Talking like a Draenei

[Nastallene]

Hello everyone,

I recently made the jump from Horde to Alliance and created a female Draenei warrior.

My question to you folks is how should she talk?

The best I can find is they have a Slavic accent but that doesn't really help me much. Is it as simple as just dropping certain words or not using contractions?

Also, any help in a backstory for her would be great, any ideas will be truly welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks,

Nastallene

[Guest Amboro]

Ah! Playing a Draenei finally pays off!

Well it is rather simple if you read some of the quests that the other Draenei give you or listen to their jokes for the rawest sample of how they talk. (aka /silly)

But other than that is is a little on the complicated side. For example!

Human: Guys, I really don't think we should go in there...

Draenei: My companions, I do no think it wise we enter here...


Major things you will need to remember is Draenei really don't use words like 'can't', 'won't' or 'don't'. They fully speak out every word. From what I figure is that coming to Azeroth they used knowledge from old texts and picked up a rather older set of dialect from those old scrolls and tomes. making their language, though complicated, rather flowery and pleasant to listen to.

Hope i was of some help Nastallene!

[Nastallene]

So they speak more of an olde English style?

Leaving out the "thee" and "thou"s of course.

That was a big help, thanks.

I read the Scorpid Meat and Skinny Dipping story last night after posting and thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave me some ideas about how my fellow blues talk.

Thanks again.

[۞ KAT ۞ AKA Red Viper]

i've looked into this deeply for you, as i believe if you're gonna play a character, play it well.

i've al enjoyed this that i'm going to add this to the RP tips and hints section as well on the site. Thanks for the great question! i hope this helps you out

Here is an excerpt from Living the Dream with a Russian Accent

Consonants

There are a few consonants that are pronounced differently in Russian. The Russian "r" is rolled slightly, a bit like an Irish accent. The Russian "x" is pronounced like a hard/harsh "h". The Russian "g" is always the hard "g" as in "guitar".

And there are several English consonants that simply do not exist in Russian:

"j" or the soft "g"
"w"
"th".

To pronounce the English "j" sound, Russians will combine "d" with their letter "zh". It's a little like making sure you pronounce the "d" in "bridge".

The "w" sound is apparently impossible for Russian speakers. They have to substitute the "v" sound, or sometimes, the "oo" sound. Thus our "William" becomes "Vilyem," or "Uilyem."

The "th" sound is also nearly impossible. The voiced "th" in "that" will be pronounced as a "z" (like in bad French accents!). The unvoiced "th" in "thing" will be pronounced as an "s". (Using "d" and "t" is an Italian accent rather than Russian, I've heard.)

In addition, Russians may have trouble keeping track of all of the silent consonants in English. So they may accidentally pronounce the "k" in "knife" or try to pronounce the "w" in "write" (remember, "w" comes out as "v" or "oo" for Russians).

Vowels

English vowels are not too hard for Russians, although the Russian vowel sounds are much more limited than in English, and given the opportunity, Russians will pronounce vowels in a Russian way, rather than an English way. (Review Russian alphabet now.) Some English vowel sounds, like the "i" in "bite" are actually blends of vowel sounds that Russians know, so they aren't too difficult. But there are a couple of vowel sounds that Russians can't get.

Vowel Examples:

"a" as in "cat" becomes "ah" as the "a" in "bratwurst"
"a" in "fate" tends to become "eh" like the "e" in "set"
"i" as in "bite" is made from "ah" plus "ee"
"o" as in "cot" - probably pronounced with more of an "oh" sound

Grammar

Particles

Our use of "a," "an," and "the" is pretty illogical for Russian speakers. (And it probably is illogical, I just don't want to think about it too much and get confused.) So they will often use these little words wrong. My shortcut to mimic this is to frequently put "the" where it doesn't belong, or drop the particle completely. "That is a nice car" becomes "That is THE nice car" or "That is nice car."

Double Negatives

Russian grammar requires the use of double negatives in most situations, so Russians will occasionally use double negatives in English. This does NOT include the use of "ain't" which is a slang term that Russians probably wouldn't be comfortable with (and certainly has no place in period re-enacting!). I don't mimic this very well, because the English double negative rule is so ingrained in me that my tongue doesn't like to violate it.

Progressive Verbs

The Russian language makes much more frequent use of progressive verbs than English does. Such verbs end in "ing" in English. "I am talking". "He was swimming". So Russians will tend to use them with great frequency when speaking English. And I don't find it too hard to do likewise when I'm using my Russian accent.

Simple/Long Sentences

On the one hand, Russians learn to use long, convoluted sentences in Russian, and so would like to do the same in English. On the other hand, they may not know enough English to feel comfortable in the attempt. So their English sentences may tend to be quite short. Or they may be long and awkwardly constructed.

Slang

Slang is one of the hardest things to learn in a new language. It comes with practice and time, but a Russian speaker will probably never be completely comfortable with English slang. This is not a huge issue for re-enacting, since most modern English slang is not period anyway.

Adding Russian words

Russians will use Russian words when speaking English in various situations. First, when they don't know the English word and hope the Russian is close enough to the English equivalent, or that one of their listeners will be able to translate it for them. Second, if they're distracted or in a hurry, they may say the Russian unconsciously, not even realizing that they've slipped into a "foreign" language. This happens to me when I'm interpreting back and forth between English and Russian and I lose track of who I'm talking to. (I'm not a professional interpreter, so I can get confused.) Third, when the Russian is more or less talking to themselves, i.e. expressions of surprise, curses, muttering under their breath.

In the SCA, I will mimic the above situations when I think I can get away with it. Most of the time when you throw in a Russian word or phrase, people give you a confused look and you have to spend a couple of minutes explaining what you just said. So I don't do it if I'm in a hurry. On the other hand, at a Russian-themed event or class, people are better prepared to hear Russian words, so it isn't as disruptive. I avoid serious cursing in Russian, since it's not my native language and I don't want to give offense to Russian speakers by using the words inappropriately.

[sonechka]

Oh what a neat article!! A very, very good idea!

[Bryan]

Konaki Kriiztoz!

Vhile I tingk dat article vas gud vun, it not really address de ichuues jou findingk vhen tryingk to portray de dranei / rus accent in vhat is, in all respectingks, a text chat environment.

Vhat jou readingk now is how I used to portray Bajhoul, before I gettingk tired of all de peoples tellingk me dey not understandingk vhat I say. But maybe I be goingk back to it, nyeh?

Because while i tink it rewardingk to play de character to de hilt, dis a example of vhere, regardless of immersions, some compromise be needed. Jou see, the article wery good vun for speakingk russian, but not so mich for typingk / portrayingk it in writings. because must find the happy nedium of portrayingk accent but beingk understandable.


Now, as speaker of Rus and beingk raised in it as second langwidge, I tink the trick is findingk compromise. LIke vhen I am bwildingk the characters speech, it more difficult but if read a sopresented sound much like in head from, an intermittent speaker of coomon / english, da?

Commo0n is use of nyeh, or neh is some sition, like" Its rainy day, nyeh?"

Nyeh being common dilectic for nyet, or no. Also used is Nyee, neh, and ni.

Da means yes and has no dilectict I have encountered , being common to all slav tongues ( my experience being Rus, Belorus, Ukranian and parts of Bosnia. But whioel I speak it, its been years and I am at best an indifferent speaker now)

As alvays, de tradeoff it is betweens clarity, and vhat the others jou chat at can understand.

There is a fellow named Sultan I met on SoE, he does hilarious and accurate broken english portrayal , catch him in action some time.

Of course, you can always portray the dranei in a simpler,. more fluent fashion...no contractions, use of a more formal syntax and use the Russian syntax and progressive...

When I speak as Railei, I do not use contractions ( when I rememebr) and make my speech very rigid, and perhaps follow a somewhat linear flow. Russian is very literal in some ways.

Thats how I do it, at least, hope that helps!

[Guest Amboro]

Hmmm... I may pick up the rigid talk as well at some point because it simply seems like fun!

[۞ KAT ۞ AKA Red Viper]

Being hard to understand is in essence the point of playing a new race of character in my oppinion. If it's hard to understand, chances are you're playing it well. plus it leads on to being able to learn 'better' common along the way and slowly changing speach patterns.

but again, it's up to the players personal preference. how skilled they are at the transition of being able to type it out and so on.

i remember one char that used to be in the Cats and she spoke the weirdest version of common i'd ever seen, but it was marvelous in that Kat was looking at everyone asking what the hell she was saying. Some chars could understand her perfectly even with the weird dialect.

like in food, everyone has their own preference to how much spice they want to add.