Richard E. Rae (76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM)
Sat, 16 Jan 1999 08:40:48 -0500
Message-ID: <199901160842_MC2-66DE-4AAA@compuserve.com> Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 08:40:48 -0500 From: "Richard E. Rae" <76174.1410@COMPUSERVE.COM> Subject: Internet Message Header
>>You're referring to Kouran, right? What kind of accent *does* she have? (I
like listening to her, incidentally.)<<
Kouran speaks in Kansai-ben, a common dialect in the Osaka area. She also puts
a little bit of a Chinese accent on it. Once you get familiar with the dialect
variations ("uchi" instead of "watashi", "-han" instead of "-san", "ya" instead
of "yo", for example) she's easier to understand.
For that matter, all the characters have dialectic variations that imply their
origins or class. Kanna speaks with Okinawan dialect, Sakura has a "country
girl" accent, Sumire uses extremely formal speech which pegs her as a snob
("Watakushi" and "desu wa", for example), Iris speaks Japanese with a French
accent and structure (note that her "mo" often ends in "mon", and her habit of
inserting her name as the speaker). Orihime belts out her lines with a very
clear, hard-edged Italian accent that pegs her as a foreigner immediately. And
so forth!
--Richard