you know, i never really noticed! hmm...kinda ineresting! although i think the accents made the characters more interesting!

I never really noticed the accents TOO much...I mean, I did notice Viggo's Moria-steps (ooh!!) and Billy's Scottish, but they all seemed to blend in. I'm a sucker for accents anyway, they distract me so bad I can't detect little slip-ups. (all right, mushy girl moment over.) The only thing that annoys me on a regular basis is how Frodo always says Modo instead of Mordor.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> I always thought it was weird that Pippin had such a different accent from everyone else. I mean, Billy Boyd is Scottish isn't he? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Yeah, he's from Scotland. I think he doesn't have an English accent since in the FOTR commentary, Ian McKellan says that Took isn't pronounced like "book", so it's more Scottish or something. Therefore he believes that the Tooks are like Scottish hobbits, and I agree. Besides, if you think about it, the only difference between Billy's real voice and his Pippin voice is that he only had to make his voice higher to sound more hobbity. I think that Billy Boyd just couldn't shake his accent, considering it's a very Scottish accent. My dad had this friend from Taiwan (sp?), and he spoke perfect English, but he had a rich Tawain-ish accent that he just couldn't shake. So that concludes my explanation on why Pippin didn't have a more English accent like everyone else. Sorry for the rambling!

I thought I was the only one that noticed that Hama had a really different sounding accent from anyone else in any of the three movies. Now I guess I realize that Glamdring did, too. But Hama's just jumped out at me. It sounded like a cowboy in a Western to me. None of the others sounded out of place, but I'm from the U.S. midwest living in Central America and my ear may be out of whack.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Now I guess I realize that Glamdring did, too. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Glamdring is the name of Gandalf's sword...it doesn't speak at all...

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> Now I guess I realize that Glamdring did, too. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Gandalf's sword could talk? So maybe Turin's sword did talk but its the only one that did. Now Glamdring blade of Gondolin doubt it could talk. Sting and Orcrist don't so why should the sword used by King Turgon and Olorin talk?

^And even if it did talk, I'm wondering why it would have the same accent as Hama lol<p>[ 3:56 PM February 03, 2004: Message edited by: Armetiel ]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>And even if it did talk, I'm wondering why it would have the same accent as Hama <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>You see PJ was actually intending on making Glamdring talk at the sight of Hama. It would say "Hama do you not recognise me? I am your long lost brother Glamdring." At which Hama would say,"Brother is that you? I am truly sorry please by all means enter."<BR>Then Pj would have Gandalf kill Grima.<BR>Should be in Mirth.

ROFL!!!!<P>Can you imagine the fan reaction if PJ HAD put that into the movie <P>Hey maybe Glamdring could then vouch for Anduril and get him in too <P>"Brother Hama, Master Anduril is our friend."<P>lol, edited to add: re-reading what I just wrote I think that Glamdring is now related to Gollum as well lol...making Hama and Gollum ..hmm...distant cousins <p>[ 4:19 PM February 03, 2004: Message edited by: Armetiel ]

In the UK there is a generic term for American/foreign actors making a hash of English accents: it's called 'doing a **** van Dyke' (from the god-awful 'gorblimey guv 'cockney chimney sweep he attempted in the otherwise delightful Mary Poppins)<BR>Now, I'm not saying that anyone in LotR was that bad at all, but there were a few D-van-D moments, and many of them came from Sean Astin. <BR>And yes, I think Merry should have been a bit more posh. Viggo's all-over-the-place accent wasn't a problem for me, as Aragorn was someone who had grown up and lived all over. <BR>But Orlando occasionally got a bit too posh, bless him. "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" he sounds just like a star turn in the Eton school play.

Ahh, **** Van Dyke, the memories! I've not met a single foriegner able to do the good ole cockney accent well. Then again, I've not met all that many foreigners. Well, I say it's probably best that Serkis did the orcs' voices, not that they said much, but those accents have a real ability to pull me out of the moment.<P>And I don't care what all you say about the Tookish accent, everything I read is in an English accent and it's staying that way! It's not at all geographically correct anyway, that's my argument and I'm sticking with it!

John Rys-Davies, in one interview, talked about how PJ had discussed his and Tolkein's take on accents. He said that each location or people might have a distinct accent or method of speech to use. He described dwarves a gruffer, less distinct, semi-Scottish accents, elves as a sort of Welsh lilt, Hobbits a generally English, Welsh, or even Irish, Orcs as a primitive variation of cockney, Gondorians more profound and pronounced, and Rohirrim as very earthy. This, of course, could not be strictly followed by the actors, since they had accents they couldn't change.<P>Gimli's accent worked as the gruff dwarf<BR>Baromir was great in the role, but his un-changeable accent may have resembled a hobbit.<BR>Aragorn, Legolas, Theoden, Denethor, Grima, Eowyn, and the four hobbits were coached. Grima developed his own snivelling speech. Theoden and Eowyn both developed the careful Rohirric dialect, although Gamling and Hama didn't. Legolas pulled off the Welsh, Denethor had perfect noble diction, and Aragorn sounded very mannish, in a sense. Pippin's accent could not be altered, but Merry, Sam, and Frodo all adopted pseudo-accents and lilts.

I apologize profusely for my typo. I should have known better. However, I agree that the talking sword could have possibilities.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>The only thing that annoys me on a regular basis is how Frodo always says Modo instead of Mordor.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>LOL!! It really annoys me too! I guess that's the english accent that Elijah has?

The pathetic thing is, Elijah Wood doesn't even <I>have</I> an English accent. He's as American as they come! I think it had something to do with the type of accent that the writers wanted him to develop. Another possibility is that the Hobbits' natural mispronunciation of Elvish names and words. They pronounced the names as they thought it should be pronounced, based on their phonology. The phonology of Sindarin is completely different than the phonology of Westron, ergo, the Hobbits got many words all wrong. Look in the Appendices of Return of the King for more information on that. It's all rather educational.

I keep hearing the word “slip” when it comes to the accent department. I have a hard time believing that the directors, luiguists, and anybody else involved in language could sit there and not notice it. I’m getting the feeling that the accent “slips” are deliberate. I am not talking about the differences in accents, I’m talking about when Sean Astin loses some of his british charm. Perhaps the directors had them say each line a million different ways with emphasis on different words with varying degrees of accent stress, then picked the best one in the editing room. There aren’t too many real slip ups in the actual acting of a movie because why stick with a slip up when you can do it again?

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Took isn't pronounced like "book", so it's more Scottish or something<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>As was posted way back earlier, the oo in Took is the same sound as the o sound in shoe. Which I guess could be called Scottish, but it could well also be from northern parts of England. My grandma from Lancashire would pronounce Took and book to have the same o sound as shoe, for example.<P>That said, has anyone heard recordings of JRRT reading from lotr? JRRT's Sam voice and Astin's Sam voice are very different. They're both english country bumpkin, but that's about it. I guess the voice JRRT puts on had too much humour value... (if you've heard it, you'll know what I mean)