Accents in the Speech?

[vegan_chick]

my friend david and i where having a go at eachother with this one: are there accents in the speech? I know that the speech isn't really an earthly language, but when we think , do we use accents? please help me for i am rather baffled at the moment and i need a few second opinions.

[Gryphon]

Hmmm.... something to wonder about. My mind has gone blank.

Accents + Speech = Accented Speech

Heh. Sorry. I'd like to hear what people have to say on this. Are there accents? I'm pretty sure there would be. You have one person with one kind of voice who taks in the Speech as certain way and another person off continent, off planet, and possibly off universe (if we're considering alternate ones, here). I'm sure there would have to be accents. Something like that.

[vegan_chick]

Thank you. I still am not quite sure at all. The speech isn't quite like talking at all, so i still am not quite sure.

"Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies"

.-.././-..-/.. (heehee, morse code is fun!!)

[Quill]

Well, according to the fox Nita summons in "Abroad", yes, the Speech has accents. Though in fact the fox is referring to the words Nita uses and not the way they're pronounced, if I recall right.

[PK]

Also in "Abroad," Nita specifically thinks about how odd it is to hear the Speech in an Irish accent, when Ronan is in on a spell with them. Seems there's enough flexibility in the pronunciation for that sort of thing -- there are a lot of ways to Speak, but the vocal ones I suppose are just as subject to accents as any other vocal language. (Hmm. Actually I suppose Speech through motion and stuff would be too, after a fashion.)

[Peter Murray]

Another example: In Book of Night with Moon, which I'm finally reading, Kit "says" something to Rhiow mentally, and she finds it odd to hear the Speech in her head with an ehhif (human) accent.
So that's another example, like the fox one, of different species having different accents.

[Birdhead]

"Accent" might also be a word used to describe different ways of speaking in the speech- soem species, like Pont, wouldn't be physically capable of speaking the Speech the same way Nita does. I think it's mentioned that trees, like Liused, speak partly through the way their leaves rustle. That would probably affect your "accent" profoundly, so the word itself would have a broader meaning than it does in human languages, where everyone at least has the same basic equipment to use.

[drea]

It's an interesting concept. I mean, if it can be used by everything, either in a telepathic kind of sense, or a motion type sense (think Filif), or the normal talking sense. And I agree that Pont don't have lips (at least, I don't think it was mentioned), so they had to be using the telepathic sense. Wouldn't you think?

Also, an addition to the movement thing. Near the beginning of the newest book, Nita notices that the Alaalids nod a couple times rather than shaking their heads the way Americans do in mild disapproval. If there's this kind of difference in non-speech movements, maybe there's a movement that is a little different, but the movements would have to remain the same if the speech is universal, right?

Confusing.

[Pop Tart Kitten]

There isnt really accents in The Speech but there is different proucouncitaitons(lol i cant spell).And yes,for all you uninfomed ones i am David.

Gratitude!
Davey



______(^*_*^)______ MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!

[vegan_chick]

Thanx people, and hello David!