For Your Consideration: The Moles

[Hickory]

It's well known that almost all moles have had their accent from the start of the books, but where do they get it? No one is born with an accent. (that's a different fathom of accents entirely) So, where?

There's little, if any, clues as to this mystery. Let's start with the names of moles.

Around the middle of the series it's shown that moles get names based on their professions. For example, "Soilburr", or "Urthclaw", and such names as those. This is akin to the Warrior series, in which kits are named after a characteristic of themselves. Fireheart is named for his copper coat. This sort of naming is, strangely enough, not shown anywhere else in the Redwall universe (or what we know of it).

This leads me to another point. The history of the continent or other landmass that the animals live on isn't shown at all, except in the brief history of Salamandastron, if it can be called history. But enough rambling.

My point is that all Redwall creatures COULD'VE had the same mole accent. When some sort of catatrosphic event might've happened, perhaps Salamandastron erupting, the moles, being the only diggers, would've kept their accents, being alone underground, while the other creatures developed different voices.

Understand?

What do y'all think of this crazy theory?

[Izeroth]

Around the middle of the series it's shown that moles get names based on their professions. For example, "Soilburr", or "Urthclaw", and such names as those. This is akin to the Warrior series, in which kits are named after a characteristic of themselves. Fireheart is named for his copper coat. This sort of naming is, strangely enough, not shown anywhere else in the Redwall universe (or what we know of it).

Actually, some vermin use this naming system as well. Halfchop and Raventail, for example.

As for the rest of the theory, I think it's definitely an interesting idea. Salamandastron has almost certainly erupted before, and the chaos caused by such an event would likely be enormous. It's not impossible to imagine moles and other underground species hiding in their burrows to escape the ash clouds and toxic smoke.

[The Skarzs]

It's also possible that their mouths are shaped in a certain way that prevents them from speaking "normally", giving them their characteristic accent.

Interesting theory, Sage.

[Hickory]

I like that explanation, but what about egbert?

[The Skarzs]

Self-therapy? Like learning a different language, or learning to curb a lisp or learning to pronounce an "r" properly. (Of course, those in Britain might not have such an issue because they don't use a hard "r", but little children still often have trouble with the letter.)

[SoranMBane]

While there's certainly no harm in coming up with little headcanon theories to explain things like this, I should point out that there is a real-life reason why the moles have the accent they do, and it has a lot to do with what the various animals and their species represent. The animals in Redwall are, in essence, representations of people, and their species represent the fairly intangible differences between us, such as personality types, skillsets, and morality. Moles in particular are your hardy, rustic, down-to-earth types of people, and thus they speak a very rustic, down-to-earth-sounding dialect (in this case, they speak a form of West Country English, apparently inspired by real people that Brian knew).

But ignoring the thematic reasoning, it actually still makes perfect sense to me that entirely different species would naturally develop unique accents. Moles, mice, otters, and hares are all very different animals, both physically and mentally, so it stands to reason that, if they could speak, they would all speak in equally different ways.