History Main / TheQueensLatin

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A type of TranslationConvention and [[TheCoconutEffect Coconut Effect]]. Compare with AccentAdaptation, or, for an actor playing an overtly British character, see {{I Am Very British}}. See also BritishNazis, when a Nazi German character is played by an English actor and sometimes given an RP accent.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. 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 Northern Europeans in Northern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

* Called out by name in the [[https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-queens-latin/ "The Queen's Latin"]] essays on Blog/ACollectionOfUnmitigatedPedantry, which discuss the complexities of historical ancient Roman identity - i.e., if the Romans weren't actually a bunch of Northern Europeans with posh accents, what were they really like?

* The English translation of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' used this to replace the different Japanese ways of talking: dashing sky-pirate Balthier was given an English accent, whereas Princess Ashe was given a soft high-class American accent. ([[CuteMonsterGirl Fran]] speaks with a [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Welshy...Indo...Iri...Scot...Russi...Armenian]] - okay, no one knows, but it's an accent.) Al-Cid speaks in an accent that has been called an odd hybrid of Spanish and Russian. The grunts of the Archadian Empire tend to have particularly thuggish London accents. The people of Bhujerba speak with Indian accents.
** In fact, [[spoiler:Balthier's accent actually gives away his heritage,]] since each region seems to speak its own dialect, with the Archadians speaking with the British accents, citizen of Dalmasca to speaking with American accents, the one Rozzarian we hear speak has a Spanish accent, and so on.

* The English dubs of the ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' Series has the majority of the cast speaking with American accents, though Vanille and Fang speak with...Australian accents for some reason. Most likely to represent them as being from a different place and time, though Fang speaks with a more general Australian accent while Vanille's accent is roughly the same as her voice actresses'. This is a translation equivalent of how they're voiced in Japanese, which has them have Okinawan accents.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' gives everyone in the game British accents in the English dub. Taken to a ridiculous degree in the ''Stormblood'' expansion where there are areas that are basically fantasy counterparts to Japan and China and everyone there also speaks with a British accent. (That said, ''Stormblood'' also deliberately gives an OopNorth accent to Ala Mhigan characters to distinguish them, an improvement from all the extremely French named elezen from ''Heavensward'' sounding like [=BBC=] newscasters.) Y'shtola and Zenos, the representatives of FFXIV in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy2015'', sounds distinct from the other characters with their accents as a result.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has King Regis, Lunafreya, Ardyn, and Ignis speak in RP British accents while the rest of the cast is largely American. Noctis is Regis' son, so him having a completely different accent isn't explained.

* In the ''WebVideo/Lonelygirl15'' episode "Zodiac of Denderah", a British upper-class accent is used to imitate the French aristocracy.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. The Roman Empire reached Northwestern Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' Northwestern Europeans. (This particular bit of CreatorProvincialism also leads, even more egregiously, to Biblical characters -- ancient people from the Middle East -- looking a lot like Northwestern Europeans in Northwestern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

* Called out by name in the [[https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-queens-latin/ "The Queen's Latin"]] essays on Blog/ACollectionOfUnmitigatedPedantry, which discuss the complexities of historical ancient Roman identity - i.e., if the Romans weren't actually a bunch of Northwestern Europeans with posh accents, what were they really like?

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. 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 Northern Europeans in Northern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

* Called out by name in the [[https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-queens-latin/ "The Queen's Latin"]] essays on Blog/ACollectionOfUnmitigatedPedantry, which discuss the complexities of historical ancient Roman identity - i.e., if the Romans weren't actually a bunch of northern Europeans with posh accents, what were they really like?

* Called out by name in the [[https://acoup.blog/category/collections/the-queens-latin/ "The Queen's Latin"]] essays on Blog/ACollectionOfUnmitigatedPedantry, which discuss the complexities of historical ancient Roman identity - i.e., if the Romans weren't actually a bunch of northern Europeans with posh accents, who were they?

* There's a theory that Captain Picard in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is actually speaking French the whole time and the Universal Translator renders his voice into English as a classy British accent as either a dynamic equivalent of the dialect of French he speaks -- presumably a posh, educated form of Standard/Metropolitan French -- or simply because it suits his personality. (The other theory is that by the 24th century, the English and French have been fighting and screwing for so long that they've exchanged accents.) WordOfGod is that Picard was originally supposed to have a French accent, but, when Creator/PatrickStewart tried it, the creators decided no one would take him seriously. Stewart later demonstrated "Picard as a Frenchman" at a talk show with predictable results. Also see ''Film/LAStory'' for more of Stewart's French accent.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'', despite being an American {{Creator/HBO}} adaptation of [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire novels]] by an [[Creator/GeorgeRRMartin American author]], stars mainly British and Irish actors speaking with English accents. The relatively few non-Brits required to speak English (rather than Dothraki) do pretty good English accents. The types of accent tend to vary quite widely even among families, but the Starks and other northern families do generally have variations on various northern English accents and fit the 'blunt, tough, uncomplicated' stereotypes (they also tend to be physically buffer than their southern counterparts), while the richest, most powerful southern families like the Lannisters have much posher, highly affected accents more associated with villainy. This is due to the fact that the series' characters represent a FantasyCounterpartCulture to the British Isles, with accents (and locations -- King's Landing = London, etc) that approximate the geography of the country. The whole tale is a thinly veiled reference to the historic [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses War of the Roses]], a power-struggle fought in England between the houses of York and Lancaster (AKA Stark and Lannister). Only Dorne differs with their generally Latin accents, as a FantasyCounterpartCulture of Spain. 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. Carice van Houten speaks in her native Dutch accent, although Asshai is on the opposite end of the known world from Lorath. Some characters from outside Westeros do have a British accent however, apparently because they speak the Common Tongue of the Seven Kingdoms without a foreign accent.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. The Roman Empire reached northwestern Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' northwestern Europeans. (This particular bit of CreatorProvincialism also leads, even more egregiously, to Biblical characters -- ancient people from the Middle East -- looking a lot like northwestern Europeans in northwestern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

In any case, using The Queen's Latin makes a series or film commercially viable in the US. It alleviates the need for subtitles, while maintaining the appearance of historical authenticity. It's ''just'' [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign foreign and exotic enough]] (many British actors already [[PlaysGreatEthnics Play Great Ethnics]]). It's also commonly used because Ancient Rome is a very influential civilization in the Western world and [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire there is an empire in Europe that's just as famous and widespread as the Romans]]. The usage of British accents for Roman characters is no doubt inspired by productions of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s plays set in Ancient Rome. Remember: Romeo might have been Italian, but he's not ''realistic'' [[TheCoconutEffect unless he talks like a proper British toff]]. Which is doubly ironic, since in Shakespeare's own time, typical English accents sounded different from today's "standard British accent" (officially called "Received Pronunciation"), being some kind of cross between Irish, Mid-Atlantic American, and even stereotypical ''{{Pirate}}'' accents[[note]]It's called Original Pronunciation and, thanks to the serious efforts of many dedicated professionals, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqmgeth4tFY&ab_channel=DivisionofHumanities%2CUniversityofOtago has been reconstructed]] and is occasionally being used in productions of Shakespeare today..

In any case, using The Queen's Latin makes a series or film commercially viable in the US. It alleviates the need for subtitles, while maintaining the appearance of historical authenticity. It's ''just'' [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign foreign and exotic enough]] (many British actors already [[PlaysGreatEthnics Play Great Ethnics]]). It's also commonly used because Ancient Rome is a very influential civilization in the Western world and [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire there is an empire in Europe that's just as famous and widespread as the Romans]]. The usage of British accents for Roman characters is no doubt inspired by productions of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s plays set in Ancient Rome. Remember: Romeo might have been Italian, but he's not ''realistic'' [[TheCoconutEffect unless he talks like a proper British toff]]. Which is doubly ironic, since in Shakespeare's own time, typical English accents sounded different from today's "standard British accent" (officially called "Received Pronunciation"), being some kind of cross between Irish, Mid-Atlantic American, and even stereotypical ''{{Pirate}}'' accents[[note]]It's called Original Pronunciation and, thanks to the serious efforts of many dedicated professionals, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqmgeth4tFY&ab_channel=DivisionofHumanities%2CUniversityofOtago has been reconstructed]] and is occasionally being used in productions of Shakespeare today.]].

In any case, using The Queen's Latin makes a series or film commercially viable in the US. It alleviates the need for subtitles, while maintaining the appearance of historical authenticity. It's ''just'' [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign foreign and exotic enough]] (many British actors already [[PlaysGreatEthnics Play Great Ethnics]]). It's also commonly used because Ancient Rome is a very influential civilization in the Western world and [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire there is an empire in Europe that's just as famous and widespread as the Romans]]. The usage of British accents for Roman characters is no doubt inspired by productions of [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]]'s plays set in Ancient Rome. Remember: Romeo might have been Italian, but he's not ''realistic'' [[TheCoconutEffect unless he talks like a proper British toff]]. Which is doubly ironic, since in Shakespeare's own time, typical English accents sounded different from today's "standard British accent" (officially called "Received Pronunciation"), being some kind of cross between Irish, Mid-Atlantic American, and even stereotypical ''{{Pirate}}'' accents.

* Discussed by Creator/EddieIzzard, with the part of Caesar played by his impression of James Mason. Which is also his favorite voice for {{God}}, incidentally.

* In ''Series/{{Reign}}'', much of the series is set in France, so, [[SarcasmMode naturally]], almost everyone speaks with a British accent, regardless of nationality (e.g. French, Spanish, Italian, most Scots). The few noticeable exceptions are Scottish lords, such as those played by Andrew Airlie or Creator/JohnBarrowman (both being Scottish-born actors, who have moved to Canada and US, respectively).

* Averted in Creator/SofiaCoppola's ''Film/MarieAntoinette''. The actors speak in their normal accents: Creator/KirstenDunst (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]]).

* 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 (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. 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 Northern Europeans in Northern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. The Roman Empire reached Northwestern Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' Northwestern Europeans. (This particular bit of CreatorProvincialism also leads, even more egregiously, to Biblical characters -- ancient people from the Middle East -- looking a lot like Northwestern Europeans in Northwestern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. 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 Northern Europeans in Northern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

This trope leads many Ancient Roman (or Ancient Greek, Trojan, etc.) characters to not only sound but also physically look like Anglo-Saxons rather than Romans (or Greeks, etc.). Historians have speculated that the average Roman man had tan or olive skin, usually dark hair[[note]]This can be deduced from the fact that when the Empire expanded into Gaul, Germany and Britain, the existence of people with blonde and red hair caused a sensation in Rome as nobody had ever seen this before. When the first blonde slaves were shipped back, people competed to own them, driving up their prices, and Roman women frequently shaved the unfortunate slaves for their hair so as to turn it into wigs. Then they discovered bleaching... [[/note]], and stood about 5-foot-6. The Roman Empire reached northwest Europe, but Romans weren't ''all'' northwestern Europeans. (This particular bit of CreatorProvincialism also leads, even more egregiously, to Biblical characters -- ancient people from the Middle East -- looking a lot like northwestern Europeans in northwestern 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.) Probably the closest thing to TruthInTelevision for this trope is UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}, which is a British Overseas Territory in Southern Europe near the southern tip of Spain in the Mediterranean, with a large chunk of the population actually being of Italian descent (particularly Genoese) in addition to British, as well as being descended from other Latin Southern Europeans like Spaniards (especially Andalusians), Portuguese and Maltese.

* In the animated version of the Gospels, "The Miracle Maker", the Peter and the other Galileans speak with a vaguely Scots accent, the lower-class Jerusalemites speak London, and the aristocrats and Romans speak RP.

* In ''Film/{{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.[[note]]Because he ''always'' does[[/note]] 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. The Irish Creator/BrendanGleason subyly softens his regular brogue to play Menelaus.

** Generally, most actors in the movies at least try for a British Isles-sounding accent, usually defaulting to English. The only exception is Mikael Persbrandt, who plays Beorn in ''Film/TheHobbit'' in his native Swedish accent. On the DVDCOmmentary, the filmmakers explain that this was a deliberate choice as well: Beorn is supposed to be the last survivor of a very isolated people, and his accent needed to read as different from those of all the other characters.

* The Creator/{{Netflix}} series ''Barbarians'' fully '''averts''' this trope by having the Roman characters speak actual Latin with a period-appropriate accent.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' has King Regis, Lunafreya, Ardyn, and Ignis speak in RP British accents while the rest of the cast is largely American. Noctis is Regis' son, so him having a completeley different accent isn't explained.