Accents in TSK

[Nyx]

Acronyms rock.

So here's the deal. In the HDM thread there's a post about Spreading HDM. I'm a college student, and I'm spreading the series by reading it out loud to my parents. Neither of them are big readers, but they let me read Golden Compass to them, and they loved it. Now we're on Subtle Knife.

With TGC, I used a pallet of voice tones and accents to make everyone sound different (and also just for kicks ^_^). I'm very proud of myself because when the movie came out, all of my voices were spot-on. Lyra, Roger, Pan, Scoresby, the Gyptians, Iorek, the voices all matched up with New Line's--and I'd never seen the trailer. Bwahaha.

...But TSK is hard!

So I need the help of you all, my fellow HDM fans. I need some ideas for how to voice the different regions and settings of TSK. Cittagazze in particular. It makes me think it's supposed to sound Italian or something, but that doesn't seem like it makes any sense.

And--all right, say everyone flashmobs and says Citagazze accents should be Italian. I, have... no bleeping idea what an Italian accent sounds like. Where do I go to listen to and learn different accents? I'm not an actor, I'm a network security major. I don't know these things.

Thanks for the help!

--Nyx


Also: If anyone else wants to start reading HDM aloud to someone too, and isn't really sure how to do it, don't hesitate to peg questions here. It's fun! If you love the series (and why else would you be here?) you should probably try it for yourself. ^_^

[bharned1]

For Italian accents, try watching the Godfather movies.

[kezmondo]

heh, try here for some pointers.

This might be helpful aswell.

[daemonpurra]

Italian? why the italian accent for citigazze?
but if you want to talk italian watch any kind of maphia movie or some kind of italian cooking show

[Ian]

Italian? why the italian accent for citigazze?

That's how they sound in the official audiobooks...

[intotheworld]

I didn't realize when the last post was from before I got interested and started typing, so I figure since I've made this post I might as well share the information as it may be of interest to someone.

I think it's spelled Cittàgazze, with an accent on the a.
The word Città means city in Italian.
If I get unlazy, I might find a way to upload my Italian teacher saying the word Città.
Just for an easy description of how to say Città, it sounds similar to the English word Ceetah.
Gazza or Gazze in this case, is a type of bird. I attached a sound clip of what it sounds like.
This is a sound wave of the word Città:
http://www.logosdictionary.org/sound/it/892421_n.wav
This is a sound wave of the word Gazza:
http://www.logosdictionary.org/sound/it/2061695_n.wav
obviously you need change to the proper ending.
While attempting not to get too confusing... a is the italian female singular word ending, to change into the plural of a word ending in a, you generally change to e which is the female plural ending.

[Luca]

Imagine every character is being played by Brian Blessed. Problem solved.

Also, I've said it once before but it bares repeating now... I fell in love with a girl

...Tulio's sister Angellica. My word, what's going on with her accent? She's the greatest Irish-Italian-Jamaican I've ever heard...

Oh, and "Cheetah-Gart-Zay"

[Kyrillion]

Aw, what a lovely idea. My dad read The Subtle Knife to me. I was about fifteen at the time - my parents kept reading to me for a long time

[lozzie_kytara]

I am currently reading my mother Northern Lights, and she is really enjoying it. I am using voices too, which is the most fun part as it allows me to be the Lyra I have always so longed to be.

I always associated Cittagazze as a kind of odd italian-jamaican-somewherehotbythesea combination. A useful resource for voices I have found was to listen to the unabridged audio cassettes, that's where I get any voices I am stuck on from. But I would say really just to do what feels right, and not compare the voices to the film, as you are voicing the characters that you see in your head, not the ones the actors and director put in the film.