Talk the talk

[FrogPrincezz]

How does one develop the tongue? When I speak i sound just like I'm from...well... like I'm from MICHIGAN!

[Gauwyn of Bracknell]

I know what you are saying - I try (only in the privy of my own abode ) - m'lady does quite well, but I sound ridiculous.  There are some internet sites that have recordings that help, but i guess I need a lot of pratice.  I am acutally thinking of trying to speak in medieval mime 

[McGuinness]

Check out the "Accent Help" thread: http://www.renaissancefestival.com/forums/index.php?topic=1235.0 . THere are already lots of tips and tricks and links posted in there. The biggest advice I can give is work on a couple of the basic phonetic changes for whatever dialect you are attempting, then practice and practice and PRACTICE! Talking out loud in a new dialect is really important for getting it down and "in your mouth".

Check out the links in that old thread and see if that helps at all. Good luck and have fun with it!

[RSLeask]

Can't say I have any real way on "learning" to talk in accent.  I always had a knack with voice play from an early age (I could, and still can, quote the campfire scene from The Final Frontier in voice of Kirk, Spock, and Bones).  So when I started with table-top gaming, and rolled a dwarf, I got interested in actually voicing him at the table.  What I did was take several different sources of voice sample, kinda jumbled them together, and voila, Dwarfspeak-in-a-Can (he was actually a mix of Scotty and Connery, with just a splash of Tim).  Start out simple with learning to change your voice... something easy, just some famous character on the screen.  Then move to someone that's a little hint of accent, like Crowe.  Once you get up to doing a full-blown accent properly, you can start to toss in sampling to change it so you don't actually sound like someone who everyone would recognize if they heard you.

Of course, that's assuming you can get the first step down of changing your voice properly.  That's the biggest hurdle, honestly.  And not something that can effectively be taught.

[BLAKDUKE]

Well a lot depends on several factors.  For example when my wife and I are King and Queen at the two faires we perform at,  I will speak with accent, she does not.  We developed her character way back as a barbarian princess that I won in battle and even teaching her to speak plain English was difficult,  so we covered her lack of accent that way.  I find myself dropping accent during the day and I blame it on my long association with her as the reason.   that is the beauty of not doing an historical character.   

[Lady_Claira]

Well I think accent depends on a lot of things. Firstly, where is your character from and what is their station? Those are things that are going to create a completely different dialect. I currently play a middle class seamstress at CTRF. My accent is different from the nobility accents and different still from the lower class and peasants. So the first thing you need is to research and find out which accent/dialect you need.

Once you have that, it is just a matter of practicing. I found for me it helped to practice with someone who knew the accent already. The girl I worked with has dialect training in multiple dialects due to her theatre training and she also has the added bonus of actually being British. So she helped me out alot, pointing out where I was messing up at first and helping me to figure it out and learn it well enough so that I could notice when I was making mistakes with the accent.

So, your dialect depends on the character (things like where they are from, their station in life, and their backstory) and then from there it is just a matter of practicing. Once you've gotten used to using the accent, start practicing with individuals who are not using the accent and see if you can keep it going.