Jump to content

Theories Why Romulans are Irish on Star Trek Picard


Cassandra

Recommended Posts

Hard to say since I haven't seen the show, so, any symbolic speculation would be difficult unless they writing the Romulans to represent the Protestant versus Catholic tension that occurs within Ireland, but I haven't heard much on the news about any recent tensions along that route; so, I can't imagine it being enough apart the cultural imagination to feature in TV show.

 

The fact that TV show and movies use different accents or belonging to certain cultural groups to symbolically represent certain ideas is kind of a problem.  Most villains are given either German or British accents.  A southern or midwestern accent is either backwards and folksy or smart and evil.  Native American are always shown as being ecologically concerned and in touch with the Old Ways that strangely coincides with western New Age ideas, and so on.  Whether intentional or not, I think it leads to a lot leads bad ideas in regard to what different cultures should be like.

 

I'm Oklahoman.  I'm part Indian, part white, and had a black godfather.  I have a high IQ, and I am well read.  I sound like a hick, but I think at the masters degree level.  Yes, I am politically and socially conservative, but I am not an ignorant goose stepper about it; yet, if Hollywood were to portray me, I'd probably come out looking like a hateful racist who's not even smart enough to tie his own shoes.

 

I suppose this is where I should admit that I like to use accents when I roleplay, but I try to be respectful about.  Not all of my British are snobs, not all of my Germans are Nazis, and so on.  I hope I do my accents well enough and respectfully enough that real speakers of those accents take it with good humor should they actually hear me.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Anaximander said:

Hard to say since I haven't seen the show, so, any symbolic speculation would be difficult unless they writing the Romulans to represent the Protestant versus Catholic tension that occurs within Ireland, but I haven't heard much on the news about any recent tensions along that route; so, I can't imagine it being enough apart the cultural imagination to feature in TV show.

 

The fact that TV show and movies use different accents or belonging to certain cultural groups to symbolically represent certain ideas is kind of a problem.  Most villains are given either German or British accents.  A southern or midwestern accent is either backwards and folksy or smart and evil.  Native American are always shown as being ecologically concerned and in touch with the Old Ways that strangely coincides with western New Age ideas, and so on.  Whether intentional or not, I think it leads to a lot leads bad ideas in regard to what different cultures should be like.

 

I'm Oklahoman.  I'm part Indian, part white, and had a black godfather.  I have a high IQ, and I am well read.  I sound like a hick, but I think at the masters degree level.  Yes, I am politically and socially conservative, but I am not an ignorant goose stepper about it; yet, if Hollywood were to portray me, I'd probably come out looking like a hateful racist who's not even smart enough to tie his own shoes.

 

I suppose this is where I should admit that I like to use accents when I roleplay, but I try to be respectful about.  Not all of my British are snobs, not all of my Germans are Nazis, and so on.  I hope I do my accents well enough and respectfully enough that real speakers of those accents take it with good humor should they actually hear me.

 

 

 

I am a pretty good mimic, but I really cant do accents, strangely (unless occasionally I am mimicking someone who has an accent, I don't know what is up with that)

 

Anyway, living in southern VA, my mother was a switchboard operator for 20 years, and often got the comment from callers "you don't sound like you are from the South".  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm kind of a natural mimic.  I will sometimes take on the speech patterns of people I am talking to without meaning to.  One of my best friends was originally from Minnesota.  If I'd been spending much time hanging out with him, people would start thinking I was a Yankee.  I was talking to an Australian once.  Before long, I was matching his accent.  I hope he didn't think I was mocking him.  I once worked in a factory where the majority of Hispanic mixed between Mexicans and South Americans.  After a while, I started sounding like I was a mix of Mexican and South American.  Apparently, in my attempts to speak Spanish, I was told that I sounded like a Mexican by a Mexican, but that's all reflex.  I have no idea how well I do accents when I doing them deliberately.  I don't want to get wrong an have anyone thinking I was mocking after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Anaximander said:

I'm kind of a natural mimic.  I will sometimes take on the speech patterns of people I am talking to without meaning to.  One of my best friends was originally from Minnesota.  If I'd been spending much time hanging out with him, people would start thinking I was a Yankee.  I was talking to an Australian once.  Before long, I was matching his accent.  I hope he didn't think I was mocking him.

 

I do that too, and have had the same concern.

 

I don't recall having done it to any Americans though.

Back in the early 90s, I worked in Papua New Guinea, around a mix of PNG nationals and expatriates from all over the world. By the time I returned to Australia I had an accent influenced by all of these. "Incomprehensible mumble" would be the best description. I quickly discarded this, by concentrating on what I was saying. I lapsed back into something like it back in the late 90s without the external influences, but reverted to a more standard form when I started using the internet regularly.

 

At various points, people have suggested that I have an English accent. That's not true, but my vocabulary might be what gives that impression. Although I remember one of these suggestions from my PNG period came with a geographical location - south west England - which might have been shaped by my  composite mumble.

These days I've probably reverted to my original accent - somewhere between "Standard Australian" and "Broad Australian". The former is the stronger element, while the latter comes from my provincial city background.

 

I tend to be fairly neutral in terms of regional dialect terms - they were the first things I dropped when I went to university in the early 80s. And I've still got the "over-educated weirdo" thing going on with my vocabulary. But I'm not doing that here at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm originally from Maine, but spent elementary school years in Central Florida, before moving to Nevada several decades ago. My accent has blended into a (mostly) Western accent, though I have been mistaken as Canadian when traveling.

 

I am very bad at reproducing accents, and rarely try.

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Ternaugh said:

I'm originally from Maine, but spent elementary school years in Central Florida, before moving to Nevada several decades ago. My accent has blended into a (mostly) Western accent, though I have been mistaken as Canadian when traveling.

 

I am very bad at reproducing accents, and rarely try.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, with the accent, I guess for me, I can mimic a phrase or words that I have heard with the accent, but speaking an original dialogue in that accent is very hit and miss.

 

My best mimics are Gollum and the English voice acting back in the day of DBZ's Fat Majin Buu.  And yes, I can have them conversing with each other. :winkgrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...