History Main / TheQueensLatin

A type of TranslationConvention and [[TheCoconutEffect Coconut Effect]]. Compare with AccentAdaptation.[[note]]As an interesting historical side-note: when the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain, the Romanized Britons left behind eventually founded the country now known as Wales, maintaining a cultural and political identity distinct from the Saxons who invaded/settled Britain shortly afterwards. So the convention of Romans speaking with a British - or even better, Welsh - accent might not be too far off.[[/note]]

Giving the characters non-British accents (American, Australian, Canadian, etc.) ought to be just as acceptable as giving them British ones, but this is usually avoided, because it makes the characters sound "[[RealityIsUnrealistic inauthentic]]". Britain's long history causes British accents to seem somehow "older" -- they are used to suggest a sense of age and grandeur.

* ''EnemyAce: War in Heaven'' provides an unusual print example. Every major character in the series is German, but Northern Irish writer GarthEnnis gives them analogous "British equivalent" accents and dialects for their social class. It's striking, and a bit jarring to comics readers used to the stilted "Achtung! Gott in Himmel!" JustAStupidAccent approach to German characters, but oddly effective.

* In ''Film/{{Hugo}}'', set in a Parisian train station, the French characters are almost all played by British actors using their natural accents, apart from American ChloeMoretz, who is faking a British accent.

* There's a theory that Captain Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is actually speaking French the whole time and the Enterprise's Universal Translator renders his voice into English as a classy British accent as either a dynamic equivalent of the dialect of French he speaks or simply because it suits his personality.

* In ''VideoGameMetalGearSolid3'', Sokolov, a Russian, [[TranslationConvention appears]] to speak with a British accent. All of the other Russians are played with American accents, with the exception of Sokolov's rival, Granin...who speaks with a Russian accent. Then again, he's drunk, and may actually be speaking English in that scene.

* Spartan: Total Warrior is also guilty. Every single Roman uses some form of British accent from the vaguely cockney legionnaires to the cut-glass accent of Sejanus

* The Fable series are bad for it, too; everyone comes from ''somewhere'' in the British Isles.

* In ''MetalGearSolid3'', Sokolov, a Russian, [[TranslationConvention appears]] to speak with a British accent. All of the other Russians are played with American accents, with the exception of Sokolov's rival, Granin...who speaks with a Russian accent. Then again, he's drunk, and may actually be speaking English in that scene.

* In ''MetalGearSolid3'', Sokolov, a Russian, [[TranslationConvention appears]] to speak with a British accent.

* In many productions of GilbertAndSullivan operettas, the actors will put on British accents, even when the operetta in question doesn't take place in England (e.g. ''The Mikado'', in Japan).
** This is often to get Gilbert's rhyming and/or puns to work (consider the "Orphan/Often" joke in ThePiratesOfPenzance) and because a British accent makes it far easier to navigate a PatterSong understandably, given the (modern, upper-class) British accent's consonant clarity.

* In MarvelComics, mythic figures like {{Thor}} and [[TheIncredibleHercules Hercules]] almost alway speak in a faux-Shakespearean dialect - using stiltedly formal diction and throwing around words like "forsooth" and "verily," often in a stylized [[ForeignLookingFont font]] - rather than even try to guess at how an ancient Norse god or ancient Greek demigod would speak. (Of course, being gods and not humans, they'd most likely talk - and [[DivineRaceLift look]] - however the devil they wanted.)

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', nearly every human is British (ClaudiaBlack, although Australian, has always done a great British accent), except for the occasional character from the [[TheEmpire Empire of Orlais]], who are depicted as essentially being French. Elves and Dwarves are almost universally American (except for [[DepravedBisexual Zevran]], who has an outrageous Spanish [[FantasyCounterpartCulture 'Antivan']] accent).

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans. Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair, and stood about 5-foot-6, much like a modern Italian. The Roman Empire reached northern Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' northern Europeans. (This particular bit of CreatorProvincialism also leads, even more egregiously, to Biblical characters- ancient people from the Middle East- looking a lot like North Europeans in North European art. Admittedly the artists possibly weren't aware they might have looked rather different, and if they were, the inauthenticity probably wouldn't have troubled artistic sensibilities until fairly recently.)

* In the film ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', all the actors speak with their natural accents: Tom Cruise (Stauffenberg) speaks General American, Kenneth Branagh speaks RP, Matthias Freihof (Himmler), speaks with a German accent, etc. The only exception is David Bamber (Hitler), who affects a German accent.

* ''Caligula'' has the cast using British accents to denote social and class hierarchy.

* Averted in Sofia Coppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette''. The actors speak in their normal accents: Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) speaks in a General American accent, Rip Torn (Louis XV) speaks in a mild Texas accent, Steve Coogan (Ambassador Mercy) speaks with a British accent, Jason Schwartzman speaks with a General American accent. (It helps that the movie is done in a tongue-in-cheek style, complete with [[PurelyAestheticEra punk and new-wave music on the soundtrack]]).

* Avoided in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire''. Cruise, Dunst, and Pitt all speak with cultivated American diction.

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]]

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* The Spartans in ''[[ThreeHundred 300]]'' speak with British accents. Leonidas has a noticeably Scottish accent. This somewhat coincidentally, falls in line with a very long-standing convention used in translating Greek Comedy (which uses accent gags extensively): Attic Greek (used by the Athenians) is represented as the Queen's English, whereas Doric Greek (used by the Spartans) is represented by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language Scots]]. This equation is so widespread that there is even a variety of Scots that is actually referred as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doric_dialect_%28Scotland%29 Doric]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'', all the Egyptians have English accents, and the Hebrews and Midianites sound American. One would think Moses might have realized something was up with his parentage long before Miriam clued him in, given that he had the only American accent in Pharaoh's palace.

* Averted in Sofia Coppola's ''MarieAntoinette''. The actors speak in their normal accents: Kirsten Dunst (Marie Antoinette) speaks in a General American accent, Rip Torn (Louis XV) speaks in a mild Texas accent, Steve Coogan (Ambassador Mercy) speaks with a British accent, Jason Schwartzman speaks with a General American accent. (It helps that the movie is done in a tongue-in-cheek style, complete with [[PurelyAestheticEra punk and new-wave music on the soundtrack]]).

* In ''TheDuellists'' all the characters are French but most of the cast except the two American leads are British.

* Avoided in ''InterviewWithTheVampire''. Cruise, Dunst, and Pitt all speak with cultivated American diction.
* In ''{{Troy}}'', ''most'' of the cast seem to be using their native accents. Brad Pitt ''might'' be attempting a British accent, but it sounds rather Americanized. Sean Bean even uses his native Northern British accent instead of a more cultivated one. Curiously, the only performers conspicuously ''not'' using their native accents are the two Australians, Eric Bana and Rose Byrne. One has to assume that the director/producer felt that the Aussie accent was the only one that couldn't be believably set in Ancient Times.
* ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' averts this with the titular Aladdin and his love interest Princess Jasmine, who both have American accents, but play this straight with Jasmine's father the Sultan and BigBad Jafar.
* The ShowWithinAShow in ''SinginInTheRain'' takes place among the French aristocracy during TheCavalierYears. This naturally requires dialect training for leading lady Lina Lamont and her very nasal Bronx accent (although the other characters already consider her voice grating anyway).
* ''LifeIsBeautiful'', dubbed into English, keeps the Italian and German accents of the characters. Thanks to TheCoconutEffect, it sounds like some sort of racist joke.
* The Roman soldiers in ''NightAtTheMuseum''. Because they're not "real" Romans but miniatures, and since the spell bringing them to life also gives a T-Rex [[AllAnimalsAreDogs the traits of a dog]], it's possible that the spell sort of "imitates" people's expectations or something, and therefore the soldiers' accents are actually ''caused by'' this trope's prevalence.
* In ''{{Hugo}}'', set in a Parisian train station, the French characters are almost all played by British actors using their natural accents, apart from American ChloeMoretz, who is faking a British accent.

* In the ''StarWars'' films, the Coruscanti accent (both refined and coarse) is rendered as British, while the Corellian accent is American. Naboo appears to have both.
* In ''ThePrincessBride'', almost every character in the nation of Florin not identified as being from elsewhere speaks with a British accent of some sort, even though the word "florin" is Italian in origin.
* In ''TheMaskOfZorro'', both Don Diego and Don Rafael (the first Zorro and his archnemesis) speak with British accents despite being Mexican, partly because they are of the nobility, partly because they're played by British actors AnthonyHopkins and Stuart Wilson. The other Dons all have Hispanic accents, however.
* In [[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]] the greek gods all have British accents.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* Similarly, there's a theory that [[StarTrekTheNextGeneration Captain Picard]] is actually speaking French the whole time and the Enterprise's Universal Translator renders his voice into English as a classy British accent as either a dynamic equivalent of the dialect of French he speaks or simply because it suits his personality.
* Referenced in ''SlingsAndArrows''. The character who plays Hamlet tries to find English accent tapes until another character points out that Hamlet is actually Danish, so he gives up.

** In Season Two, the show has started to assign specific non-English accents to people from outside Westeros. Shae and Jaqen H'gar, both from Lorath, are played by German actors, who speak in their native accents.
* ''TheBorgias'' is full of British accents, though the French characters actually do have French accents. It's just all the Italians that are British.

[[AC:ProfessionalWrestling]]

[[AC:Radio]]

[[AC:{{Theatre}}]]

[[AC: Stand-Up Comedy]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

* In the Marquis de Sade biopic ''{{Quills}}'', everyone speaks in British accents, despite being 19th century Frenchmen — even the guy played by JoaquinPhoenix.
* ''TheAffairOfTheNecklace'' is another film set in France. All the characters speak with British accents (even King Louis and Marie Antoinette!) save for two: Simon Baker, who couldn't seem to decide whether he wanted to be quasi-Aussie or quasi-English before giving up and just doing some odd blend of the two; and Hillary Swank, who doesn't use an accent at all and talks in full-on American that is just jarring. To add to the confusion, she intones some of her sentences like a British speaker would, turning them up at the ends.
* Parodied in ''HistoryOfTheWorldPartOne'' with Marcus Vindictus (Shecky Greene) who speaks in a erudite British accent and pronounces "Rome" by rolling his 'R's.

* The 2009 revival of A Little Night Music, a musical set in Sweden, was/is performed with British accents by the cast, most of them fake Brits, with the notable exception of AngelaLansbury. This is exacerbated by the fact that they all speak with different flavors of British accent, with no logic given or implied as to the variance.

** And then Eowyn can't decide whether she has an English or Yankee accent.

** A review snarked that with all the well known British actors in the cast it felt like a ''HarryPotter'' movie.

* It was once humorously noted in ''{{Time}}'' magazine that there is a radio dramatization of the Koran that is read by a British person. So even Allah has a British accent!

This trope leads many Ancient Roman characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans. Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair, and stood about 5-foot-6, much like a modern Italian. The Roman Empire reached northern Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' northern Europeans.

* TheBBC''/''{{HBO}} drama ''{{Rome}}'', in which all of the characters speak in various English accents according to their backgrounds and roles. For example, Julius Caesar speaks with an upper-class accent, befitting his position as one of Rome's upper classes, while soldier Titus Pullo speaks with a faint Geordie accent, implying working-class origins. Several actors cover over their Irish accents to play Romans as British.

* ''SpartacusBloodandSand'' has the Roman characters all speaking in approximations of an upper-class English accent. The gladiators have an array of accents, given their varied origins.

Giving the characters non-British accents (American, Australian, Canadian, etc.) ought to be just as acceptable as giving them British ones, but this is usually avoided, because it makes the characters sound "[[RealityIsUnrealistic inauthentic]]". Britain's long history causes British accents to seem somehow "older" -- they are used to suggest a sense of age and grandeur. Ironically, [[NewerThanTheyThink the most recognizable aspects of the modern British accent are fairly recent linguistic innovations]].