[RPG] What does a Kenku’s speech sound like

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Introduced in Volo's Guide to Monsters, Kenku can only speak by imitating sounds they've heard — they're unable to speak with their own voices (p. 110):

Although unable to speak in their own voices, kenku can perfectly mimic any sound they hear […] [K]enku cannot create new sounds and can communicate only by using sounds they have heard.

What does it sound like when talking with a kenku?

Does the quote above mean that each mimicked piece of speech they use sound exactly as they heard it, including the original speaker's voice? Do they only use entire whole phrases they've heard, or do they piece together sentences from different sounds they've heard in different phrases? If the latter, is each word going to be using a different voice?


Related: Is it possible for a Kenku to speak a language fluently through mimicry?

Best Answer

The fun way to do this, as well as the obvious interpretation of the rules, would be to have them imitate phrases perfectly, sounding like the original speaker, but using them in approximately the sense they originally heard them. So their voices can change completely from sentence to sentence - one being a dwarf they heard speaking yesterday, the next sentence being a small elf child they heard ten years ago, and the third being something you said to them three months ago.

They understand what phrases and sentences mean, but if they can't break down phrases into words and use the words individually, they're still fairly limited by their curse. They would sound a bit like Dilbert's pointy-haired boss, who tends to come out with phrases and clichés that belong in a subtly different conversation.

This would be an interesting challenge for a player who was usually verbally adroit. Precedents for even more extreme versions exist in the Librarian from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series who manages to get by with just one word, "Oook", and Mr Punch in the classic Punch & Judy show, most of whose lines are "That's the way to do it!"

The main problem with playing a Kenku this way would be avoiding humour in serious moments of the game.