Dwarves don' speak wi' Scottish accents, ya wee man!
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Feb 7th 2007 at 4:24PM
There are some things in WoW that are blindingly obvious, and yet you never realize them until someone points them out. Apolos of Norgannon brings up one of these topics when he asks the WoW General Forums, "Why do dwarves have Scottish accents?"
I had never actually noticed that before, although I'd realized that the trolls (Jamaican) and the draenei (Russian) both have accents that are analogous to nationalities on Earth. Drysc said that since there's no such place as Scotland in Azeroth, the dwarven accent is clearly Dwarven and not Scottish, which seems to be circular reasoning to me. Other people point out that the dwarves live in Loch Modan and have a Nessy swimming around, and postulate that since fantasy dwarves usually have Scottish trappings for some reason, this has carried over to WoW.
Aside from trolls, dwarves and draenei, the rest of the races of Azeroth don't seem to have clear accents. The gnomes sound bright and enterprising, the blood elves sound like they would have laughed at you for playing video games in high school, and most of the Horde sounds like they smoked two packs a day ever since arriving in Kalimdor. Unfortunately, no one seems to have a New York accent, which seems like it would be an awesome thing for, say, the undead.
Why do dwarves have Scottish accents? Can you place the voices of any of the other races of Azeroth, or are they just generic fantasy voices?
Filed under: Dwarves, Trolls, Analysis / Opinion, Draenei
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Roguerhunter Feb 7th 2007 4:46PM
I personally think that draenei's either sounds like Van Dam or Arnold Schwarzenegger... LOL
Vogen The D0rf Hunter Feb 7th 2007 4:50PM
Undead and New York accent..... how fitting!
Oh, and Boston > NYC
Tadhik Feb 7th 2007 6:14PM
In the spanish version, dwarves speak with russian accents, and yes, draenei too :S
Sideshow Feb 7th 2007 4:58PM
Actually, don't the Blood Elves has a bit of a British accent?
Geoff Feb 7th 2007 6:29PM
Most speak with an American accent. Curiously none speak with a "recognisable" English accent.
I don't see how Roguerhunter could think the undead speak like a new yorker. For starters they speak too slowly. Maybe Queens? :P
mr_disco Feb 7th 2007 5:06PM
I kinda think the trolls sound more Cajun than Jamaican...
Andy Feb 7th 2007 5:10PM
I think the Goblin's "Yeah whadda ya want" is done in a New York style accent.
Kurackus Feb 7th 2007 7:07PM
From the things that I have heard, the Trolls speak Jamaijun(a mixture of Cajun and Jamaican, both languages come from a version of Creole). The Goblins are Jewish, and the only thing missing from the Tauren is saying 'How' on a regular basis.
Hegon Feb 7th 2007 5:24PM
I thought Goblins had a NY/Jersey accent already.
"Yeah wadda you want"
"How you doin?"
archaicangel Feb 7th 2007 5:14PM
I put the Draenei accent as a cross between french and russian. The New York accent would be great, but if they added a Southern accent as well for contrast.
desfaber Feb 7th 2007 5:31PM
As the owner of a Scottish accent, I'm perplexed as to how dwarves ended up with it. Dwarves are more of a Scandinavian myth, not a Celtic one.
My only guess is that they wanted something that sounded gruff and a bit grumpy. It worked for Gimli in LotR, with as little justification, so why not Azeroth?
Of course, labelling a Scottish accent as gruff overlooks the fact that some of us are quite suave and charming. Ahem.
blkmasta Feb 8th 2007 6:40AM
humans=austro-american
BElves=brit-american
gnomes=helium addict
Orcs=opposite of gnomes
NElves=Illidan sounds fairly English to me...
Tauren= american.
Before disagreeing and telling me n ways I'm wrong, these are my opinions.
Chris M Feb 7th 2007 5:42PM
I think the Blood Elves have the nicest Horde voice. In all honesty- they're the best Horde race.. but I digress. ;)
Very charming, high class speak, possibly with a tinge of something from the British Isles, but I wouldn't base it entirely on that. You can be spoken properly without being from England.
The Goblins kinda surprised me when they intro 'How ya doin?', which threw me for a minute- had to remind myself I'm still in Azeroth. Very Jersey/York accent. Very nice.
Chris
KiTA Feb 7th 2007 10:09PM
Warcraft dwarves have their accents cause Warhammer dwarves had similar accents. Duh. :)
I do love the Draenei accent though, it's so perfect for them.
BigEye Feb 8th 2007 12:12PM
WOW, you've turned into a right sexy wee bastard. Do you know that?
If it's not Scottish, it's CRAAP!
Thanks Mike Meyers.
Phei Feb 7th 2007 8:16PM
To an Australian, the blood elves don't sound remotely British. They're very American. Upper class, but it's distinctly American, probably from somewhere like California.
Braz Feb 7th 2007 8:35PM
I had noticed the dwarven accent, but I didn't realize that the Draenei have a Russian accent.
You say that the Night Elves don't have any recognizable, but at times they seem to have a subtle French accent. The accent most clear example of the accent that I can think of is when the NE females say, "what brings you here?"
I could be wrong about the country of origin, but the Night Elves definitely have some sort of accent.
crsh Feb 7th 2007 7:37PM
Blood elves are clearly Canadians working for the CBC, that flavourless international English accent..
(don't shoot the Canuck who revealed the truth!)
Barnabey Feb 7th 2007 9:09PM
Draenei - Russian
Dwarves - Scottish
Undead - Emo kids round' the globe
Trolls - Jamaican/Cajun
Tauren - Native Americans
Orcs - Chain smoker
Gnomes - Chinese (Based off gnomer)
Blood Elves - Brit's
Humans - uh... Americans?
Night Elves - Hippies
Arbuz Chokaro Feb 7th 2007 8:36PM
Goblins are very much a raspy New York accent in my opinion. Not jewish at all.