Accents are probably not the first thing most people think of when Game of Thrones is mentioned, but it has recently highlighted the significance and impact of certain speech patterns.
The Daily Mail recently reported that the hit HBO show has received criticism from academics due to the mix of accents, noting there are four dialects within just one family.
The report said part of the issue was the diverse cast that, while mostly British, brings with it a range of regional dialects that do not always match up with the complex relationships in Game of Thrones.
Professor Anthony Grant, an Edge Hill University Historical Linguistics and Language expert, told the Daily Mail that the mistakes are caused because “Americans don’t know any better”.
“The accents on Game of Thrones are a complete mish-mash and it is the one big mistake they’ve made,” he said, adding that “some actors are better at accents than others and it really shows on the show.”
“They should have had a dialect coach on set to ensure all the accents were consistent – but the actors must have been told to ‘sound as British as you can, just not American.”
Dialect coaches are most commonly employed on film and television sets to advise actors on specific dialects they have to use.
But the dialect coaches employed for Game of Thrones also had to advise on languages created specifically for the show. So although the likes of Brendan Gunn and Sally Hague have worked as dialect coaches on the series, the only specific details of their work relate to these dialects.
“They have spent a lot of money on constructing the new Dothraki and High Valerian languages and no doubt the regional accents have come second to this,” Professor Grant said.
But audiences are often just as critical when they find accents out of place in a production and there are even entire articles dedicated to picking on actors who haven’t nailed a particular accent.
One such piece, on popular entertainment website The Vine, theorises that “accents are truly a tricky thing to perfect but sometimes, possibly due to star egos, it seems that a movie’s entire production team momentarily lose their hearing capabilities.”
The result is that audiences have to “endure a cacophonous combination of words that undermines the believability of the movie”, hence the need for dialect coaches.
Accentuate the Positive
While it may seem unlikely that anyone outside the acting industry would want or need to change their accents, there is a broader market for dialect coaches.
In North America there is a whole market of voice and accent coaches work exclusively with immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds or those who wish to speak with a more American accent. The same applies in Canada.
But rather than being called “dialect training”, this sub-section of the industry uses the term “accent reduction”. The philosophy behind it is that adopting a more American accent will help immigrants and people travelling or working in America communicate more clearly.
The Accent Reduction Center, which is based in Oregon but runs online classes as well, explains: “Accent Reduction is the systematic approach of modifying a person’s pronunciation to more closely resemble that of a native speaker. The main purpose of accent reduction training is to be better understood by native speakers. This is achieved through a proven approach involving auditory awareness and specific exercises.”
While created and marketed with a very different purpose to the coaches used by actors, the approaches are often very similar.
Some coaches even work in both fields, like Andy Krieger, who developed his own American accent coaching method while working in Hollywood, then founded company Harmony Accent Reduction based in Vancouver, Canada.
“Developed in 1997 the K Method has been successful in helping more than 10,000 people from all walks of life to speak English more confidently. As a result of our methods many have gotten better jobs, advanced their careers and found themselves to be more comfortable in social settings,” the company’s website outlines.
“Companies have improved their bottom lines and actors have got better parts. Our methods have proved themselves in scores of movies and television series like the Last Emperor, Twilight, Sanctuary and Jackie Chan’s Forbidden Kingdom.”
The costs of dialect coaches on films and accent reduction specialists are also comparable, with most charging around $100 to $200 per hour for private lessons.
The testimonials on the Accent Reduction Centre’s website also suggest there is demand for business professionals to adopt a certain way of speaking.
“If I were to recommend a career investment to any foreign speaker, it would be to take an accent reduction class,” one testimonial begins.
“I feel more comfortable training new employees, supervising and providing feedback to projects led by native speakers, consulting about business strategies to our company’s various clients, and above all I feel my ideas are actually being understood by my boss. In fact, I haven’t seen the confused look on my boss’ face for a long time now!”
With more global entertainment productions happening now than ever before, and an increasingly worldwide work environment, familiarity with different accents is bound to change.
But the existence of this industry in North America also points out something that linguistic expert Professor Anthony Grant may have missed when criticising “the Americans” over Game of Thrones: while people in the States may not always notice different dialects on a predominantly UK-cast television show, they definitely do when it is people working in their own country.
So perhaps what it really boils down to is a choice between using a dialect that is comfortable for the individual or altering an accent so that it is received better by others. Whether on TV or in the boardroom, that choice will affect some people more than others.
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