"How to Get Rid of Your 'Fortnite' Accent?"
The players of the extremely popular battle royale game have a particular way of communicating. Unlearning this way of speaking can be challenging.
Players of the popular battle royale game have a distinct way of communicating. Shedding this style can be complicated.
Each person has an accent that often reflects their place of origin, or in some cases, it's a manner used by certain celebrities to try out new identities. However, Fortnite players have also developed a particular accent. This phenomenon, known as the "Fortnite accent," refers to the way participants express themselves while playing the popular title from Epic Games.
After watching several minutes of short videos on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, it can be identified that this accent has a cheerful and high-pitched tone, reminiscent of the stereotype of a teenage girl who ends affirmative sentences as if they were questions. A Reddit user seeking to get rid of this accent described it this way: "I talk like an 8-year-old." Unfortunately, their request for help only received an ironic reply: "What the hell is a Fortnite accent?"
For years, players have recorded their gameplay, either speaking in this accent or trying to avoid it. One warning: those clips are often filled with screams. Adam Aleksic, a linguist known online as Etymology Nerd, spent three hours of his life listening to videos about this accent. He describes this trend as "a fast speech and high intonations that rise, almost as if they have to convey an emotion of excitement or surprise." Additionally, he points out that this accent serves a specific function, as it communicates game-related reactions but is also used for “social performance” in a collectively adopted context.
Communities often create their own languages, whether through the jargon they use or the particular way they communicate with each other; even couples can develop their own codes. The latter also applies to video games, which introduce new worlds and rules that foster specific communicative patterns.
The Fortnite accent should not be seen as something to be ashamed of, but if someone wishes to get rid of it, it can be treated like another type of code-switching. It's advisable to pay attention to the pronunciation of words, listen to those who speak in the manner one wishes to imitate, and, above all, practice. If it worked for my friends who managed to shed their Boston accents, it can surely be effective for others, at least until beverage consumption increases.