Discussions The "Imperial" accent

Ever notice how just about every office in the Galactic Empire has a "british" accent? The accent seemed to have first surfaced as the "Dromund Kaas" accent of the reconstituted Sith Empire, though there's speculation the accent originate fro the Tapani sector, natives of which were enslaved by the sith before the Great Hyperspace War. After that, I don't think it resurfaces until around the rise of the empire, being shared by many non-clone republic officers during the Clone Wars, yet this accent doesn't seem to exist beyond those who joined the republic military at this time. So my question is, why does a seemingly rare accent almost monopolize imperial military and government ranks, and where did it show up? This accent didn't exist in republic ranks in previous eras, and seemed to have, over the millenia, jumped from the defeated sith empire to republic (and later imperial) upper classes.

 

I've seen it referred to as a "Coruscanti accent" in several works.

 

Because it isn't a rare accent. It's not just Coruscanti (even if that might have been its origin, which would explain how it became so prevalent and closely linked to the government and military), but an accent associated with the Core Worlds in general, and even the Colonies (such as the Tapani).

It would have been an accent already prevalent in the Core Worlds and thus the Republic, and then, through the Tapani, became prevalent in the Sith Empire (being the only exposure to Basic the Sith would have had when they were isolated)... and then as the Empire expanded, it would have only become more common throughout the galaxy.

The Coruscanti accent is pretty common in the TOTJ audiobook, I recall. The only other pre-TOR resource we have in terms of accent is KOTOR, and that doesn't represent the Core or the majority of the Republic very well (although notice how common it is in the Sith Empire, particularly the military - in other words, Republic renunciates). Coruscanti could have spiked in popularity thanks to the Pius Dea, as well. Either way, it would have been common in the Republic for millennia before and after TOR, and the Sith Empire picks it up for their military and upper echelons thanks to the exiled House Nidantha; the Sith language would have been dominant until after the GHW, although one would expect that those who did speak Basic before did so in the Tapani accent.

 

So it's not as rare as I thought. Still doesn't explain why, at the time of the Cold War, this accent was nonexistent in any core worlds visited in TOR, and seemed to have a very profound cultural association with the sith empire.

 

It's not entirely non-existent. But more importantly, TOR just gives us a glimpse in the time period through the lens of a select few individuals; from an in-universe perspective, not too much should be read into the fact that those individuals just happened not to meet too many people on the Core Worlds with Coruscanti accents (just as Gav and Jori Daragon happened not to run into any Tapani, or Grotthu of any other species than Sith-human hybrids, and so on).

 

But popular culture still associated the accent with imperials in this time, characters and companions alike in the game being able to pick an imperial or non-imperial out of crowd based solely on accent.

 

I think it's both Coruscanti accent and the accent of Core worlds. Curiously enough, Tarkin and others from Eriadu have accents that sound more Core than Core, meaning that they are trying to emulate it after doing business with them. The real world analogy would be the British Empire.

 

I meant in regards to Galactic War era sith empire with my previous post. I understand the Galactic empire and core worlds part but not the association of the accent with the sith empire at the time, not to mention that of all jedi and republic military personnel seen in swtor, not one (aside from ex-imperials) had this accent. Was it sort of suppressed? Like, they didn't want to be associated with the sith empire because they shared the same accent as the imperials.