Learn to speak like Jon Snow & Ygritte from GAME OF THRONES!

Ever wondered about the English in Game of Thrones? In this video, I’ll explain the accents of Jon Snow and Ygritte. You’ll learn WHY they sound tougher and stronger than other characters! Want to try speaking in a northern accent, like the Wildlings and the Starks do? You know nothin’! I’ll show you how it’s done! You’ll hear and be able to practice how the tougher characters from Game of Thrones and other fantasy shows and movies speak. This lesson is important for anyone living in or visiting the Seven Kingdoms, and crucial if you’re planning to go north of the Wall. Don’t wait! Winter is coming. TAKE THE QUIZ: TRANSCRIPT “Righ’ foo’, lef’ foo’, right foot, left foot“. Hello. I’m Gill at engVid, and today’s lesson is on the northern UK accent, and we’ve used as our example a program called Game of Thrones, and you may be a big fan of this program. I think it’s very popular. But if you’re not, if you’ve never seen an episode of Game of Thrones, then just to explain that it’s a historical, medieval, fantasy about power struggles mostly, hence the “Throne“ in the title. And we’re looking today at one episode which comes from series 3, episode 7 which shows two of the characters, Jon Snow and Ygritte, a young man and a young woman walking through the countryside, and they’re going off to fight somewhere. So they’re having a conversation on the way. So we’ve taken some of the words that they say during their conversations to look at how they pronounce them. So they’re both speaking in a northern UK accent, which is around the sort of Yorkshire, Lancashire area about 200 miles north of London. But the actors themselves are not northern. They are performing in a northern accent, so it’s possible to learn different accents. The actress actually comes from Scotland, but she speaks in normal life, in her real life she speaks with a southern London, quite a cultured-London accent; whereas the actor, the male actor who plays Jon Snow, he’s from the London area and he speaks with a London accent. So they are both speaking with accents that they don’t normally speak. But anyway, we’re going to look at some of the words from that episode today, and I will demonstrate how they’re pronounced compared with the standard RP, Received Pronunciation, southern way of saying the words. Okay. So, right. So the idea with the northern UK accent, it fits the medieval fantasy type of program more probably than the southern accent because it has a sort of historical feel to it. It sounds strong. The people who speak that way sound very strong. And this word: “gritty“, “grit“ is little pieces of stone. So if you think of stone it’s very hard and tough, it’s hard to break. So if somebody is gritty, they’re quite strong and tough. So the northern accent has this strong, tough, gritty feel to it. So it fits with the historical drama where people are living quite difficult lives, and they haven’t got central heating, for example, and they haven’t got electricity. So, life is hard. Okay? So, okay, let’s have a look at the... Some of the vowel sounds which are different from the southern. So, first of all, these examples. In sorts of southern RP, what we call “RP“, Received Pronunciation, these would be pronounced: “snow“, “won’t“, “don’t“, “know“, “road“, so it’s the “o“ sound. Just an “o“ sound. But in the northern accent that’s used in the program, it’s much broader. It’s: “snoow“, and “woon’t“, “doon’t“, “knoow“, “rooad“, it’s like that. Okay? So maybe you’d like to try repeating after me: “snow“, “won’t“, “don’t“, “know“, “road“, so you have to really push your mouth forward and make it quite dark and heavy-sounding. Okay? So that’s the “o“ sound or the “oo“ sound. Okay, it’s a bit longer. You hold it on for longer as well. Right. Next one, these words would, in RP, would be: “blood“, “love“, “drums“, and “come“ as in “come on“, “come on. Let’s go“, “come“. But... So it’s a sort of “ah“ sound. But in the northern accent it’s: “blood“, and “love“, “drums“, “come“. So, again, it’s much darker and “oo“, pushing your mouth forward again. So perhaps you’d like to repeat after me again. So: “blood“, “love“, “drums“, “come on“. So, I hope you know all these words. Drums, the things that you hit, a musical instrument, percussion instrument. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Drums which are used in military, you know, marches and so on for people to march along to because they give a strong rhythm. So: “drums“, “come on“, okay? Next one, in the south people would say: “save“, “make“, “lady“, “brave“, “day“. So it’s a bit like “a“, like that. But again, in the northern accent it’s a longer sound, and it’s: “saave“, “maake“, “laady“, “braave“, “daay“, so it’s much sort of wider and, again, longer and darker. You make the sound a bit darker as well. So, would you like to repeat after me? “Save“, “make“, “lady“, “brave“, “day“.