Zeal is based off of Austrailia?

[Insane]

This just occured to me. If I'm right, accents are passed on through genes, exactly like hair colour, eye colour, etc. And, to my understanding, a clone is an exact replica of someone or osmethings genetic code.

Ok, so Kidd is a clone of Schala, yes? The way she talks is the Austrailian Sterotype (sp?). Normally, this would mean she has an Austraillian accent, or at the very least, an austraillian upbringing.

So, considering all of this, I have two questions:

Presuming that Zeallians have an accent, would it be Austraillian, if you take what I said into account?
Or, failing that, and given that Lucca rasied her, are the CT/CC team Australlian?

[mav]

Well, accents aren't genetic, it's a regional thing: if you take a child who is genetically Chinese and raise him (from birth) in America, he's going to have an American accent. Babies babble in all languages, they tune out the sounds that they don't hear when they're growing and eventually develop the sounds/accents/language that they grow up hearing. So the Chinese child, hearing American accents more than Chinese accents will have an American accent, while being to speak both English and have the ability to speak Chinese (if they've been exposed to it long enough). Phonetically a person has to have the ability to speak a certain language, and then be in the region long enough to eventually pick up that accent (although the exposure to that accent would have to be quite long).

That being said, I feel like Kidd's accent is probably not genetic, but I definitely don't think it's the same accent that Crono and co had...so I can't say I know why she speaks the way she does, it depends on where she grew up or what accent she was exposed to and how long.

[V_Translanka]

Yeah, and it's pretty uncontested that Zeal is based on Atlantis. Did she even have an "Australian" accent in the Japanese version? Wasn't it just some kind of "low" speech or something (to signify her improper upbringing?)? I may be remembering wrong...I know Harle didn't have a French accent...

[mav]

I was gonna ask the same thing--I always felt like the accents were just a quirk by the localization team, in a somewhat strange attempt to make the game seem a little less...regional.

I was just reading RPGamer's Chrono Cross review and found this:

The game translators have implemented an automatic accent-generating program. That means, the text was translated normally, but the program changes it to fit the appropriate character's accent in real time. Some of the accents are very nicely done. Others, like the French accents, are incredibly annoying.

Unlike CT, which gave each character specific dialog, CC used this generator to differentiate between the characters, to some extent. So I'd expect it to have just been a move pulled by the developers, they probably chose an Australian accent due to its recognizable and somewhat improper-sounding nature. If they just made her speech sound improper, it might just come off as unintelligent.

[V_Translanka]

Well, I mean, there's a regional dialect in Japan that's attributed that way...Something that would differentiate someone from the city & the country-like...I'm fairly sure anyways...I don't know all the specific words for these things though (or else I constantly forget them as I'm told)...V_V

[mav]

Well, isn't Japanese a very respect-based, formal language? Mind you, I know nothing about Japanese, but wouldn't word choice indicate Kidd's ruddy upbringing? So they wouldn't need an accent to prove anything, right? Fuck it, I don't really know.

But why would Zeal have Australian accents? If anything they'd have a very very formal, classy, and possibly pretentious accent. I'm not saying an Australian accent is the equivalent of crap, but it doesn't seem to suit all the Enlightened Ones perfectly...

[utunnels]

Well, about accent, because English is not my native language, so I just can't tell whether it is strange or not(sometimes I have to use a dictionary even if the speech is in a formal way). XD
I know nothing about Japanese either, but there're a lot of translators available. I don't have the Japanese script of CC, but in RD, Kidd uses 'オレ' to call herself, which is supposed to be used by a man.

BTW, Harle form CC and Pollon(or the sunflower) from RD both speak with strong French accent, maybe they both stand for someone's dark side? I remember in the original Japanese script of RD, it metioned several times that Kidd's expression looks just like the sunflower(at the end of the sunflower scenario).

[Dark Serge]

In the CC Developer Ending it's indeed stated that they used an accent generator. I wish I knew the system behind it, so I could use it for my own games. It was pretty amazing.

Kid having an australian accent is just because it fits her tomboyish character. I don't think it has anything to do with Zeal whatsoever.

On a side note, I also thought Harle's accent was annoying, but it did fit her very well.

[mav]

Harle's accent wasn't just annoying...it was done pretty poorly, in my opinion. I know we all know that moi means me, but "Moi is" is a terrible way to start a sentence. But I do agree with what you said Dark Serge, about the accent being used to fill out her tomboy-nature.

As for Harle and the sunflower, both characters are somewhat eccentric and French is a fairly flamboyant accent, so it seems to extenuate the characters' nature. I mean, look at Pierre in CC, to make him seem like a nancy boy they through a French accent at him. And to make some characters seem a little tougher, like the Red Dragon and Zappa, they gave 'em a very brutish Irish accent.

[Prince Janus]

 I remember coming up with a theory like this once, but when I did it, it was a joke.

[TimeJammer81]

And to make some characters seem a little tougher, like the Red Dragon and Zappa, they gave 'em a very brutish Irish accent.

Zappa always sounded a lot more Scottish than Irish.

[Dark Serge]

And to make some characters seem a little tougher, like the Red Dragon and Zappa, they gave 'em a very brutish Irish accent.

Zappa always sounded a lot more Scottish than Irish.

Yeah in fact he talks more scottish then english as well. There were some times I could not understand what he was saying.

[mav]

Whoops, it's been a while...that's the kinda mistake I shouldn't have made.

Anyhow, Zappa's accent wasn't too bad...not like that Mermaid or Luccia. Reading became a chore with those ladies.

[Dark Serge]

Yeah hence why I never went back to recruit Lucca Luccia. She's probably still waiting for me in Viper Manor. And Irenes, well, I had to recruit her in order to save Marbule.

[chrono eric]

I remember coming up with a theory like this once, but when I did it, it was a joke.

I thought this entire thread was a joke until just a moment ago. Zeal = Australia? Seriously. As stated, obviously the inspiration for it came from the legend of Atlantis.

But I'll entertain the possibility for a moment, and I thought I would add this important point to disprove this Zeal = Australia theory rather than just talking crap about it:

When you go back to Lucca's orphanage in CC to save Kid, she doesn't talk with an Australian accent. Therefore, I was always under the impression that Kid gained the accent after the orphanage incident, when she was presumably forced to fend for herself, generally thieving it up around Zenan and dreaming radically and whatnot.