If you were to have them all be characters in a story, or if you were to make a Talkloid with them, keeping their personalities and backgrounds in mind, how would you imagine each one talking?
I'll start with my first-discovered, first-purchased and personal favorite Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.
In Japanese (L1): I see her speaking at a higher register, with a relatively cheerful and "bouncy" cadence. I can imagine her ending sentences with "da yo" and "ne" a lot in Japanese. Refers to herself as "watashi", uses honorifics even with friends and is very polite and friendly. Even when she's sad or angry, her voice still has some "bounce" to it. I think it'd be cute if she slips into the Hokkaido dialect on occasion, and it'd be fitting too, given Crypton's insistence on Miku & co. being from the Hokkaido Prefecture (usually Sapporo specifically, since that's where CFM is).
In English (L2): I suppose she COULD speak perfect English, being conceptually an android, but both her evident Japanese accent and the story of Saki Fujita learning English to record Miku point to the idea that she learned the language naturally, so I like to think she's fairly noticeably non-native. She tends to speak more slowly and carefully in English than she does in Japanese and occasionally makes mistakes in grammar and intonation. She's mostly learned American English, so her grammar and vocabulary are pretty American-leaning (the case is the same for the other Cryptonloids, for the most part). Much like in Japanese, she tends to talk pretty cheerfully and politely, similarly to at her concerts (with less projection, obviously).
In Mandarin Chinese (L3): I can't speak well for this one because I neither have Miku CN nor do I know much Chinese myself, but given hearsay that she has a pretty noticeable Japanese accent (I wouldn't be able to tell very well), I'd imagine her Chinese isn't perfect either. I like to think she adheres pretty strongly to the tones and pronounces them literally (perhaps some mistaken tones as well; it's not like she's got a script in front of her constantly), as well as speaking somewhat more slowly than say, Luo Tianyi or Stardust would.
In general, I tend to stick to the idea of Miku as a polite, energetic and optimistic ray of sunshine; some may feel differently and that's totally fine! She is, of course, capable of feeling other emotions or sometimes no emotions at all (in which case, of course, her voice would go flat).
I also like to think the non-native Vocaloids all struggle with or excel at different things, much like the native ones have different pronunciation quirks, dialects and the like. Even if many Vocaloids speak English with Japanese accents, for example, even Rin and Len have slight pronunciation differences from one another, and they both sound different compared to Miku, who pronounces things differently than Luka does. And those are all the same company- going outside of Crypton, Macne Nana, Gumi and Fukase sound VASTLY different to one another! (In fact, Fukase's accent doesn't sound very typical of a Japanese-accented Vocaloid at all!)
I'll start with my first-discovered, first-purchased and personal favorite Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.
In Japanese (L1): I see her speaking at a higher register, with a relatively cheerful and "bouncy" cadence. I can imagine her ending sentences with "da yo" and "ne" a lot in Japanese. Refers to herself as "watashi", uses honorifics even with friends and is very polite and friendly. Even when she's sad or angry, her voice still has some "bounce" to it. I think it'd be cute if she slips into the Hokkaido dialect on occasion, and it'd be fitting too, given Crypton's insistence on Miku & co. being from the Hokkaido Prefecture (usually Sapporo specifically, since that's where CFM is).
In English (L2): I suppose she COULD speak perfect English, being conceptually an android, but both her evident Japanese accent and the story of Saki Fujita learning English to record Miku point to the idea that she learned the language naturally, so I like to think she's fairly noticeably non-native. She tends to speak more slowly and carefully in English than she does in Japanese and occasionally makes mistakes in grammar and intonation. She's mostly learned American English, so her grammar and vocabulary are pretty American-leaning (the case is the same for the other Cryptonloids, for the most part). Much like in Japanese, she tends to talk pretty cheerfully and politely, similarly to at her concerts (with less projection, obviously).
In Mandarin Chinese (L3): I can't speak well for this one because I neither have Miku CN nor do I know much Chinese myself, but given hearsay that she has a pretty noticeable Japanese accent (I wouldn't be able to tell very well), I'd imagine her Chinese isn't perfect either. I like to think she adheres pretty strongly to the tones and pronounces them literally (perhaps some mistaken tones as well; it's not like she's got a script in front of her constantly), as well as speaking somewhat more slowly than say, Luo Tianyi or Stardust would.
In general, I tend to stick to the idea of Miku as a polite, energetic and optimistic ray of sunshine; some may feel differently and that's totally fine! She is, of course, capable of feeling other emotions or sometimes no emotions at all (in which case, of course, her voice would go flat).
I also like to think the non-native Vocaloids all struggle with or excel at different things, much like the native ones have different pronunciation quirks, dialects and the like. Even if many Vocaloids speak English with Japanese accents, for example, even Rin and Len have slight pronunciation differences from one another, and they both sound different compared to Miku, who pronounces things differently than Luka does. And those are all the same company- going outside of Crypton, Macne Nana, Gumi and Fukase sound VASTLY different to one another! (In fact, Fukase's accent doesn't sound very typical of a Japanese-accented Vocaloid at all!)
Kagamine Len:
LEON and LOLA:
Prima would be one of the exemptions. For her she speaks in a Mid-Atlantic accent: one part because it's easier for her, and another part bc she saw a lot of old Hollywood movies before her debut.
Sonika has a slight British accent, but she has a high cheery tone when she speaks. She's not worried too much about how she sounds speaking, so she usually ends her sentences in like she was still singing.
Probably takes inspiration from memes, so she she pronounces
Dex just speaks, in his own words, "pretty normal". Most of the time he speaks in a low---almost monotone---voice. It's hard to tell if he's being sarcastic or not. Meanwhile, Daina is very subconscious with how she sounds speaking; when she wants to be serious, she pronounces every consonant to make sure it's correct (most of the time she ends up over-doing it). Any other time, especially when she talks fast, she kinda shifts to a Southern accent. I think it'd be cute lol.