odd British tilt." That should make it easier for them to understand that you are actually not illiterate. Also, that is really interesting, your whole concept, I kinda like the idea of characters with accents. It adds a little bit more depth and life to your character, so keep on doing what you are doing!
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Lady_Alizarin on April 24, 2013, 02:15:12 am: Quote from: Foxie on April 24, 2013, 01:13:05 am
>O ~some how feels like I should be offended~ I will have you know that I am from the deep south, and I do NOT have a southern accent! And NO we do not all sound like hicks! Most of us do, but that is besides my point! (lol I'm not really mad XP) But anyways, I see your point, but I feel like portraying an accent could too easily be mistaken for illiteracy. However, I think if done properly, one could understand that you are not being illiterate, and I guess... Manipulating words to create an accent is a form of literacy... BUT! I really don't have experience in this area. (Although.... I have read a book that was completely in a DEEP Southern dialect. No specific dialect (from what I can remember) just words that had most of their letters missing. XD They looked like this: 'K ma' sup' Mur' herpderplol It was an interesting book) But anyways, I think if you can convey your accent right, it will be a success. And if they just cannot understand your concept... Then just put something along the lines of ""Lalalalalalalalala," She said with her usual, odd British tilt." That should make it easier for them to understand that you are actually not illiterate. Also, that is really interesting, your whole concept, I kinda like the idea of characters with accents. It adds a little bit more depth and life to your character, so keep on doing what you are doing!

Wasn't trying to be offensive. ^^" As a matter of fact, I was born in the South as well... Idk if you would consider Texas part of the south or not. I think it is. But anyway, southern accents are common around here. I don't have much of a southern accent either, but I do use some southern slang when I speak "Yall" "ain't" and so on.

I sometimes give hints that my characters do have an accent. Pharaohstar for example, I will say something like...
-The mau tom leader looked at the she-cat with his pale green eyes- "You had good intentions, but what you did goes against the Warrior code," he meowed in a faint, Egyptian dialect. "Since you went against my orders, you must be punished."

Or for Bakura the fennec fox....
-He didn't understand one bit of cat language. When the she-cat spoke to him in fox language, he perked his ears. "Blimey! You can actually speak fox?" he asked, having a British accent as he spoke.-

So I will sometimes do that whenever I roleplay with the characters that have a particular accent.
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Tearless on April 24, 2013, 02:46:00 am: I've got several characters with different types of English accents (some of which involve more phonetic transcribing than others XD), a cajun wolf, and various others. Accents are awesome; I feel they can add a lot to a character's interest and depth. It seems like a lot of the confusion comes when a post happens to be mostly dialogue and, at a glance, just looks like a lengthy affront to the English language. XD And to be fair, it's not an entirely unreasonable assumption in FH.
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Nemena on April 24, 2013, 06:10:46 pm: Accents in roleplays on FH are... Surprisingly rare! The vast majority of my characters have quite a hefty accent. They're hilariously fun to type out sometimes; I'm stunned people have problems with them. The only character I've received grief on is my main, Guay, who speaks entirely in broken, garbled english. "You can type so well, why do you make your character so stupid!?!" happens all the time. Even so, it's great to see that more people have 'em!

In my other MMO, the exact opposite happens; there's too many horrible accents! People there have a tendency to completely overwhelm their spoken words with apostrophes. "Go'n' t' t' shop, like. G'tt'n' som' bre'ad." Happy mediums are difficult to find! :D

Though-... Just thought I'd pop in with a quick The-More-You-Know! Very few people from the UK have the so-called 'British' accent spoken by american actors (though some do speak similar to it)! You can pretty much identify which part of the country someone's from by their accent alone. Mackem, geordie, welsh, Yawk-shaaar, glasweigan, cockney... There's hundreds! There's no unified 'British' accent-- just as there's no real 'American' accent. I don't really mind at all, just think it's something that so few people are aware of! I've always been a touch confused when people say 'British' accent since at least 20 extremely different accents fall into that category. :P It's likely the same with all countries, come to think of it-... *mulls*
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Tearless on April 24, 2013, 06:33:46 pm: ^ Encounter so much of this. While I am American myself, I do try to do my research for any 'British' accent my characers might have and at least get the general feel/location right. It's probably still inaccurate and lost on a large percentage of RPs I'm in, but at least I feel better about myself. XD
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: WhiteLightHeart on April 25, 2013, 12:53:15 am: Quote from: Nemena on April 24, 2013, 06:10:46 pm
Though-... Just thought I'd pop in with a quick The-More-You-Know! Very few people from the UK have the so-called 'British' accent spoken by american actors (though some do speak similar to it)! You can pretty much identify which part of the country someone's from by their accent alone. Mackem, geordie, welsh, Yawk-shaaar, glasweigan, cockney... There's hundreds! There's no unified 'British' accent-- just as there's no real 'American' accent. I don't really mind at all, just think it's something that so few people are aware of! I've always been a touch confused when people say 'British' accent since at least 20 extremely different accents fall into that category. :P It's likely the same with all countries, come to think of it-... *mulls*
Whoa. .-. That's kinda exciting to know, actually. I think most people just assume that the 'British' accent is more unified because the country is smaller, geographically, but it is true that different territories have their own dialects. For example, in my state (U.S.), one only has to travel over a mountain or two to find a much more northern-U.S. or even Bostonian accent in most of the population, although my state can be considered more 'south'.
If anything, though, it leaves room for some creativity with what accent you choose for a character. I like it. ^^
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Silvertide on April 25, 2013, 01:16:19 am: You aren't illiterate for having an accent, pfft. I've met someone on here that had their character speak in French, I think, and then some other people that had their characters speak some Italian. Adding those extra traits really increases the depth to your character and helps create a better mental image of them.
Besides, accents are fun. c8
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: Arkayy on April 25, 2013, 02:15:04 am: I was rather interested when I saw this topic. How can someone call another illiterate if they are portraying their characters' way of speaking? See, this is why i don't prefer to roleplay on the actual game that much. There are the people that powerplay and taulk liek dis even out of character, then there are those people that remind me of the guys on first person shooters saying "You don't know how to play!" "What's wrong with you?" "Talk right!" -Face desks- I am with you on this. I have a fair collection of characters myself that have accents. Such as the emotionless and robotic speech like Broken. (A lot of people find his the creepiest. Why? People scared of no slang? x3) But I also try to incorporate an Italian and German accent with a few as well. British is too hard for me. x.x But anyways, back on topic. I think you are awesome for having so many different accents. ^.^ Especially a fox that I am assuming is like Bakura. Don't let those wankers get to you. It's their fault for not trying accents themselves.
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: meowool on April 25, 2013, 07:43:23 pm: Quote
Whoa. .-. That's kinda exciting to know, actually. I think most people just assume that the 'British' accent is more unified because the country is smaller, geographically, but it is true that different territories have their own dialects. For example, in my state (U.S.), one only has to travel over a mountain or two to find a much more northern-U.S. or even Bostonian accent in most of the population, although my state can be considered more 'south'.
If anything, though, it leaves room for some creativity with what accent you choose for a character. I like it. ^^

Also don't forget you have the Welsh, Scottish and Irish accents too, as it is Britain. I havne't roleplayed in an accent here, but done a west country in a sample I wrote a long time ago! Sometimes I will write phonetically, how I speak, putting in apostropes for 'h', 't' and 'g' (ing only though) and swapping the vowels round, in OOC an' a bit o' weird grammar as where I'm from the UK. (Think the southern Farmers) has odd grammar! XD

Just wondering, how would you write a British accent in RP, I'm just curious, as the sounds do make sense to me!
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: YouheiSunohara24 on April 29, 2013, 03:31:30 pm: O3O Pharaohstar? XDD Remember meh? I was Skullfrost from The United. X3 We attacked chuuu. LOL.
Title: Re: It's Not Illiterate, It's an Accent
Post by: SteampunkWolfdog on April 29, 2013, 06:07:09 pm: My wolf character, Caralyn, has a strong Highland accent. It seems to be one of those accents that doesn't come across well in typing and is better heard audibly. But there were parts of the accent I could put across like using 'wee' instead of 'small' or 'little'. I also made a note in my character's bio what sort of accent or voice they have so it's easier for people to imagine.

When people say stuff like "You're being illiterate," they're just being silly. Have an open mind and think, not everyone speaks with an American or an English accent, just like in the real world. You have people who speak very different across the country and across the world. If people thought more of how dialogue sounds rather than how it is spelt, then it'll be a lot easier.