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The people of Wakanda in Black Panther spoke with an accent. Was it invented for the movie, or is it from a particular part of the world? It sounds distinctly African, but I can't pinpoint a country or region.

Ankit Sharma
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BrettFromLA
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1 Answers1

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From State.com (emphasis mine):

Beth McGuire: Visually, that’s where we were. Linguistically, what we did is we honored the genealogy of the precursor to Black Panther—Captain America: Civil War. T’Challa’s father, T’Chaka, played by John Kani, is in the previous film. John Kani is from South Africa and he’s Xhosa, and he’s playing the king of Wakanda. So, Ryan and I went back-and-forth and talked about it, and I said it just makes sense. If that’s who you started with, that’s your king of Wakanda, that’s who it is, that’s the language. And so we did. We chose Xhosa, and it’s a very challenging accent, but it was kind of the kosher thing to do if we’re going to look at the genealogy of who they started with in the Marvel story. What was interesting, also, was that the young T’Chaka is played by John Kani’s real son, Atandwa Kani, in real life.

So they picked the accent associated with the actor's real-life ethnicity/national heritage, to be particular the Xhosa people's accent.

Note: Beth McGuire is dialect coach in Black Panther

errantlinguist
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Ankit Sharma
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    "Xhosa...was...the kosher thing to do". No pun intended I assume... – bobajob Mar 28 '18 at 15:18
  • @bobajob An instance where not being a linguist is an advantage! As someone who knows that Xhosa begins with a lateral click (the ‘come here boy’ sound you say to horses) and a clear /a/ sound, even the very possibility of a pun never occurred to me. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 28 '18 at 16:57
  • Fun fact, Trevor Noah of The Daily Show also speaks Xhosa. There are some tidbits on his standup specials on Netflix, if you're in the US and have a subscription. Or his audiobook on Audible. Yeah, I'm a bit of a fanboi. – scorpiodawg Mar 28 '18 at 16:57
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    This isn't necessarily wrong, but did you really mean to say Southern Africa (a description for the bottom part of the continent) instead of South Africa (the country, in which Xhosa is spoken the most, though it is also found elsewhere). I ask because the citation on which your answer is based specifically names the country. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 28 '18 at 17:11
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit A "South African accent" is very different: That is a conventional way of referring to the way e.g. Sharlto Copley speaks English in District 9. The answerer should lowercase it to "southern African" accent to make it less confusing; It's too small to propose an edit. Or just remove "south(ern) African" because "Xhosa accent" is clear enough. – errantlinguist Mar 28 '18 at 17:52
  • @errantlinguist And in fact, Ulysses Klaue in Black Panther also has a South African accent (as opposed to a southern African accent). – Hong Ooi Mar 28 '18 at 19:41
  • @errantlinguist: That's a South African accent in terms of English, a completely different and irrelevant language. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 28 '18 at 21:17
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    @scorpiodawg He spoke/sang a bit on QI – wjandrea Mar 28 '18 at 21:53
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit find me someone who, when you tell them that I've got a "South African accent", thinks I sound like T’Chaka, and I'll send you $10. – errantlinguist Mar 28 '18 at 23:53
  • @JanusBahsJacquet the lateral click is sort of lower than the higher pitched 'come here boy' sound, and it's also softer with the addition of the h (you breathe into it more). – Restioson Mar 29 '18 at 07:58
  • @HongOoi more specifically, an Afrikaans accent. – Restioson Mar 29 '18 at 07:59
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    There are 12 official languages in SA; I don't think anyone has a claim on the one true South African accent. Except perhaps the aforementioned Trevor Noah, who can do most of them (although not all at once). – Rob Grant Mar 29 '18 at 08:33
  • @Restioson The horse sound isn’t a phoneme in English and varies much more than the lateral click does in Xhosa (I would probably pronounce the horse sound more palatalised than the Xhosa sound), but they’re the same type of click. I don’t believe place of articulation is known to be contrastive anywhere. The aspiration is true, of course, but English doesn’t have any equivalent to a specifically aspirated lateral click at all; the horse sound is the closest we have to the Xhosa sound. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 29 '18 at 08:35
  • @JanusBahsJacquet true, it is the closest we have. Personally when doing the 'come here' sound it is a lot higher than even xi (which isn't that common, can't think of any words offhand with it) in isiXhosa. Out of interest, do you speak any Xhosa? – Restioson Mar 29 '18 at 08:45
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    @errantlinguist: Your nitpicking notwithstanding, the point I am making is that southern Africa and South Africa are not the same thing. Period, end of story. – Lightness Races in Orbit Mar 29 '18 at 08:58
  • @Restioson No, none unfortunately—I just like sounds. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Mar 29 '18 at 09:05
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    @JanusBahsJacquet ah ok. The sounds are definitely nice. If you own a music streaming platform subscription (just couldn't find it online for free), check out Ma Msomi by Amaryoni. It's got some really crazy click bits. Also: a cool thing to do with etymology I found out recently - the xhosa word for animal is isilwanya, diminutive of isilwane, diminutive of isilo, which is zulu for lion, so in a way in xhosa animals are "small small lions". – Restioson Mar 29 '18 at 09:28