American English varieties include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world.[19] Any American or Canadianaccent perceived as free of noticeably local, ethnic, or cultural markers is popularly called “General” or “Standard” American, a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. and associated nationally with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single “mainstream” American accent
Most Americans preserve all historical /ɹ/ sounds, using what is known as a rhotic accent.
Full rhoticity (or R-fulness) is typical of American accents, pronouncing the phoneme /r/ (corresponding to the letter ⟨r⟩) in all environments, including after vowels, such as in pearl , car , and court .[25][26] Non-rhotic American accents, those that do not pronounce ⟨r⟩ except before a vowel, such as some Eastern New England, New York, a specific few (often older) Southern, and African American vernacular accents, are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived to sound especially ethnic, regional, or “old-fashioned”.
What you likely describe as “american” is the /r/ sounds Mei uses. In isolated samples, she has a vivid use of r, but for “General American listeners” she doesn’t have full rhoticity and has instances of muddled or droped sounds.
While rhoticity is more associated with “american english” the distinction in how Mei speaks can also be heard with her /l/ sounds. English has light L and dark L
So in phrases that need her to alternate /r/ and /l/ type sounds, one can hear the non-‘american’ ways she compensates her pronunciations and drops sounds that would be pronounced in “general american”
Did anyone complain that Lúcio doesn’t have a Brazilian accent? Or that he doesn’t speak any Portuguese at all?
(I mean over here in HotS, I know for a fact that there were some complaints about that in Overwatch)
I also have a friend who says Genji’s accent in the spanish localization is very forced and “feels racist”… Would OP prefer an exagerated, cartoony accent? (like Zarya’s )
Your friend is an ignorant. The localization of Genjo is good and somehow even surpased by Hanzo’s. It’s not forced, the actor that plays genjo is famous for comedy roles and that sometimes affects the perception but the people in charge of Overwatch’s localization is super good and they made an amazing job with the pronunciation and role acting. Genjo is not a serious character and he is quite dramatic for everything. The actor is just doing his job.
Oh, great. Now all this theory got me wondering wether I have an accent and how strong it is. Good job tho, that was a very interesting read.
The thing is tho, you didn’t ask which spanish localization. I know for a fact LATam Genji sounds amazing but I don’t quite remember the Spain one. Hmmm.
Voice actress looks Chinese and so does Mei
But Mei herself in-game doesnt sound Chinese
The complain isnt about how the VA looks.
It is that Blizz decided that Mei sounds like an American Chinese with no Chinese accent.
Personally, it would be more interesting to hear Mei with a Chinese accent as someone who grew up in China and learned English as a 2nd language rather than English as a native language.
LoL, I think she’s supposed to be Egyptian. I wouldn’t know the first thing about an Egyptian accent, but I love Ana’s voice, slightly gravelly, it’s subtle but definitely a touch of some kind of accent.
Some of Mei’s lines have more of an accent than others. It’s a hard balance to strike, you want to have that flavor of the country without being like a weird stereotype caricature. I think for clarity and not wanting to come across as racist, they probably leaned towards having less of an accent, but I definitely wouldn’t agree that Mei has an American accent though.
Everyone has an ‘accent’. Accent is just the word to represent the system of word-sounds that people learned first, or rather, predominantly. The notion of some having an ‘accent’ is a misconception of linguistics because people don’t learn enough about languages before assumptions and stigma kick in a world-society built around people uplifting those with similar qualities to themselves, and bemoaning others for being ‘different’. (The goal for them is self-elation, but they just want some people to ‘agree’ with them to have more people brining them up and putting others down, but I digress there)
People only notice an ‘accent’ when someone deviates from the expected pronunciation due to an unfamiliarity with the specific sound-rules of a given system. (many languages don’t share word-sounds, so people simply don’t know what to say, and thus have an ‘accent’ trying to use them) Those around them assume others have the ‘accent’ when the pronunciation is different from expectations.
Speaking without an ‘accent’ is a matter of experience and practice; that’s part of why notable actors that had an “accent” in their early careers speak much more clearly later on. The assertion people have to have an ‘accent’ with any other non-primary language is a misconception perpetuated by stigma and assumptions because [we] (royal) don’t teach enough about speech and communication early enough for people to know otherwise.
People that study languages and word-sounds can adopt accents by shifting some of the word sounds, and even teach that to others.
The same notion extends outside of any form of “english” and non-natives to a variety of languages (multiple even) can all learn to speak without an “accent” by practicing the word-system of that language.
If Mei is a character with global interactions (ie, particular language experience) then she’d probably be more prone to not speaking with an ‘accent’ – if they were an intentional choice. However, since her English VA also does her chinese audio as well, the notion of her not having an ‘accent’ is misplaced by both connotative and denotative understandings of “accents”
The sort of people that say others have ‘accents’ are likely not going to be ones to describe the particular sounds/rules that actually make the accent. That’s part of why the OP will pretty much ignore/sass what I wrote (that has specifics that demonstrate her ‘accent’) in favor of pretending they’re still correct despite all references to the contrary.
Mei herself in the game sounds plenty Chinese to me. I guess it’s your perception. I’ve taken Chinese classes, I know a lot of Chinese people, and her English pronunciation has clear Asian notes in it that I can hear.
I think you just don’t have an ear for it.
Why? Why would a person of Chinese decent have to be born in China and learn the language specifically there for it to count? Is there something wrong with the way their parents taught them the language because they’re in a different area?
We’re from Mexico, so I’m pretty sure my friend had it in LatAm spanish… But I didn’t hear the voiceline, he just told me it was exagerated and cartoony.
(I play in english from day one, because I hate translated names for some reason… Call me “malinchista”, but “Puntos”, “Sargento Maza”, “Cringris”, “Alasol”, and “Melena Blanca” all make me cringe )
My friend just changed to english recently, though (which is what sparked that conversation, when he heard Genji’s english voice), and he says the english voices are somehow “better”, especially the announcers.
Of course, it’s all a matter of preference.
I know I don’t have to tell you this, but, how she looks has little to do with how she sounds. It’s probably not your intention, but doing something like that, perpetuates potentially damaging stereotypes that where you were born and habituated to your first language is ascribed by “race” or the country or origin of where your ancestors came from, which is just patently false.
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