Written by Fausta Bauer
What does a cowboy from the 1890’s and a getaway driver in Los Santos have in common? They both speak! The language these videogame characters use is shaped by their time, place and identity. Every line of dialogue reflects who they are and where they come from.
During the Anglistikos Akademija project, Jekaterina Šukalova, a lecturer at Vilnius University (VU), introduced the students of Vilniaus Žemynos Progymnasium to sociolinguistics through a presentation titled Gaming as a Window into Language and Culture. In her presentation, Jekaterina Šukalova analysed how identity influences language and how this relationship is reflected in video games. To illustrate her points, she used well known RockStar games, Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) and Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2).
Where did it all begin?
When video games first appeared in the 1970’s, they lacked any sort of voice acting. With the advances in technology in the 1990’s, games began incorporating sound. One such example is Resident Evil (1996). “This is when games started experimenting with voice acting, but it was unnatural, robotic, awkward, sometimes even funny. Nowadays, we would consider those dialogues memes,” explained Jekaterina Šukalova.
With the improvement of voice acting and dialogue, game developers began considering how speech should sound, focusing on accents, dialects and other linguistic features that help define a character’s background and personality in the game. Linguistics provides the tools to analyse these elements and understand how they shape the players’ perceptions.
According to Šukalova, “This is exactly what sociolinguistics studies. It’s the study of how language varies based on region, class, ethnicity and even the time period.” The students observed how this works in practice through a short case study of GTA V and RDR2.
Language, identity, and GTA V
In GTA V there are three protagonists, Franklin Clinton, Michael De Santa and Trevor Philips, all of whom speak with distinct dialects shaped by their social, racial and class backgrounds. For example, Franklin Clinton uses African American Vernacular English, which has unique grammar constructions such as double negatives, along with specific slang, and spellings. “This kind of speech is highly expressive, carrying a cultural identity which is different from the other protagonists,” noted Jekaterina Šukalova.
Michael De Santa and Trevor Philips also reflect their social backgrounds, upper-class and lower-class respectively. These dialects are also unique in their grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.
Accents, identity and group loyalty in RDR2
Red Dead Redemption 2 offers an equally interesting case because it is set in the 1890’s. The characters offer a full range of regional dialects which include Southern, Appalachian, and Western varieties. The game also includes characters of other nationalities like Mexican, Irish, and Scottish. The main protagonist, Arthur Morgan, is of a working-class background and his speech reflects it.
Jekaterina Šukalova also discussed how language reflects dynamics in group contexts. In the first half of RDR2, the main gang of characters maintains a strong sense of unity which is reflected in their collectivist language. When disagreements arise and the gang becomes individualistic, so does the language they use.
What can we learn from these examples?
“Language reflects identity. Different dialects and accents reveal different social backgrounds,” concluded Jekaterina Šukalova. “Language and culture are also connected which is evident from games like RDR2 which feature American slang and humour. By paying attention to the way characters speak, we can learn about the people and societies that these games are based on.”