Dk's, Can they forget certain racial things?

[Samlock]

I was just curious whether or not a death knight could have the possibility of losing their racial accent etc.

[Thoradin]

What do you mean exactly? Like a human DK from Gilneas losing his accent? Because that type of thing can happen IRL to a degree, I'd think.

[Samlock]

Like a dwarf losing his accent.

[Thoradin]

Well, I wouldn't say it is entirely impossible. I mean there can be dwarves who don't even have that thick scottish accent without being Death Knights, so yeah.

[c0rzilla]

Trauma can affect one's brain to enough a degree that such can happen, certainly. As well, one's voice and intonation is affected by emotion. And, DKs definitely have emotional issues.

So, yeah! Possible, though I don't know the exact mechanics of it.

[Maulbane]

Way back when WotLK was new on CotH, I RP'd my troll DK (Tor'anak) as being pretty much monotone. I think it fit - for the reasons above, as well as trauma to the vocal chords and all kinds of decay and whatnot.

[Herastean]

I would go and say that they could lose memories, hence lose an accent or customs but they wouldn't lose racial abilities because... Well, genetics.

But yeah, a dwarf without any accent and speaking like a "normal" DK could be more than probable. Actually, it'd be more logical.

[Sparrow]

Unless the character was faking it, I imagine he/she would still keep at least a bit of the accent. It's how you naturally speak!

... Not that it really matters, I guess.

[kindle135]

It'd have to be a conscious effort of learning a new accent, i.e unlearning the Dwarven Accent in favor of the Human accent. You can't simply forget an accent but still remember to talk as you learned how to speak in that accent, hence forgetting an accent due to a certain trauma would more than likely mean you forgot how to talk altogether

[Holynexus]

It is not impossible. My accent and speech has shifted iRL and I actually don't think I could reproduce my accent from five years ago that well anymore. And accents shift within social classes too.

A dwarf couldn't really end up with a Sin'dorei accent until they spent years learning Thalassian and living speaking Thalassian only in a Thalassian environment, though. The more you're used to your speech, the harder it gets, while if you are exposed to other languages during language acquisition you can actually keep hearing the sounds of that language and speak with a better accent in that tongue.

tl;dr sociolinguistics are hard, but it wouldn't be unrealistic for a DK to forget or at least alter their accent, though maybe not of their own either, there would have to be a reason for it.

(Kindle, things are a bit more complicated than that, but ^_^ not important IMO)

[c0rzilla]

To note: there is a syndrome called Foreign Accent Syndrome, and you don't forget how to talk.