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Clone troopers in Star Wars talk with the same accent as Jango Fett, from whose DNA they were cloned. In The Bad Batch the character of Omega, who is an unmodified clone of Fett has his accent too.

Their creators and pretty much everyone else in the galaxy has a different accent. So where do they get it from?

user
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    Almost of their learning is by computer-teaching. Presumably they used Jango's voice as the model. – Valorum Jun 25 '21 at 17:58
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    Where does the idea that Omega is an unmodified clone of Fett come from? Boba was already created by that point, and Omega would have to have at least some modifications to be a girl instead of a boy, right? – Kadima Jun 25 '21 at 18:21
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    @Kadima today's episode (spoilers) explains that she is unmodified, and since Jango is dead she is the only source of original samples. Sex is not genetic and gender certainly isn't. – user Jun 25 '21 at 19:42
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    Sex is not genetic? – Organic Marble Jun 26 '21 at 00:58
  • @user - Biologists typically define sex in terms of sex chromosomes, which are definitely genetic. There are non-genetic ways to alter someone's external sexual presentation (which would be another way of defining sex) without changing their chromosomes, but such an individual would certainly not be considered unmodified. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 09:07
  • As for gender, I think it is not entirely known what causes it, but there is strong evidence for a combination of genetic and environmental (especially gestational) factors, and it seems to be determined quite early for most people. There are some pairs of identical twins where one person is transgender and the other is cisgender, so it is not wholly genetic. Anyway, changing someone's gender intentionally, through whatever means, would certainly also be considered a modification. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 09:10
  • Of course, if Omega is XX, there is nothing stopping her from being a source of unmodified Jango Fett genetic material for everything but the Y chromosome. If she has some other chromosomal arrangement (like XY or XXY, or chimeric), she could even have all of Fett's unmodified chromosomes. But the major difference between their phenotypes would definitely bespeak some kind of modification, be it genetic, surgical, hormonal, or otherwise (for instance, she does not seem to have a Klinefelter phenotype, which would be typical for XXY), so she would not be considered an unmodified clone. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 09:18
  • Sex is not genetic in that sense, no. The genome has the potential to be either sex, although the exact mechanism which determines it is not fully understood. In any case that's separate to gender - Omega could simply be trans. – user Jun 26 '21 at 12:26
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    Also it's Star Wars, so emphasis on the fiction and not so much the science! – user Jun 26 '21 at 12:27
  • @user - Of course, Omega could be trans, but seeing as Jango Fett is apparently is not (and also looks rather different), she would still be a modified clone (whether modified genetically or otherwise). – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 23:11
  • @user - Also, perhaps you can clarify what you mean by "the genome has the potential to be either sex." At the chromosomal level, sex chromosomes are set at the moment of fusion between egg and sperm for all non-chimeric, non-mosaic individuals (i.e. almost everyone). There are at least ten or so more-or-less viable combinations of chromosomes in humans (X, XX, XY, XXX, XXY, XYY, XXYY, XXXY, XYYY, XYYYY). Biologists typically recognize only two distinct sexes from all these groups, marked by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, but I think that is societal bias more than anything else. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 23:20
  • Another way of viewing sex as external sexual presentation (e.g. reproductive organs and secondary sexual characteristics). Of course, it is true that during fetal development, the fetus does not develop "male" sexual characteristics until a hormonal switch is flipped. Is that what you mean when you say that the genome has the potential to be either sex? The thing is, the flipping of that and other switches during embryonic development is almost entirely determined by the presence and number of X and Y chromosomes, and the autosomes account for most of the rest. So it is basically genetic. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 23:32
  • I mean, I would be remiss to not mention that environmental factors can influence fetal sexual differentiation, by say, modifying enzyme activity. You can have two people with identical genetics who exhibit different primary sex characteristics due to different gestational environments, which could be particularly relevant for clones. I would not call that "unmodified", but someone reasonably might. But still, under normal circumstances, fluctuations in gestational hormone levels (for instance) are going to be a lot less influential than genomic factors. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 23:38
  • Anyway, like you said, it is SW. Science is not their strong point, so characters are not necessarily speaking precisely. When a character says something like "our genetic structure was modified for growth acceleration and obedience, Omega is a pure genetic replication," or "sole living source of Fett's raw genetic material," it does not seem to me that they are necessarily ruling out the possibility that she happens to have one more X chromosome and one fewer Y chromosome than Jango (thus making her technically modified). It just says all of her chromosomes are unmodified from Jango. – Adamant Jun 26 '21 at 23:57
  • It might really help if someone could provide details of how clones were trained. Since they matured quickly there was presumably an accelerated learning programme too. – user Jun 28 '21 at 21:03
  • New Zealand.... – Mazura Sep 16 '21 at 12:52

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It makes sense. The key is how first generations got it. Even though Jango was said to be indifferent to them he still was around and most likely his contract included some sort of recordings so clones could imitate (this is my speculation).

Once first generations got "the accent" this would be naturally passed to younger generations, including Omega as she grew up among clones and would have got the accent this way.

Jalex23
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That's an interesting point as accent isn't genetically determined.

Short of having Jango Fett actively present (which he was) when the first few batches of clones were learning language and then having the clones pass it from generation to generation as a matter of group identity, one would think they would sound more like the Kaminoans who made them. Even more likely would be that clones would have a mix of influences from others (like the Togrutan Jedi Master Shaak Ti, in addition to federation trainers) would have some influence on clone language.

As for Omega, remember that she is older than the Bad Batch. So if some records were substituted from Jango Fett to a mix and the result was a softening of the accent, that could account. Also, accents -- like language -- tend to drift over time. Either explanation would work.

But all this sort of shows a weakness in most SciFi. Namely that there is sort of a broad brushing of things. For example: It was raining on Alderan (Wha?!? The whole gotdamn plannit? At the same time?) Another example is how homogenous entire planets are ("But Alderaan is peaceful! We have no weapons, you can't possibly...") perhaps with a touch of something the opposite to show it's diverse and realistic in some token aspect. Unfortunately, the clone accent is like this. An oversimplification.

This might sound bad but really this sort of shortcutting keeps us from getting mired in all details of minor characters, backstory, and setting(s) when plot is what drives most all SciFi.

Addressing Valorum's question:

"accent isn't genetically determined" - Do you know this to be true in the Star Wars universe?

First, one can't prove a negative. It just leaves it open to things like "well, maybe Dave Filoni didn't say so but how do you know it isn't his notes. Oh, they just got published? How do you know they he didn't think that ..."

Secondly, notes two common races are Twi'leks (identified as a near-human species) and Humans. Humans are amongst the most common per Wikipedia and this very forum (SciFi & Fantasy answer).

Furthermore, and this comes straight from Wookipedia

Jango Fett was a famed Mandalorian human male bounty hunter and the clone template of the Grand Army of the Republic.

In Humans, the accent isn't genetically determined. Otherwise, you would speak like the accent of your ancestors, regardless of being with them or not. And, that's just trivially false.

But, you know, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In other words, it's fiction, and as smart as the writers were, I don't expect them to be linguists (or scientists) in addition to being writers. I'd go a bit into Socio-Linguistics which I think is the most cogent explanation of why all the clones speak the same but, honest to god, if we're staring from here, that's a bridge too far and I leave it as an exercise for the reader.

hrokr
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    "accent isn't genetically determined" - Do you know this to be true in the Star Wars universe? – Valorum Jun 28 '21 at 20:46
  • Accent is influenced by your environment, in specific your day to day interactions, and if several accents are present the one you interact the most is the one that prevails. That said, Jedi's , Kaminoans, etc pale in comparison to your mates and fellow clones, the interaction was just not enough to make an overall impact. Thinking of it, clones were never shown to interact significantly with others than with themselves, so that accent would be hard to lose. – Jalex23 Jun 28 '21 at 22:03
  • @Valorum this is a point I've wondered with Grogu. when he's able to talk, will he talk like Yoda? – Mark White Jul 12 '21 at 03:35
  • When Grogu's dialect is 900 years old, it will be the equivalent. Yoda learned English in [1100 AD]; he's gonna sound funny. – Mazura Oct 02 '22 at 00:10
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If you want a smart-alek answer, it's because they used the same actor for all the clones' voices in the movies. However, in reality, as Jango Fett was raised by Mandalorians (as we learn that he's a foundling in The Mandalorian), that's probably where his accent came from. In the Star Wars Commandos novellas, we learn that Fett brought in Mandalorians to train the clones (specifically the commandos), and so there would be those speech patterns to learn. In addition, modern scientists in the real world are exploring the possibility of "genetic memories", which might also explain some of it, but my main idea ends up boiling down to convenience for the casting people.

Jeremy Nielsen
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  • "Bad Batch: Who voices Omega? Omega's voice is provided by New Zealand actress Michelle Ang. While American actor Dee Bradley Baker voices all the clone troopers in the animated Star Wars canon, Ang's native accent more closely matches Jango Fett's accent (provided by fellow Kiwi actor Temuera Morrison) in the films." https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/omega-voice-actor-age-gender-bad-batch-clone - AKA, fan service. - They're not the same actor but they're both from New Zealand, +1 – Mazura Sep 16 '21 at 12:50
  • I was referring specifically to the clones in the movies. In the TV shows, including Clone Wars and Bad Batch, we get clone characters with diverse accents. But yes, in Omega's case as well as with other uniquely voiced clone characters, they used different actors for the TV shows. – Jeremy Nielsen Sep 16 '21 at 20:49