Dear Gameboomers,

We at Frogwares always appreciated your help and participation in our games. We are working on a new game “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The Silver Earring” web page and have a very important question now:

Should Sherlock Holmes speak in British or American English?

Detailed answers are welcome! Please indicate what country your are from as I am sure there are people not only from America on GB (just like me! ).

Thanks

I'll throw my two cents in (again )

British... for Sherlock. Other characters (and there are a ton!) variations for range of accents in UK.

I'm with Laura.......... British! BUT with the option of using subtitles, please, so that we can also read what he's saying! LOL!

Thanks for asking, Serge!

Yvonne

Take care!
British could be Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Scouse, etc., etc. ... Apologies ... to 'Out of Londoners'.

Sherlock should have a reasonably posh, Upper Class (?!? ), ENGLISH, 'Oxford accent'.
Sorry if I sound snobbish ... I'm not! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

N.B. The guy who did the Mystery of the Mummy Demo was horrific. I and others recommended you change him for somebody whose mother tongue is English.
Instead, you changed him for a well known (and very experienced and competent) USA voice actor (I won't mention names).
Sorry to say, his Holmes was pretty painful!
I recommend not making the same mistake again!

P.S. This is by no means a jab at USA or American actors. I have hardly ever come across an Englishman who can put on a REALLY realistic local USA accent (even Olivier!).

Oh, use Adam! Love his voice !

Kate

For Sherlock Holmes himself, I expect British English to come out of his mouth - he is, after all, and Englishman, is he not? Other characters he interacts with can be from anywhere in the world but must speak English, even with the accent of their native tongue - and of course subtitles please in case I miss a word and have to ponder what it means - their slang and jargon is very different from ours in some cases.....
Love, Betty Lou
That is my personal opinion, for what it is worth.

Wouldnt British be the authenic way?

Gee Len,

Everyone has their own opinion and not to belittle yours, but to say that the voice work for Mummy was "painful" is a tad over the top. All the reviews that mentioned the voice work stated that they knew it wasn't a Brit, but it was still a good job nonetheless. One of the reviews stated that the saving grace of the game was the excellent voice work.

Just my nickel's worth on the subject.

Oh and British, of course.

British.

As for other characters, I'd rather they also have British accents if the characters are British.

British all around. And I second ladyyve's request - please include subtitles just in case

British colloquialisms with an upper class accent. You might try Anthony Michael Head for voice acting. Really too bad Jeremy Brett is no longer with us.

I can't understand why this is even an issue. It's Sherlock Holmes, not Columbo! Of course he should speak British English!!!!!! But thanks for taking the time to ask.
ww

British


Josie

I think British, also. And I think subtitles would be a GREAT idea!

If you go back to the novels, SH is a Londoner, so should have an English (quite plummy) accent (depending on which part of London you think he grew up in). His sidekick however, is Scottish so should reflect that.

hugs

tig

British with English Accent...like James Bond.
and subtitles please...make him sound authentic.

Liz

The British accent and sense of humor is something I like very much. Didn't know why until I recently learned my Great Grandfather was from England.

Still, some of the words used with "British" English would be lost on me, I'm sure, and that would make the game quite difficult and frustrating at times. So, it would seem proper to use British English in the voice (so long as it is well spoken) and American English in the subtitles.........which I always use for the simple reason I might, and have, misunderstand something said and also I can often read it faster than it's spoken and I can whiz past the spoken word, too. It is no fun to have to replay a conversation over and over because a word was not understood due to the accent or simply because the actor did not enunciate his words correctly.

I'm with Tigger:
the reason folks are interested in adventure/mystery games to begin with are because they love a mystery. If you're calling it Sherlock Holmes, then follow the format of the great detective that was first created on the written pages.
Most adventure players are very critical as to things like voices and background music; along with graphics covering the era they are placed in.
Goodness, I wouldn't want Sam Spade to speak with a British Isles accent; would you?
Ingie

Yes, definitely, British and 'posh' English. It's interesting to see the requests for subtitles. We're pretty tuned in to American accents nowadays, but we still use teletext sometimes with films. But then, we can have problems with the different local British accents as well - and we live here!

Trust me, Gran, there are some things I watch on TV that I use the captioning device...and they're in American English.

I vote for authentic British accent, too.

And a nice Scots brogue for Dr. Watson, if you can find one!

Oh please make Holmes British. I can't imagine him speaking any other way.

British also with subtitles. But give him a range of accents/dialects (if possible but not neccesary) depending on where he is. The original could easily pass himself off as belonging to any part of London. Mostly, should be an educated accent. Definitely include subtitles though do know some english terms don't know them all.

Definitely upper class British. Or.... the guy with the luscious voice from Faust and the Legends of the Prophet and Assassin

Which James Bond? Sean is Scottish and had a slight Scot "lilt" in his speech, Roger had the "perfect" English accent, I think there was one Bond that was Australian but I cannot remember what accent he had! The latest Bond is Irish and has the slight Irish lilt to his voice!!!! Of course all of these ARE British LOL

Sri Lankan or Indian !

It would make for a fresh change anyhow !!!

I will add my 25 cents (2 has raised to 25 due to inflation) and go along with the upper class british accent. As has been said his home is in London.

Also I thought Mystery of the Mummy was a disappointment only because it was supposed to be a Sherlock Holmes mystery and, in my opinion, it wasn't. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character solves murder mysteries with the help of his trusty companion Watson and putting him in that house with no interaction with other people was a disservice to the character.

From the looks of the storyline at your site you are getting more to the feel of the Sherlock that we, who love mysteries, know from reading the books and watching the movies.

I really hope that this second game will be more Sherlock Holmes the detective.

It's elementary my dear Watson. The accent must be upper class, respectible Oxford or Eton sounding.

Too many James Bond actors to choose from to consider them: Connery's Scottish sound; George Lazenby's Austrailian; Roger Moore's too mumblemouthed; Timothy Dalton would work and he could probably use the work; Pierce Brosnan is Irish I believe.

I too am sorry that Jeremy Brett is gone. What a perfect Holmes he was!

I have to agree with everyone else--an Oxford British accent for Holmes by all means. And please, let's have some Watson (with a suitable Scots accent) in the next one.

And subtitles, please...

Sherlock is an Eglish gentleman and his speach should reflect that.

Definitely upper-class British English.... I mean, can anyone imagine Holmes with a "New Yorker" or "Texan" accent?

From the books, Holmes is English (British is too broad, see LenG's post) and a member of the gentry. Although he worked for a living, that was not his background. He had a "French mother", as they put it (might be grandmother, but I think it was his mother), but he identified as English. He lived in London, but I'm not sure where his family grew up. So, some sort of "upper class" English accent would be appropriate. Sorry, since I'm not English, and not cognizant of all the English dialects, I can't identify the exact accent. You can't make it the exact accent, since his accent won't exist today, but I think a reasonably good Midlands English "upper crust" accent would do. If there are any English people around, care to comment?

On vocal tone and style - if you read the books, Holmes is an emotional fellow, and quite expressive. He's not a "stiff upper lip" type, not at all. He's also somewhat bi-polar - he's either up all night, going a "mile a minute" or he's collapsed on his coach, unable to move. He's a bit "looney". Sometimes he's pedantic and sometimes he's petulant, kind of a whiner. (I do love the character dearly). The only actor I've seen who captured so much of his energy and personal eccentricity was Jeremy Brett. I can't remember how the books describe his vocal tone, but it probably wasn't as soothing as most of the actors portray it. That makes sense, I think that sometimes how things are protrayed in books don't work as well in other media. For some reason I think that Holmes had rather a high voice, but I can't remember where I read that. A high voice won't translate that well to a game, I think, so I probably would not do that. Just make sure the character is rather expressive, and speaks fairly quickly at times. Subtitles, as always, would be great.

English. Henry Higgins-like, perhaps. However, acornia makes a fantastic point -- he could blend in with the crowd wherever he was; that means he needs to be able to talk like Eliza Doolittle as well. I'm probably asking too much, but hey, it's still worth asking

An upper class English accent would be "Absolutely Fabulous!"

An English accent please!

Come on. What kinda' question is that? British of course.

I agree with Titan, why would anything else even be considered and why even ask the question?
Is it being assumed that "Americans" would not be able to understand a British accent?
A non-English sounding Sherlock would sound strange and be distracting and unrealistic.

By the way...what's American English?
New York? California? Texas? Chicago? Alabama?

Good old Sherlock would seem weird with an American accent. If you want to try something different, give him an Aussie one, then nobody would understand what he is saying Definitely an English accent goes with Sherlock Holmes. Watson may have been Scottish but in any movies, games I have seen/played he has always sounded English too.

Proper English....NOT American.

Where I live some people have problems with northern accents. With Sherlock the problems will be more with translations on using either the british or american term. Like lorry, or bonnet for truck or trunk. But like hearing other countries' expressions/colloquilisms.

Absolutely! Jeremy Brett was the perfect Sherlock Holmes, no question! They did well with Mycroft & Watson in that series too IMHO

Yes, Sherlock needs to have an upper-crust English voice or he will clash with expectations.

Its elementary!
Susan <img border="0" alt="" title="" src="graemlins/woozy.gif" />

Of course British or English, whatever you want to call it - the point is, it must be REAL and TRUE to the character, wherever he is actually from (I'm not really familiar with Sherlock).

I think Timothy Dalton is Welsh, so the only real English person to play Bond was Roger Moore - Dalton is, incidentally, my favourite Bond, and it's a shame he only did two movies, and not the best Bond movies at that, but he did a great job.

Sherlock should have a British accent.Imagine a game with an American PI like Sam Spade or Mick Hammer with a British accent.Is Holmes an English family name?

Yes Ditlihi, Holmes is an English surname, though not very common like Jones or Smith

If I recall correctly, the original question was something like . "English or American ENGLISH" not accent, but we all got on our bikes

Having said that, I would much PREFER the Oxford English spellings and pronunciation AND accent. We don't want Sherlock Holmes and Watson saying:

"She'll be right, mate" (Aussie)
"That's OK Pal" ( Nothern American)
"hosta la vista" ?????? or anything else "foreign" .......

Sherlock was OLDE WORLDE and set in ENGLAND, when times were tough, and smoking pipes was "manly" ..... let's not get carried away with making Sherlock "modern" got goodness sakes.

Hi

"Posh" English for Sherlock himself....And definitely sub-titles for everyone , please

Cheers.

Mad

English accent most definitely.

Subtitles would be great just in case.

My favorite Sherlock was Basil Rathbone and wouldn't it be great to have someone mimic him.

Carmen,I was always under the assumption that Jones was a very common Welsh surname or do the English use it as well? Or is it like the name Shannon which I always thought it was Irish,but found out not long ago it orginally came from Scotland

Part of the appeal of these stories is that they are set in Victorian England. It therefore makes sense to use an authentic English accent (and I'm not against an American playing the part so long as he has the right voice) and terminology.

John Cleese

he Does have a very precise English accent... maybe Stephen Fry would be a better choice....

Tig

British, but also with subtitles.

CNW400,
Believe it or not, there is a Standard American English which speech-language pathologists are taught in college in the US. The International Phonetic Alphabet was established in the late 1880s. It was first concerned with phonetics as applied to teaching English, but as more countries became involved, the alphabet became truly international and has survived to this day with very few changes.

As you know, the same letters can have entirely different sounds. For instance, the "c" in city makes the "s" sound and the "c" in cage makes the "k" sound. The IPA has a symbol for each sound in our language. Although we use only 26 letters in English, there are (dredging up very old memory) 44 symbols that represent the different sounds or phonemes in Am. English. The different dialects we hear are simply variations on a theme that have been established regionally. They occur because of changes in voice quality, vowel distortions or prolongations, omissions or additions of sounds, inflections, and the influences of other languages, among other things. The phonetic alphabet has modifying symbols to show these variations.

Oh, for pity's sake, I sound like one of my professors. Sorry! Class dismissed!

Jeremy Brett was also my favorite Sherlock Holmes. Holmes' speech should be that of an educated Victorian Londoner. Anything else would be jarring.

Lady K.

hër hër ... as they broadcast from the House of Commons.
(Apologies to LadyKestrel if my phonemes are a bit phony!

Has got to be a British well spoken London accent as this is how Conan Doyle wrote him. I agree that subtitles should be included.

By all means, give us those quaint British words like chips and trunk call and Wensleydale. Put as many in as many words as possible with letters that are never pronounced. There should be at least two characters whose names begin with double L. And somebody whose name begins with St. pronounced "sin".

a Llewellyn then?? The double ll is a Welsh spelling.. St.John as I recall is the only one which gives the 'sinjun' sound..

Tig

How about a puzzle with names such as Cholmondeley? Give points for those who can pronounce them <teehee>

OK, a real verbal conundrum.. say Slaithwaite properly!!

Tig

CHUM-LEE (CHUM as in "Dumb" ... or a more obvious one --- but may be considered a bit rude ).

And what about one of my favorite sauces ... WORCESTER !

St.John (Sinjun) - wasn't that Roger Moore's fake name in A View To A Kill?

British, of course. We're talking Sherlock Holmes.

You could have a spelling puzzle where you hear the word pronounced and then you have to guess the number of unpronounced letters in it.

Or you see the word and you have to type in the phonetic representation.

Let's see Tig -- how about Sletweh.

not a bad try Becky!!

Its actually pronounced Slawit

What is a Sletweh? As an Aussie, I would pronounce it slet-wear!

Isn't the English language amazing?

Hey Tig, three correct phonemes out of six ain't bad!

Rainbow -- I love the English language, particularly because I haven't any talent at learning other languages. I admire the multi-linguists on this board very much.

As for what a sletweh is. Hmmm. Let's see. Maybe that's the device Holmes uses to prop up his violin when he doesn't bother putting it back in it's case?

"Watson, do you mind bringing me my violin? It's in the sletweh by the fireplace."

British Gentleman would be my vote.

Karen

British, absolutely!