A Land Far Away

In Races of Faerun it says, "The primary shield dwarven dialect, Shanatan, dates back to the founding of Shanatar and is still spoken by dwarves along the Sword Coast from the Shining Sea to the Spine of the World. To the east, in northcentral Faerûn, most shield dwarves speak the Galenan dialect, strongly influenced by the Damaran human tongue."

Do you guys roleplay this stuff? I've seen dwarves traditionally portrayed as having a Scottish accent. Does that represent one of the above dialects? Are dwarves from certain regions expected to speak a certain way in ALFA's Faerûn?

I think of a dialect as being a regional speech pattern, often filled with a particular regional vocabulary or pronunciation.
Southern US English is markedly different from Canadian English. Southern English uses words like 'grits' 'taters' and 'yall' while the Canadian uses 'ey', 'a-boot', and 'leftenant'.
How Dwarves speak Common I would think would be dependent upon whom they learned it from...

I would have to agree with Riot on that. Though I too have seen a brogue typically given to dwarves IG, I would think the race challenging enough to play without feeling compelled to atempt an accent. It is common they are speaking anyway, so go with what is easiest for you.

"Dwarven dialect" to me would be the way the dwarves in question speak their own tongue, and not the way they mangle the Common speech.

There has been some speculation as to why dwarfs are tradionally portrayed with scottish accents:

Rudyard Kipling wrote M'Andrew's Hymn, which is likely the origin of the Scottish engineer stereotype. Given the dwarves are handy with cunning machinery, the Scotch [sic] Dwarf is a likely descendant.

There's a dwarf with an incredibly thick Scottish brogue in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. Since that came out in 1961, and D&D used it as a major source, that may be the source. As to why Anderson chose to give the character a brogue, I don't know, and, since he died six years ago, we may never know.

In folklore, the Black Dwarf was actually a Duergar. From the Duergar Wikipedia article:
"The duergar are a race of ugly fairies or dwarfs, particularly associated with the Simonside Hills of Northumberland, in northern England." Northumbria accounts for half of the border with Scotland.

I think it is b/c both races are drunk, cantakerous, hillfolk!

Dwarves, however, are not fish-white flesh puckered by the Highland breeze.

I would agree with Curm in that Dwarven dialect would in itself be speaking dwarven a bit different than other dwarves and has nothing to do with common.

For My own PC, he speaks atrotious common, and writes even poorer. A very heavy accent because of his learning, nothing to do with being a dwarf perse. His dwarven has no accent whatsoever. I would follow riots suggestion to use a different regional tone if you'r playing a far flu ng dwarf from anthother region, but it's not really necessary.

dergon darkhelm wrote:There has been some speculation as to why dwarfs are tradionally portrayed with scottish accents:;)

It could also be the traditional Scottish clan system (though long since dismantled by Butcher Cunningham and Co. after Culloden in 1746) seems a good match for the Dwarven clan system.

dergon darkhelm wrote:I think it is b/c both races are drunk, cantakerous, hillfolk!

You're talking about the Irish now, I think.

danielmn wrote:I would agree with Curm in that Dwarven dialect would in itself be speaking dwarven a bit different than other dwarves and has nothing to do with common.

For My own PC, he speaks atrotious common, and writes even poorer. A very heavy accent because of his learning, nothing to do with being a dwarf perse. His dwarven has no accent whatsoever. I would follow riots suggestion to use a different regional tone if you'r playing a far flu ng dwarf from anthother region, but it's not really necessary.

There'll be nae dwarrrf flinging een tha Seelvarr Marrchen whilst I be King!!