A Comprehensive Guide to the Accents and Tonal Tunctionalities of Panguilla

Please note that this is an out-of-universe article comparing fictional Panguillan accents to some real-life ones.

## Kymuira

Contrary to what outsiders would say, there is no single "Kymurian" accent, since the entire region(s) was once several separate countries. Here they are listed in order of frequency.

* **SAFFIRIC TONGUE** - Most commonly spoken by working and middle class people in the eponymous Saffira and much of the rest of the country, it does vary slightly depending on how far away from the city one is, but can be described as a standard English "estuary" accent. e.g ("pronouncing "t" as a glottal stop, fronting "th" to "f" and "v", and pronouncing a hard "g" in "-ing" words). Because it's in the middle of the country there's nothing hugely outstanding about the Saffiric tongue. They have extremely sloppy vowels and the tendency to drawl every syllable while bringing words to a full close. Words are usually pronounced, if not properly, then at least fully. For example, no speaker would be caught dead missing the 'g' off an 'ing'. Most speakers have lower tones of voices than many other regions, which adds to the effect of the drawl, and manage to speak even single-syllable words as multi-syllable words, for the sole purpose of dragging them out. The idea is that not having much to say should take as long as possible. It is a long-standing joke that this accent was originally invented to buy time while distracting policemen. There's no such thing as a Saffiric swearword. They use them all, from all over the country and all over the world. And most notably, there's no such thing as a 'mild' or 'strong' swearword either - curse-words pepper the average speaker's dialogue like punctuation. Whether they're joking among friends, reporting a crime, or stubbing their toe, cusses are sprinkled so liberally that they no longer consider them rude.
* **ECHELON** - Nobles, geniuses, snobs, butlers, gentlemen. The "tapped r" sound is commonly but inaccurately parodied as "veddy" (for "very"). It should be noted that, in simplistic terms, there are two forms of Echelon in everyday use — *Moderate* and *Heightened*. Both follow the same rules of pronunciation, but Moderate is more relaxed and tends to be encountered more amongst the young, whereas Heightened is far more strangulated, plummy, and generally only encountered in older or more upper-class people. The Empress uses Heightened Echelon, whereas Premier Harding uses Moderate, for example. It is also important to note that almost ALL upper-class people in Kymuria, regardless of the region they live in, speak Echelon — it is an accent of social class, as opposed to region, although many schools teach their lower-class pupils to use it as well.
* **RIVERLANDIC -** A mix of University Sra and old river dialect, this accent can best be described as Saffiric with Spanish inflections, sans the Catalan lisp.
* **UNIVERSITY SRA -** A rich, refined and rare accent used around the Old-Sra educational institutions.
* **SOUTHERN RURAL -** Stock accent for a broadly defined region stretching from Krahull through to Vourmouth and the SKL Border. Plenty of "oo-ar", while chewing a stalk of hay (stalk, not stack); associated with intellectual challenge, broad ignorance and depthless cunning, and usually used as comic relief.
* **KRAHULL DRAWL -** A very insular and pronounced accent spoken by inhabitants of the Port City of Krahull. It deveolped due to a mix of Kymurians, Anjuins, Hokasans, Northerners and Outmosters all settling there. It has no one sound, but is an English twist on classic New Orleans.
* **COPIAN -** A character with a Copian accent will very often be involved in some form of criminality. They can either be City Gangsters or a Loveable Rogue. The more Copian the accent, the more likely to be the latter. Double that if he uses impenetrable rhyming slang.

## The North

* **BROAD NORTHERN -** The Accent used by millions of people stretching from the Badland Mountains up to the Zeor Border. It has few defining features and is close to a light Lancastrian accent.

* **DANNENHOLM DRAWL -** A mix of BN, Zeor Vernak and Echelon, spoken by citizens of Dannenholm in an attempt to ingratiate with the Southern Aristocracy.
* **NORTHEASTERN** - A harsh Zeor-influenced dialect spoken in and around the North Sea Empire.