How to Write an Accent

Dragonchilde — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:32:12 -0300

There is much debate about the proper use of accents in writing. Some people swear "Just don't DO it, ever." Others say it's okay if you know how it sounds. Different accents can be confusing, or enhance the work. This thread is for discussing accents of any kind in fiction writing.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Aquadestiny — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:09:42 -0300

I'm going to be using some accents in my novel this year, primarily many of the Scottish ones because I know how most of them sound {plus, it helps that I know how the words should look when writing in Scots}. In most cases I think it's a good idea to know how different accents warp the grammar of the language you're writing in, because when you pay attention, that's the thing that will sell it more than using the slang will. Personally I try sounding out the sentence in the accent I'm attempting to write, sure it makes me look completely insane when I do it in public, but hearing rather than just thinking it will help immensely.

Re: How to Write an Accent

QuillandPaper — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:22:20 -0300

I'm going to be using an accent and I don't actually write out the different speech patterns so much as comment on how they sound to other characters. When introducing a character, I will take the time to describe the accent and set it to a region so that the user has some idea of what I'm talking about. I will writing in dialect a bit, though. If I'm describing a Texan accent (which is different form a Southern accent) I'll talk about the way that the character's voice twangs and how he drawls out the words. It gets a bit harder when talking about accents you've only heard in passing and that the reader isn't remotely familiar with, though.

Re: How to Write an Accent

vampyre_smiles — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:27:44 -0300

Whenever I have characters with accents (at least, ones that I'm not extremely familiar with), I write it the way I think it would be phrased and add the info about the accent in speech tags. Then I have someone who knows the accent and dialect really well look over it. I think mostly, what words they use or don't use, or how someone phrases things are as important as the sounds of the words they speak.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Becky Black — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:04:15 -0300

It's one of these things that isn't really right or wrong - but it's generally out of fashion right now. It can often seem patronising (look at the funny foreigner/lower class people) or like it's trying too hard - like it's so authentic it's unintelligible even to readers who have that accent! I personally think that the key is less dropping letters, or writing it phonetically, but rather getting the rythyms of the speech right, and getting the mistakes right. Whether that's the dialect or the mistakes someone speaking a language different than their own makes.

Re: How to Write an Accent

buhbyebirdie — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 08:58:06 -0300

I really dislike when people write out accents. If you say so-and-so has an accent, I will believe you. It doesn't help immerse me further into the story, it actually pulls me entirely out of it while I try to figure out what word you are trying to convey. As an example, I once read an entire Highland romance novel where the Scottish hero had the full thick accent and the French heroine had a perfectly rendered English. I almost didn't finish even though I liked the book just because of that.

Re: How to Write an Accent

qwertz — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:10:19 -0300

I guess an important thing when writing an accent for characters who speak another lanuage is to have some knowledge of that language. I don't just mean if a 'w' sounds like a 'v', but grammer rules too; someone with perfect pronunciation may well get the wrong verb form, tense, or word order. Someone who speaks German might be used to saying 'um fit zu bleiben, spiele ich jeden Tag Tennis, obwohl ich es langweilig finde' which is prettymuch 'in order fit to stay, play I every day Tennis, although I boring find it'. While they would undoubtedly correct most of this, some might slip through. (By the way, German is my second language and I am only a beginner, so there might be an error in that sentance.)

Re: How to Write an Accent

thecandiedmango — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 17:11:59 -0300

I second the idea that grammar and word use are better indicators of accent than phonetic spellings. I think there's too much variety in the way a person can phoneticize(?) an accent and the intent gets lost very, VERY quickly. It doesn't bother me as much in humorous or children's stories (like the Redwall series) because, in those cases, it isn't meant to be taken to seriously and those characters tend to serve as humorous foils. I won't comment on the rightness/wrongness of that, I'm just saying it happens. A more serious or "grown up" story can probably get away with mistranslated idioms, occasional native language use, grammar or phrasing that is typically only used by non-native English speakers. Examples that come to mind are "It is, how you say, {such and such thing}?" "Si, that's what I meant." "I do not think that word means what I think it means." Granted, I live in the midwest and don't speak to non-native English speakers on a daily basis so I can't think of many specific examples, but I hope I'm conveying what I mean.

Re: How to Write an Accent

CarmenEtError — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:52:38 -0300

I side with the grammar and word use side. I can only think of one book that I've ever read in which I liked written out accents, and it was from a minor character. Even if a writer knows the accent inside and out and writes it well, it can still be very hard to read on the page.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Annababy — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:03:32 -0300

I find written out accents extremely annoying and distracting. Example: "Imma goin' out ter warsh ma shart." Gag. However, I don't find there is anything wrong with narrarating the accent to give the reader a clue the speaker has an accent. Example: "I'm going out to wash my shirt," Billy Joe said. His accent was so thick he pronounced 'wash' as 'warsh.'" Alternatively, you can clue the reader in to the speaker's accent through the use of specific vocabulary. For example, Steven King's books usually take place in Maine, and there is a distinctive accept people from Maine have. He clues his readers in by having the characters use words like 'Ayup' for yes, which isn't something you hear elsewhere. But if it's not really critical to the story, just say in passing that the character has whatever accent he has, placing no more importance on it that your description of what he looks like or what he's wearing, etc.

Re: How to Write an Accent

IsBreaLiomCaife — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:26:24 -0300

I like to use accents and dialects because I have to differentiate between characters of different nationalities and regions who don't always understand each other. If it were written in very standardized English, it would make no sense to the reader when one doesn't understand another.

Re: How to Write an Accent

MikeAlx — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:22:40 -0300

I think with dialect, less is more. Doing it a little adds some flavour; doing it too much makes it unreadable. You're not writing speech, you're writing dialogue. It's always stylised. Suggestion rather than exactness is the key IMHO.

Re: How to Write an Accent

knittingkneedle — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:07:51 -0300

This is something I'm still struggling to figure out how to approach this November considering almost every one of my novel's principal cast speaks English as a foreign language to varying degrees of success, (either badly or just horrifically) since it's set in a language school. I think with some characters particularly the main I'm going to avoid accents altogether because all though he is Pakastani born and does not speak English that well the story is from HIS point of view and in his mind his English is flawless, I think that this could also provide a humorous way of conveying to a reader his bemusement when native speakers of English cannot understand a word he's saying. As for the support cast, a lot of them start the story as virtually incomprehensible so both the reader and the MC aren't exactly MEANT to be able to properly understand them but as the stories and their classes progress then I might drop the use of accents and simply rely on different sentence structures. I can understand why it would grate on people, but i honestly think in some cases like mine its kinda necessary.

Re: How to Write an Accent

FairytaleHero — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:49:40 -0300

I think it's more important to get the dialect right rather than the accent. (Some people might think they're the same thing; they're not. Dialect is the words and grammar that are used, and accent is the pronounciation.) Rather than typing out words phonetically the way that they'd pronounce it, I think it'd be better to do it more sublty. The words and phrases someone uses can suggest that they're from a different place. But don't do it to the point that people will have no idea what they're saying. I agree with what Annababy said about adding something like "he pronounced ___ like ___." I read a book recently in which the author did this and I think it worked quite well.

Re: How to Write an Accent

thewritechristine — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:59:53 -0300

Personally, I don't like it. If you're going to do it, you REALLY need to know your stuff, inside and out. I recently read part of THE HELP and found her employment of accents and dialects weak and annoying, so I lost interest in the book after less than 20 pages. For the love of everything, DO NOT use dialects and accents if you don't have to.

Re: How to Write an Accent

FantasyGirlForever — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:34:10 -0300

I use acents when it helps the character seem real. In a story I wrote, one of my characters was an older man, very poor, uneducated, and sort of a simpleton. I didnt want to just say those things about him, I wanted to show them. so I used his dialouge to show these items. He spoke in poor broken English, his sentences were often incomplete and not pollished, and he used words such as dun, yer, and such. I didn't go overboard, but I used them in his dialouge to show these key items about his personality. Now, he was also a minor character so the reader would only have to deal with his broken English and slang for a short period of time, but I still used acents and I probably will have at least one character with some sort of a flourish or acent to his or her speaking in my story for this November.

Re: How to Write an Accent

resh — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:36:19 -0300

The use of a phoenetically written accent bugs the hell out of me and will usually stop me reading a book. Dialect on the other hand I think is important. Someone mentioned writing Scots, I would find it so irritating to have to read English in a Scottish accent but I would find it very strange to have a Scottish person whose dialogue was written in standard English rather than a Scottish dialect. I think dialect is a far better way to show an accent than to write in the accent itself. And sometimes I have seen pheonetically written accents used as an excuse for the author not to use the correct dialect, they just use standard English written weirdly. That winds me right up.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Breakingchains — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:40:10 -0300

I have no problem with little things like dropped G's, or with certain common mispellings like "gotta" etc. - but at some point, it just gets distracting and hard to read. The more intensely you're going to render the accent, the more you need to actually KNOW it. If you don't know the difference between a Kentuckian, a Tennesseean and a Texan, you may find your readers have to correct you. Loudly, and rather twangily. =D (/personal petpeeve)

Re: How to Write an Accent

sweet_disposition — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:24:25 -0300

I don't personally think I could pull it off, but it can be done fantastically. Off the top of my head, Irvine Welsh. It's difficult to get through, and I know some people who gave up on it altogether, but there's no way Trainspotting would have been the same without the Scottish accent. I just had to read it out loud and extremely slowly to make heads or tails of it. :D

Re: How to Write an Accent

NaomiHansen — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:07:12 -0300

My opinion is that if you KNOW what the accents are supposed to sound like, then yeah, go ahead and spell the dialogue that way. If not, either brush up on your knowledge by listening to native speakers with their accents (which shouldn't be too hard, considering how we have access to the internet these days) or just don't write them down and have the narrator comment on how it's supposed to sound.

Re: How to Write an Accent

BLUSpyCrab — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:27:47 -0300

I try to avoid accents as much as possible. But if I know what it is then I'll put it. It really all depends on how your character speaks. If they speak in slang they'd probably have words like "gotta" and "wanna" in there. If the character is German they may pronounce "zat" for "that" and "vell" for "well". Southerners may pronounce "hitting" as "hittin'" and the classic "ain't". It's best to state where the character is from so that the reader can envision the accent.

Re: How to Write an Accent

AlyRuth — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:32:54 -0300

I think that if ALL or MOST of your characters have an accent, or if the accent is familiar to your character DON'T use an accent. For example, if your character is a Australian immigrant, and his friends are too, don't make his friends sound like, "Oy! Don' hat that kangarew, moiyte!" If he's an Austrailian immigrant and he lives in the ghetto, and he's used to the ghetto, don't make the lady at the window sound like, "Do ya'll wan' fraz with yo buger or wut?" If he's never been in the ghetto, go for it. I suppose it worked in Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew, where the British cabby had a heavy accent, something Digory (the MC) would have been use to. This was used to symbolize the cabby's transformation into the First King of Narnia, however, as he lost his accent when Aslan appointed him.

Re: How to Write an Accent

PlasticSmoothie — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:30:08 -0300

Rather indicate it in their use of words. For example, I have one character who originates from germany, but have lived in England for most of her life. I just describe her as having a light German accent and have her use a German word once in a while, I don't go: 'I vant' or something like that. Not only would I forget to do it, but it would also be annoying to look at. However, especially if you're dealing with an accent from another English speaking country, do search into special words and have the characters use them approprately. Make a Scottish character say 'lassie' and an Irish one say 'shift' instead of 'french kiss'.

Re: How to Write an Accent

laurr_ — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:33:22 -0300

A big part of my characters dialogues will hopefully have different tones and accents to them. I like the idea of describing the character's accents perhaps in relation to how it's different from the main characters. For instance my main character is Russian who meets many different people from across Europe during his travels, so I don't want all my dialogue to be a mess of different accents. Hmm, reading everyones ideas and inputs I'm starting to get a good idea of how I can incorporate them all.

Re: How to Write an Accent

pageleaf — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:43:18 -0300

I think it's a tool that you have to use with discretion. There are good ways to use it. Example: Hagrid, from Harry Potter. Personally, I found his dialogue easy to understand, and could in fact hear it in my head. There are also ways that make it distracting, or difficult to read. Example: Jim, from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Re: How to Write an Accent

i am the moon — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 00:13:34 -0300

This, SO much. As someone who was born in and lives in a Southern state, I actually find it insulting when people write out Southern accents (and I don't even have one)! Choosing words more carefully (usage of "y'all" and "I declare" is all right, using "i declare, y'all, he were bein' such a gosh-darned butt hole i right about slapped him roun' the head!" is NOT). Plus it's insulting to the reader, in a way. If they know the character is Scottish/Southern/whatever, they'll apply the accent themselves. They don't need the writer to hold their hands. It's just...distracting, anyway.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Taleigh Rae — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:32:13 -0300

I look to the late Brian Jacques when I think about accents. He had it to an art form. Okay, the moles are the hardest to read, but hey, none of the other characters can understand them either, haha. I'm going to do a Jamaican/Cajun drawl for my NaNo. I'm going to do some research on it. Surely Jamaican's say more then "mon". I love accents. I'm all for it.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Riham Adly — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 12:49:27 -0300

I'm an Egyptian and I'm going to write about Egypt, so I guess a lot of Arabic phrases should go in the story, I just don't know should I write the arabic text and then explain what it means, or avoid writing the arabic text at all, I would like the reader to peek in our world and our dialect a bit, if it's all in proper standard English it'll be boring to some extent right?

Re: How to Write an Accent

heathershizzle — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:56:11 -0300

If the accent is very specific-- think Hagrid (loveable brute accent) or Stan Shunpike (Cockney)-- and only pertains to a few characters, maybe use it. If it's something shared by all your characters, and something that can be inferred from setting, don't bother; it will just make it harder for you to write and for others to read. If your story takes place in Dublin and features Patrick O'Connell and Mary McReady, the reader is going to assume Irish accents, especially if you use proper slang (bloody hell/bugger off/etc.)

Re: How to Write an Accent

A.J.Horn — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 21:50:03 -0300

I just read a short story by Steve Berry which feature some Russian guys speaking English, and I thought he handled their accents beautifully. He wrote once that the guy had a thick accent. Other than that, he dropped a couple of articles and 'to be' to mimic the structure of their sentence. For example, "Why you here?" instead of Why are you here, or "you own multibillionnaire corporation" instead of "you own a multibillionnaire corporation". stuff like that, with a couple of wrong verb tenses along the way. You know he has an accent, you can hear it with the help of the structure's mistakes. However, you are not distract by weird spelling. There is nothing I hate more than having to read a sentence out loud to understand it.

Re: How to Write an Accent

sandraregina — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:47:46 -0300

Riham - I'm setting my story where using arabic words for certain objects and places is a big part of establing that setting. I don't plan on 'explaining' everything, except through context or a few lines of added description. I say go for it for your story, it will definately sell the setting and its not the same as writing in an accent.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Haha and Bark — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:55:39 -0300

I'm split. I think accents work better on short stories as they tend to be more experiemental. Not to say it could not work in a novel. It also depends on what ideas you are trying to put across in your novel. Andrea Levy's 'Small Island' for example writes the character Gilbert as having a very thick Jamaican accent and using a lot of Jamaican colloqualisms. His wife Hortense (also a Jamaican immigrant) is not written with a dialect (or much). This is to reperesent her desire to assimilate herself into British culture and to exagerate the different immigrant experiences between her and Gilbert. If the accent is relevent to the story then, why not.

Re: How to Write an Accent

therenaissancegirl — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:08:22 -0300

I think written accents are wonderful--as long as they're done right. John Hemingway does them perfectly in my opinion. Zora Neale Hurston also does a fabulous job, as does JK Rowling (Hagrid! ♥). I don't think diciton is enough to get the point across unless the accent is really light; I mean, The Grapes of Wrath would feel far less authentic if the characters didn't call family "fambly" or Rose of Sharon "Rosasharn." A double-negative here and there just wouldn't cut it. I've tried to use phonetic spelling before, but it takes a lot of work to keep it consistent, and I eventually abandoned the project. It's also difficult to make accents sound natural--and I think that's where most people falter when writing them. They drop so many letters that it's almost insulting, or they overdo colloquialism to the point of incoherence. On the other side, they might also do so little that it's just unconvincing. I guess the key, then, is balance--but the right balance is dependent on the reader's preference. Maybe I just have an unusually high tolerance for weird spelling. xD I'm tackling accents again with one of my main characters this year. Keeping my fingers crossed that it goes well.

Re: How to Write an Accent

TheGildedFox — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:23:23 -0300

Example 1.) "Will ye be going to the dance then?" Alan asked. Example 2.) "Woon't ye be goin' ta the dance tanight then, lassie?" asked MacDougal, wiping his hands on his kilt. One of these is subtle and gets the point across. The other is insulting, not only to Scottish people, but to your reader because you've assumed that you have to spell out and exaggerate every single phonetic sound for them. Of course their are exceptions. If you've got a minor character who's got such a strong accent that the communication problems are an important part of your plot, then it might be appropriate (James Herriott comes to mind). Or maybe in a comedy. But if you're writing pages and pages of main character dialogue like this, its going to get real old fast. But what do I know? It worked for Mark Twain...

Re: How to Write an Accent

Jackdaw — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:53:36 -0300

My first NaNo was set in a Moby-Dick type of setting, and the tale was told by five seamen. Two spoke the King's English (one a well-to-do young cabin boy, one a defrocked priest), and the other three - didn't. So I dropped a lot of beginning H's and ending G's, said "ye" and "ya" a lot, etc. Lesson learned. Got twitted by a dear friend for the "ahoy me hearties" tone that made it hard to read. So no more accents. Too bad, because I had a lot of fun writing them. In an October nano last year, which was set in an unspecified Canadian province, had one character from England. No accent, just tried to drop in the very infrequent (at least, I hope it was very infrequent) bit of dialect. Really the main bit of Englishness I can remember is him calling the FMC "luv" all the time. Note to self: must remember to change my MMC this year. He was going to be from Edinburgh; have decided to make him the son of a Scottish war bride after all (my first idea).

Re: How to Write an Accent

von gelmini — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:04:28 -0300

Know, really KNOW what accent and dialect is spoken in a place. I live in one of the most mistreated cities when it comes to accent/dialect. New Orleans. No one says 'chere' here in the city! We do not talk like "The Big Easy." So if you're going off of media depictions of an accent or dialect, then DON'T DO IT. But if you know native speakers or have lived someplace for a long time, then it might be okay, in dialogue only, and then in small amounts. "Where y'at, Loyce? You comin' to the erster fest over by ya mama's place dis weekend?" That's a good example of a New Orleans "Yat" accent. But not many people still speak yat. So don't have all your Nola characters talk that way. (translated: "Where are you, Lois? Are you going to the oyster fest at your mother's house this weekend?" *g*)

Re: How to Write an Accent

agreysky — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:44:19 -0300

Think of how Rowling wrote Hagrid. I actually liked that she wrote his accent - it felt necessary and gave him more personality. But when you go overboard and have to describe to us how all of your foreign characters pronounce every word, that's when it gets annoying.

Re: How to Write an Accent

agreysky — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:46:09 -0300

Exactly.

Re: How to Write an Accent

therenaissancegirl — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:11:20 -0300

John Steinbeck* lmao I was reading Hemingway while typing, my apologies. :)

Re: How to Write an Accent

Timkford — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:34:26 -0300

I found this thread very interesting. I think what might be coming out it that there may not be a concrete rule either way. (Rule of life really - nothing is black and white) Or is it just me that thinks that. Where I live (in England), I used to be able to tell if a person came from Cradley, Gornal, Dudley and they are all within 3 or 4 square miles. A Wolverhampton accent is certainly different to a Birmingham is different to a Black Country and it's no more than18 miles between Wolv and Birm with the Black Country in between. Yet nearly all TV programs give the area as Birmingham accent. Is it the same in the US? I think accents are appropriate sometimes - but I bet they only sound ok/look right if you are not from the area. Scottish has been referred to a few times - is that highland / lowlands / Glasgow ...and I'm not from Scotland.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Fractured_Chaos — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:21:31 -0300

Agreed. Less is more. With one caveat: If the character's accent isn't a major part of the story, just a part of the character, then you can get away with tiny examples, such as TheGildedFox's first example. But if that accent is a plot point (example: the character keeps saying one thing and everyone misunderstands and thinks he's said something else), then you can probably get away with making the "accent" thicker. Buuuuuuuuut.... beware of going too far. That kind of thing works best if the scene is written from the POV of the character who is misunderstanding the accented individual. And then it would work better if you wrote what it was the character thought he said. Hope that made sense. Blame my mid-western accent ;)

Re: How to Write an Accent

Fractured_Chaos — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:24:17 -0300

Of course, I just said what you did... just not as well. See what happens when I try to forum while tired? Bad idea!

Re: How to Write an Accent

Lonaneomaflame — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 02:46:19 -0300

I have a whole series that I'm writing that takes place in a made up country with a made of language. Mostly I get his across by their word choice as I obviously can't write a book in language no one but me knows. They never use contractions and always use mother and father rather then mom and dad, I always use the Gregoriean words for yes, no and thank you, and occasionally will throw in another Gregoriean word here and there just to give the reader and idea of the actual word length that they are speaking. (they're words are a lot longer then the ones in English) if I were to write with an English accent I would use mum instead of mom, and mention it other places nothing much just enough for you to know they're not speaking the language like everyone else is.

Re: How to Write an Accent

hmltwin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:04:53 -0300

There’s no one right answer for this question. Some people will say to never do it, others will say that it’s fine. Some will (and have) said that less is more. I tend to try to balance it out. I try to get the language and syntax used by the character in question the way they would say it – even if it’s not “correct” in terms of grammar. Sometimes, I’ll change a spelling here and there, but nothing that (I think) renders the sentence unreadable. For me, the solution of, “Just say he’s got an X accent.” never works. I could tell you that he has a Nonian accent and I know exactly how he sounds. Do you know what a Nonian is? No, because it’s a made-up country on my made-up world. When I switch “you” to “ya” and drop off my ending g’s or squish words like, “got to” and “want to” together, you have a slightly better idea. You might never hear him exactly as I do, but you’ll know that he speaks differently from the way the other characters speak – which is really the point.

Re: How to Write an Accent

WileJ — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:23:59 -0300

Using accents to excess reads really obnoxiously. I personally don't find a need to do it unless there's a point where it needs to be obvious. If you want to make clear a character has a specific accent, it's easiest to just mention their nationality or say their accent is really obvious in a situation. But the setting can help lead the reader to an idea of a character's origin and speaking. Of course, since this is for you to decide as author, go with what you're comfortable with.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Septimus Pfluger — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 14:08:41 -0300

Curses are perfect for showing the dialect or language of he speaker. Like British people (stereotypical example, I know) might say bloody or whatever (even though I know lots of people that say bloody who are from the States). Or they could swear in a totally different language.

Re: How to Write an Accent

kblynn — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:44:55 -0300

I can see both sides of the argument on this, and I've written it both ways. In the end, my opinion is this: Don't let it get in the way. If you have a character who has a New Yawk accent, den putting in random wawds reflecting dat in a way dat it can still be read is just fawine. ;) But if you have a character with a heavy Cockney accent, and every single word is retyped to fit that accent to the point that every time that character speaks the reader is struggling just to get what he's saying, then it's probably too much. I've read stories where there are characters like that, and whenever that character starts talking, I honestly start to just skip what he says, rather than try and decipher it. It's also tiring for the writer to write it that way. I usually just mark that a character has an accent, and then refer back to it just often enough that the reader is reminded of it. I usually do more with the way something is phrased and the vocabulary than actually typing out the accent. For example, a character from my 2010 NaNo was Scottish. When he was talking to one of the female characters, he would end the phrase in "lass," or call them "lass." I watched some current British TV (tellie) to get some ideas of different terms they use differently from Americans, like calling his room on the spaceship his "flat" instead of "personal quarters." In the end, you can do it either way, so long as it's not making the reading more difficult than necessary for the reader.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Edward Ouelette — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:59:47 -0300

I only do accents I'm familiar with because I'm too paranoid that I'll offend somebody. >.> This year my novel is set in London and many of the characters are from France... originally they were going to be from Italy, but my Italian is barely basic and I speak French well. So France it is. I've written out accents before, but I think it's a lot easier just to mention that the character has an accent and throw in a few "key" words in their language, or that people would associate with their accent, every once in a while. ("From where I stand," he said, "our deal, c'était très clair.") I think the reader just kind of fills in the rest on their own.

Re: How to Write an Accent

BJLee — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:11:31 -0300

All y'all take a seat an' listen a bit if you're writing how a real person talks or would talk ~ I'm thinkin' ~ it's ok. However, if you don't know ~ and I mean really know someone who talks that way (not just another person's character on tv/movies) then DO NOT copy a ficional accent from another fictional character... I'm as Southern as they come, bred born and raised I use words in my everyday language that other's don't. I say fixin' to and Darlin' People live down a'ways or past the split in the four lane where the Daniels barn used to be before the fire took it... (BTW a 4 lane is a highway and if you're not from around here you don't know where thae Daniels barn USED to be BEFORE the fire ~ You see, I have just told an outsider they aren't welcome here because I gave directions I knew they couldn't follow....yet I did it all with a smile) yeah, we give directions that way and we talk that way... However, not all the time. I find my "Southern-ness" is soft I use words like Mama In my writing if I need to show the subtleness of a Southerner I'll let stuff drift in the first sentence of this post, if read by a REAL southerner we would know the age of that person because typically your over 60 crowd still talks that way... Why we've let our language get diluted with proper English is beyond me.... maybe because folks have told us it sounds smarter or something... I don't know AHh, my again I find myself rambling.... Point bein' Ifin you really know it, you can use it... Iffin' you don't ~ it comes out forced either way ~ just like in lovin' a soft hand with it would always be better than pure in your face. Know what I mean jelly bean?

Re: How to Write an Accent

WhitNate — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:11:19 -0300

I think the question you have to ask is *why* you want to write in an accent. Sinclair Lewis effectively uses accent-writing in "Main Street" as a means of illustrating how far removed socially immigrants were from the multi-generation-American townsfolk. If you're using accent to just get the reader to hear the character's voice as you hear it, that job can be done better just by dropping hints outside the speech text regarding the character's origin. Give the reader's imagination some space, and trust their imagination, as well as your ability to stimulate it. :-) You can also "sell" the person's dialect and accent through grammar. It is common for a person speaking a second language less than fluently to imitate the grammatical patterns of their native language. A Frenchman saying, "This is fun, no?" is more convincing than him saying, "This is fun, n'est-ce pas?"

Re: How to Write an Accent

PlanNine — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:41:59 -0300

Less is more.

Re: How to Write an Accent

mlthut — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:44:39 -0300

Love the avatar. I also believe that less (and I mean way way less) is definitely more. I'm chiming in because I actually have an example handy. I just finished reading "Murder at Hazelmoor" by Agatha Christie today. The murder victim was a captain, and his servant, when interviewed kept referring to his as the "Capting." I really liked this. Just this one word gave me a really good idea of how this character was supposed to sound without at any time slowing me down or throwing me out of the story. In fact, if I was a quicker reader I might have just read over it completely and not noticed the alternate spelling. I also agree with everyone before who has said that word choice or syntax is a much better way to convey a dialect or accent rather than any kind of phonetic writing. An example I like for this is Frank O'Connor. I read his short story collection at the beginning of this last year and the Irish lilt really comes through in the speech patterns of his characters. The Irish sentence structure is very distinct but a lot of languages (and regions) put their sentences together differently and I think studying something like that is more useful than thinking how people sound phonetically.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Megaptera — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:25:01 -0300

Accents are a big pet peeve of mine because they're othering. There's always one character whose speech is written 'normally', and the characters whose accents are written out are therefore foreigners. It makes them look weird and gimmicky, and it's hard to take such a character seriously. Dialect and word choice are more subtle ways of showing that different characters are from different places, because even the central character will make word choices and have regional verbal quirks. There's less alienation in that technique.

Re: How to Write an Accent

zenfrodo — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 13:01:16 -0300

I'm of the "less is more" school, too -- but my books have dialect and accents. The main characters are from San Francisco. They're written normal, standard English and slang. When they cross into another world, though, the accents and dialect of that other world are very hard to follow and confuse them -- I write the people of the other world with the heavy accent and dialect so the reader shares in my MCs' confusion. Of course, it gets poked fun at, at one point -- one of the MC's spouts off a huge rant at a guard in that thick, heavy, accent, and as the guard goes away, another MC goes, "Y'know, I have no idea what you just said." But using it for MCs is a huge peeve of mine. Anyone reading Mercedes Lackey "It Takes A Thief" gets an accent shoved in their face that makes the story very hard to read and follow. The accent is inexplicable, as it's the MC, and the tale is told from his viewpoint. You don't hear your own accent; you only hear other peoples.

Re: How to Write an Accent

AravisGirl — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:09:39 -0300

Getting word choice right is what I focus on. I drop g's because I do when I'm speaking. It just feels natural depending on context. Sometimes I deliberately misspell certain words (I have a certain talking mouse whose accent I love to fiddle with), but not usually.

Re: How to Write an Accent

MariAdkins — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:47:16 -0300

given that accents can vary even within a very limited geographical area, i think writing local dialect is obnoxious. and i agree with what "i am the moon " said further down in the thread.

Re: How to Write an Accent

jtselliott — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 01:09:20 -0300

I wouldn't prohibit the inclusion of accents by deliberately changing the text. I would definitely say please don't write a perfectly normal sentence and then follow it up by saying 'he said in a quirky british accent', because then the reader will have to go back and read the sentence again, adjusting for voice - it'll jerk them out of the story, which is the opposite of what you want. That said, if your dialogue is a complex mix of elongate vowels, apostrophes, and completely devoid of the letter H, it's going to be so laborious as to do the same thing, removing the 'immersive' quality of the writing. That's exactly what you want to avoid, so either don't mention your characters having accents at all, or put great effort into doing them with only the lightest touch. Think about how many people you know in real life who have thick, heavy accents, and who use every phrase and idiom out of their local dialect - not many, eh? If you add one or two in every now and then it will make for a good touch, but it needs to be incredibly subtle. Less is more, and more is awful, like a mallet to the face.

Re: How to Write an Accent

gyrus — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:40:04 -0300

Simple solution: Write out all dialogue in International Phonetic Alphabet :P

Re: How to Write an Accent

Passion4Film — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:48:06 -0300

Eh, I could go either way on this. Sometimes it's totally obnoxious, if it's overused. Mainly, I think dialect words are okay ("y'all") but too many dropped G's, etc. is a little bit much.

Re: How to Write an Accent

belesaria — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:47:12 -0300

Example: The Invisible Man, by HG Wells. It took me a really, really long time to figure out what the heck they were trying to say, and it distracted from the meaning behind it. That said, if someone has a particularly heavy accent, I like to replace select words (not all or even most) to exaggerate it. Example: "Would yeh care to eat out here, or would yeh like me to have it brought up to yer room? 'Scuse me, rooms." As opposed to "Would you care to eat out here, or would you like me to have it brought up to your room. Excuse me, rooms."

Re: How to Write an Accent

belesaria — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:49:39 -0300

[quote=zenfrodo] You don't hear your own accent; you only hear other peoples. [/quote]

Re: How to Write an Accent

belesaria — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:49:52 -0300

"Like."

Re: How to Write an Accent

Zefire01 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:04:23 -0300

I wanted to use accents in my prologue to flesh out my characters, namely my main character. He hasn't gone to school but has learned quite a bit (but still not much) from home, but later learns how to verbalize his thoughts at school but has speech problems. I wanted that to be a part of his storytelling/thoughts which later improves drastically and no longer hinders the reader. i.e.: “I dunno. Wha’s a grade?” while he's still pretty illiterate to simply stuttering. He struggles with mental illness, so I need his thoughts to be child-like but readable. For the most part, I'll describe how things are supposed to be read. I'm trying to find a good balance.

Re: How to Write an Accent

flynnstitch — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:13:57 -0300

I am trying to figure this out too. One of my characters is from Boston and speaks with a thick stereotypical Boston accent. The main character can't understand him sometimes and it causes confusion. I don't want to be writing "Pahk yah cah in Hahvahd Yahd" but I also want to convey that one character can't understand him. Anyone have a good way to do that?

Re: How to Write an Accent

CGBN — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:09:18 -0300

i think the trickiest part of representing an accent is that it is in sound which is so hard to represent in words. I can speak from my own experience as a scottish person.If you want to represent a scottish accent it is really tough due to geographic location. I am Glaswegian which means our accents are really not that traditional brogue of the highlands. Theres a lot of rrr's and eh's in it. A common word used to identify a Glaswegian is "Aye". I had a cousin and that was her first and favourite word. But then you can go a tiny distance to the other side of Scotland and get people in Aberdeen who speak totally different. Famously Aberdonians can make the completely logical sentence " Fit fit fits on fit fit" which means "Which shoe fits on which shoe." You go up to the highlands and you get an accent which has a very ScotsGaelic base. There is a definite phonetic connection to irish. They have a lilt to there voice with a very flawy speech pattern. I am romanticizing a bit but it is essentially that. If you are american this is most obvious in the geographic division's common in the states. The mid-west, the south. East coast, West coast and whatever the eff is going on in California. A good tip for thinking about accents is thinking of a person iconic for the accent. Good luck. Hope this helped a bit.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Judypumpkin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:12:39 -0300

I think it can be annoying but a book in which it works very well is Shawnie by Ed Trewavas. It's set on a rough estate in Bristol and it does make the book more powerful. He writes things like, "Get up they sturrs kehds, me an' yer Ma's gotta sort summat out." It takes a bit of getting used to but it is very effective.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Doctorpotter29 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:33:08 -0300

One of my ghosts is an Italian playboy and it is so hard trying to write him. I speak the lines before I write them which is weird when your trying to write a flirting scene. I also have a friend who takes Italian so she helps me with the native words.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Rinsuelloe — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:47:40 -0300

Apparently, a lot of people have a problem with writing out accents. In my opinion, I think it's perfectly fine as long as you don't overdo it.

Re: How to Write an Accent

jtselliott — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 23:32:23 -0300

If it's not particularly important what someone with a heavy accent is saying, rather than writing out their statement and butchering it to represent an accent, you could just paraphrase it. Something like "He opened his mouth and spoke aloud in a thick, Boston accent. I could barely understand a word he said, and it took me until a few moments after he had finished talking to realise he was giving me directions." Of course, that'll only make for a temporary solution, you can't do this every time someone talks.

Re: How to Write an Accent

mutewitness — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:13:31 -0300

Unless it's a pirate, there shouldn't be an accent. That's just my opinion.

Re: How to Write an Accent

canniballama — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:02:00 -0300

Iy'm from Astraya, mayt - thad's dan undah tuh awl yoo foreners - aynd bluddyell, Iy carn't even reeyd thees crap. Okay...I think it is completely alright to sprinkle in cultural words a little (i.e. 'mate', 'bloody' for Aussie, 'eejit', 'bob' for Irish, etc...) but you should keep the phonetics to a minimum. Maybe try sprinkling in a word every now and then in phonetic. (e.g. If English boy speaking to American: 'It's or-e-GAH-no, not o-REG-ano.') But I'm a bit of a hypocrite - I'm a sucker for phonetic Irish :D

Re: How to Write an Accent

airrizzon — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:32:58 -0300

My story has two characters with noticeable differences in their speech. I've had to think long and hard to discover the right balance of phonetics and description. One thing I discovered after reading through this topic was that I portrayed those two characters accents quite differently. I'm writing a sci-fi about aliens which does give me the freedom to create my own accents, but I still need to be careful about how I portray them. One of my characters accent's sounds like a southern British woman of high class, with a touch of northern British and Scottish. After I explain what the accent sounds like, I try to string together certain words associated with each dialect. For example I use phrases like "Certainly not!" or "Get your bloody hands off me this instant!" My other character has more of a tonal infliction because he's a little person, but he also has a unique dialect. I try to imagine him with an exceptionally high pitched voice, a bit of a nasal twang, and a very laid back attitude. "The view from back here ain't too pretty, ya know?" or "Hiya toots, how's about you an' me head for the engine room so I can show ya my piston?"

Re: How to Write an Accent

Warpedkawaii — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 08:39:59 -0300

I have never been a person who writes in Accents, but I am writing heavily about a culture whose langauge has specific voice patterns and will be having to incorperate those sounds into what my protaganist hears. I think it helps give you a sense of the sound of the langauge with out being obnoxious.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Sancho Panza — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:31:57 -0300

"Listen, dey was all up in ma face; so' s we had to throw down! " "Ordale Holmes! You dint haf to cut him like dat! Now we gots to hide him 'fo de po-po catch our sorry ass." :)

Re: How to Write an Accent

poplopo — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:56:55 -0300

I grew up with books like Watership Down, The Secret Garden, and the Redwall series, all of which incorporate accents to a large degree, so I tend to like written accents. But I've never seen accents written poorly (lucky me) and I imagine it could look really badly if done wrong.

Re: How to Write an Accent

thelazyafternoon — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:07:49 -0300

I just try to find a happy medium where the characters still sound authentic without it being made blatant. Like I settle between "My brother's not arriving in Portsmouth until three o' clock" and "My bruvver ain't gettin' to Portsmouf 'til free."....the second one is going to be how it's said but I think once you built the character and setting, it'd be awfully over-the-top to go with that. "My brother ain't gettin' in to Portsmouth 'til three." That's how a character would naturally string the sentence together without detailing every little bit of their accent. I know if I read about a character from Philadelphia (where I'm from), I'd smile a little if I saw a "yous" or "j'eet?" because that's pronunciation indicative of our area. But something like "wooder" would feel overdone. There's a difference between pronunciation and accent.

Re: How to Write an Accent

JediWriter — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:20:49 -0300

So this brings me to a question, and Sancho up above kind of led me in the question I wanted to ask. I was watching "Bitchin' Kitchen" on the cooking channel. The woman cook on there is a kind of Jersey/New York Wisegirl type. I wanted that character for my female Mob Boss. So how can I cover that Wise Guy impression without going too far. I think Sancho covered some with something like "Dey was bustin' into my profits, so I had to put da pressure on 'em." So do you just go with dialogue like that, how do you cover the whole machismo/attitude that goes with it. Perhaps I need to read The Godfather again. :-)

Re: How to Write an Accent

troutrd2011 — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:22:45 -0300

I am so glad I found your thread. My character Windy speaks in a old Scottish brogue and I can only write what I've seen in other books. Can you help me?

Re: How to Write an Accent

troutrd2011 — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:24:05 -0300

That is where I get my Scottish accents from. *looks embarrassed*

Re: How to Write an Accent

ChrisLuxford — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:02:06 -0300

[quote=Annababy] I find written out accents extremely annoying and distracting. Example: "Imma goin' out ter warsh ma shart." Gag. Alternatively, you can clue the reader in to the speaker's accent through the use of specific vocabulary. For example, Steven King's books usually take place in Maine, and there is a distinctive accept people from Maine have. He clues his readers in by having the characters use words like 'Ayup' for yes, which isn't something you hear elsewhere. [/quote] Agree with you on written accents. With vocabulary that's dialect and is a very different (though related) thing. I have no problem with dialect as long as it's believable.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Sancho Panza — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:36:48 -0300

I think you just go with it Jed. The exercise of trying will teach us something and we might just get it right. If its really off, it will come up in the editing process. It's a balance of being too PC--as though we das'nt even try to speak like someone else; and, trying to be creative--we must always try to reach beyond our expectations, to find the limit of said expectations. Lol, I saw that same cooking show, and they are right on the edge of overdoing it--but she's compelling--the dumb husband, not so much. Peace, SP

Re: How to Write an Accent

hjohnston — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 05:27:07 -0300

I wouldn't worry too much about the actual accent. Pay attention to how different people use different words and phrases to describe something. Maybe even slip in a few words or idioms that the character would even have to explain to show difference in dialect and location.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Laslo — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:39:14 -0300

Two thoughts on writing accents: First, nobody has an accent when they write. They can have peculiar grammar and foreign turns of phrases (a French person will use more relative pronouns, for example, tend to use more latinates, and use "The face of the man" instead of "The man's face" since it's a construction that feels more natural in French), or curse in their native language or dialect, but there's no "accent" per se in the writing. So to me a written accent, unless very light, feels unnatural. Second, I remember trying to write a French accent on a character, and what happened is that she ended up sounding more stupid than anything else, which wasn't the point at all. So I dropped the accent. I realized the voice of the character should tell us about who that character is, not their national or regional origin.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Panoptikum — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:52:56 -0300

I think accents can work on some occasions, but if you go overboard it can sound silly. I agree with the dialect comments though, I think it comes across better if you play around with the word order and add in certain words now and again. I haven't really tried it much, apart from two of my characters. One is a pirate with a rather broad coastal accent and the other is a New Orleans native with a heavy Cajun accent. It can be difficult to get them right sometimes but it's enjoyable to write dialogue like that on occasion.

Re: How to Write an Accent

ArtisticPlatyduck — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:37:21 -0300

I wanted to write a character in one of my stories that had an Australian accent so I started watching their accents from their TV shows and on YouTube, but I still have no idea how to write it down...

Re: How to Write an Accent

RaVnR — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:07:17 -0300

Technically I'm writing a dialect. Here, I've done (cursory) research on Southern Negro dialect and Creole pidgin around the time of the construction. But although I know it's linguistically accurate, it seems contrived. What do you think? Jan awoke to the barrel of a rifled gun in his face. “Hold it right there!” said a dark face from beneath he dappled shade of a straw-brimmed hat. “Who are you?” he started to say. “I’ll gwine be the one what ask the questions here, white man. Have ye be stand up. Slow! Don’t be think I won’t gwine shoot.” “You won’t,” said Jan, and pushed the barrel away. “Safety’s on.” “Oh, hell” spat the man. “I never did done learn me how these things spose to work.” He extended a peaceful hand to Jan. “Me name it be Tom.” “Do he be givin’ you trouble?” shouted a round black woman over Tom’s shoulder. He spun around. “No, Hattie.” “I weren’t a-talkin’ at you!” she joked, jaunting downhill towards the odd couple. She wiped her palms in her apron. “Don’t you mind me husband,” she told Jan, “and don’t you be let him scare you off, nither.”

Re: How to Write an Accent

RaVnR — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:23:43 -0300

It's just for one chapter, so it shouldn't get overdone. I hope.

Re: How to Write an Accent

AuthoressAddict756 — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 23:50:44 -0300

Hmm... I have the confusion. My main character has a very strong southern accent that lessens over the course of the story, which is symbolic. I get that it's annoying the way I have him speak phonetically but I'm not sure how else to get the message across. I feel like grammar slip ups wouldn't be a problem of his since he does speak properly for the most part. It just happens to be in a southern drawl with the occasional use of a non-existent second person plural. Any thoughts? I don't want to annoy the tar out of anyone who may want to read it but it's rather important for the story. Here's an example of the way he speaks: “I jus’ don’ understan’,” I said, looking down at my hands. “Why come out if yur not happy and you weren’ plannin’ on goin’ to a ministry?” It honestly annoys ME. I'm thankful he doesn't speak much before he starts properly enunciating. Anyway, think people will be able to stand this for a few chapters?

Re: How to Write an Accent

ReeCashel — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:18:17 -0300

Overload on accents can be a dissaster, I'm reading Great Expectations in class right now and I keep having to go back and read Joe's lines again. Dickens also meshes three words together sometimes which bugs me. I think that using words generally atributed to an accent or the character's voice pattern is fine (y'all, yep, lou, mate, etc.) but messing with usual words by using other letters, adding letters, combining words, and replacing certain letters with apostrophes is obnoxious and hard for anyone but you to understand. Surprisingly it isn't fun for a reader to sit there for twenty minutes trying to figure out whether schorry is the kid with the lisp's way of saying sorry or storry. (however amusing it may be for you when his/her face turns red)

Re: How to Write an Accent

ReeCashel — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 01:21:23 -0300

The only confusing part to me is "gwine." I don't think I know what it meens, but besides that I feel that it's fine and understandable. (Is it for "going?" If it is then "gonna" is a far more reconizable slang)

Re: How to Write an Accent

DSilza — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:29:13 -0400

Just wondering if there are any specific phrases or words the Welsh use frequently? I'm fairly familiar with different accents and slang for British people, but I want to double check if anyone has any ideas. I don't use a lot of slang for my novel because I don't want it to get in the way of the story line, but a tiny bit I think will make it more believable. [new to this whole novel writing thing]

Re: How to Write an Accent

Today_is_Yesterday's_Tomorrow — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 22:41:16 -0400

My story starts off in Louisiana, a place, I admit, I've never actually gone (though I hope I will one day). This is a rather one-sided conversation, where the little girl Ben is talking to won't speak to him. Ben is supposedly Cajun, and this is my guess on how that would sound. Anything I should change??? "Hey, petite, where're your parents?" "Ah, I see. Y'all alone?" "Y’ gotta name, petite?" "Guess not. That’s alright. My name’s Ben. You got anywhere to go?"

Re: How to Write an Accent

penchew — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:46:01 -0400

I also find spelled-out accents extremely distracting and annoying. Mostly. If it's a plot device or a feature of the story, that's different. It's bloody hard to do well, though. I think if a dialect is clear and consistent, it makes a good contrast with the other character's speech. Like a previous poster, I have a soft spot for Irish vernacular.... Might be different if you actually live there, though. What about when you're trying to write a historical character i.e. in timetravel, where he/she's talking to someone from the 21st Century? Does it make it less believable if the historical character doesn't have an "authentic" speech pattern? I have no idea about speech patterns (well obviously they wouldn't say " Hey, 'sup?" ) in the 18th Century Caribbean but I'm just going to have to try and make it as plain and proper as possible. The setting includes lots of foreigners/immigrants/different nationalities so it would have been the proverbial melting pot and I suppose I can mostly make it up; I just hope the modern character's speech will make the rest of it it look old, if you know what I mean. Can't stand all the "ma petite/me bonny wee lass/prithee" stuff sprinkled throughout otherwise unusual speech... (well, of course if you're Cajun, "petite" is a different matter! :-)

Re: How to Write an Accent

penchew — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:48:06 -0400

Sigh... I meant to write "sprinkled through USUAL speech". Tired. Need coffee.

Re: How to Write an Accent

lex-a-like — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:36:43 -0400

Here here! Aside from actually being tough to do well, accents are horrible to read. Not all accents, some accents do lend themselves to the written word but most don't. I'm a Yorkshireman myself, and I've tried to write how I speak and it doesn't come across well. Same with others try to write how I speak - I love Wuthering Heights, but I struggle with it a bit. That said, there's always a place for regional dialact and grammar, if used properly, that and a decent description is all a reader needs to hear a characters voice in all it's rich colour. In my opinion anyway.

Re: How to Write an Accent

hmltwin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:01:11 -0400

I had no trouble with it - not even the "gwine", which to my "ear" is more like "goin'" than "gonna" would be.

Re: How to Write an Accent

OrangeZest100 — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:50:34 -0400

I'm writing a fantasy. I want my wall gnomes to speak with some sort of accent, although they don't speak a different language of any kind (I assume their mouths are shaped differently). However, since my story takes place in 12th century UK, I'm not sure if I can just say "it sounded German" or something. I'm wondering how far I can go with this. Any help? *begs*

Re: How to Write an Accent

OrangeZest100 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:43:40 -0400

Aw, nevermind, I'll stick with what I know. It'll be upper peninsula Michigan accent with some dabbling in pig latin words.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Lady Riss — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:45:01 -0400

For Russian Accents, I found this. :) http://little-details.livejournal.com/488699.html

Re: How to Write an Accent

Strawberrymilk — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:14:09 -0400

I usually don't describe the accents in the way they talk I just say something like ' The brunette girl talked with a northern dialect' or something of the sort

Re: How to Write an Accent

Darzoni — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:26:20 -0400

I've heard, repeatedly, that the Australian accent isn't really that much of an accent compared to its parent, British. But there's a lot of weird idiomatic expressions that are uniquely Australian. There's a book called "Aussie English: An Explanation of the Australian Idiom" that would be useful to you.. It also has pretty good phonetic spellings of the Aussie accent, though I would not use O'Grady's precise spellings because it'd be incomprehensible. I mean, sour grapes turns into 'saw rapes" under the book's explanation of Australian idiom. I didn't understand it until I said it aloud.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Darzoni — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:42:42 -0400

Speaking from my own stage experiences playing somebody with an accent (Russian), I know that good writing will tend to say "He has a Russian accent." and emphasize the differences with dialect differences. Native speaking Russians trying to speak English will tend to drop certain words out of sentences, primarily articles (the, a, an, etc...), for example. German grammar, according to my mom, is basically what Yoda's speech patterns are from. Something I've also noticed from dealing with people on a daily basis is that if somebody is a non-native speaker of English and has a pretty good command of the language, stressful situations and fatigue will drag the accent and dialect differences back out.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Kimberly Dawn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:42:11 -0400

Check out RL author Zora Neale Hurston. She wrote a bunch of stories from that region and is from there. You can copy off of her.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Kimberly Dawn — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:54:44 -0400

Yoda was a lame attempt at japanese grammar, I believe. (Mr. Lucas funded a Kurosawa movie... if you don't know who kurosawa is, you should. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-object-order.aspx Japanese is an SOV language. The link kinda shows how accents were used for racist ideas though. TT

Re: How to Write an Accent

Nikk_E — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 15:54:59 -0400

I didn't realize the different ways to make accents. I am actually guilty of phonetically describing and dropping letters. (My story's a fantasy). My MFC is quite common and I meant it to be distracting because I wanted to emphasize the difference in classes between her and my MC. And since I'm writing fantasy, I usually don't think of offending people the same way, though I don't mean to if I did. I just like playing around with speech patterns. It's one of my favorite things to do. MFC: "Eh realleh don' get wha' yer sayin', sir." MC: "I don't quite understand what you're trying to say." Hope the difference doesn't get to distracting for my readers lol.

Re: How to Write an Accent

HollyAnneH — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 07:34:34 -0400

Im Australia so feel free to message me if you want to know how we would typically say something :)

Re: How to Write an Accent

RobertLent — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:29:09 -0400

I would avoid writing an accent. Tell me about the character, and I can put the accent in myself in my head. I find it to be a chore to read dialog when the writer has written out the accent. I remember reading The Cricket in Times Square, and it had the Chinese accent written out, for example, writing "very" as "velly", writing in l's in place of r's and vice versa. I was reading to my daughter, and I read I wasn't going to read the mock accent, so I read the real words instead of the accented phony words. It was a good book, but I really would have preferred that the accent not be written out.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Nikk_E — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:37:24 -0400

I guess to be clear of why I did this was because her accent begins to change as my MC teaches her more proper rhetoric. It'll probably be distracting to readers as I see other author's opinions but I don't think I can write it any other way without it being...not obvious enough. Thinking it over and I could put a key with an asterisk* over her sentences. I saw that done in some other books that wrote out their accents, (and enjoyed thoroughly). I personally loved trying to sound out all the words on my own. It really brings the character to life for me. But to each their own. XD

Re: How to Write an Accent

Nasokoukaii — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:14:14 -0400

I'm writing one where the peoples sometimes use Japanese for simple phrases (mainly because I dunno the language very well. ^.^"") Quote: “H-h-hait…” As if the speaker were cold...*failure! X3* Like, I'll only use the phrases for short exclaimations....Nyah. ...Any tips on how I should continue with this pattern? :<

Re: How to Write an Accent

Jovnka5 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:45:17 -0400

I think that it enhances some stories like Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and the Redwall series by Brian Jacques or if it is just one character especially a Minor Character

Re: How to Write an Accent

caseyrox76 — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 13:37:43 -0400

I find it irritating when every word in a sentence is spelled out phonically to the accent. One or two words in a sentence being spelled so that the reader can envision the accent is usually okay by me, but never every word. Like, I might write someone saying hello in an Australian accent as "G'day, Mate," but never "G'd eye, might." Not only is it sort of offensive, but it can skew the meaning of the whole sentence, especially if the reader isn't familiar with the accent. For example, my narrator has a bit of a southern accent. He never actually says this, and the story is told in first person, but some of his colloquialisms imply it to the reader. He's very polite (because he was raised in a very conservative small town) and calls every woman he meets "Ma'am" until told otherwise, and he still calls his mother "Mama," though that's more of a personal quirk than anything else. He's said the word "y'all" maybe once, and he occasionally (and I mean OCCASIONALLY) drops a "g" from the end of an "-ing" word. I.e., "I've been ridin' the rails for about six months now..." His accent is only brought up once, when he meets a new character and she asks, "Where's that accent from? Louisiana?" and he corrects her, "Georgia, actually." and that's the end of it. I think maybe slipping in a few idioms or colloquialisms once and a while is probably enough to get an accent across the the reader. And if it isn't, just have another character comment on it. Mention where they're from, or how their accent sounds, or something along those lines. You don't need to phonically sound out every word. It makes it, to me at least, unreadable.

Re: How to Write an Accent

MariAdkins — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:51:42 -0400

i agree.

Re: How to Write an Accent

overthehill — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:16:22 -0400

Most of my accents are probably English middle-class (though I think the grandmother might disagree and call herself upper-class LOL) so I just write like I speak. I do have one important accented character though. He's Irish and from an area that I know well. Even so, I generally don't write an accent for him. Apart from one (romantic) scene, why he deliberately adopts a "stage Irish" accent, I just have him talk normally, adding the occasional mannerism to remind the reader of his background. The only other appearance of an accent is the comic gategrashing of a Russian party. I have written the (very limited) dialogue in the manner of a Russian speaker, e.g. "Come my friend, we drink!" and, because the other guests are Russian and it would be unrealistic to expect that the gatecrashers understand what is said around them. So I've cut and pasted Russian translations of common words like "congratulations" and "excuse me" from Babelfish into the text, adding an English phrase to explain to the reader what's going on, e.g. “Простите. Excuse me,” said one of the men. I don't think it matters that the reader may not be able to pronounce the Russian word.

Re: How to Write an Accent

overthehill — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:22:04 -0400

[quote=overthehill] Most of my accents are probably English middle-class (though I think the grandmother might disagree and call herself upper-class LOL) so I just write like I speak. I do have one important accented character though. He's Irish and from an area that I know well. Even so, I generally don't write an accent for him. Apart from one (romantic) scene, why he deliberately adopts a "stage Irish" accent, I just have him talk normally, adding the occasional mannerism to remind the reader of his background. The only other appearance of an accent is the comic gategrashing of a Russian party. I have written the (very limited) dialogue in the manner of a Russian speaker, e.g. "Come my friend, we drink!" and, because the other guests are Russian and it would be unrealistic to expect that the gatecrashers understand what is said around them. So I've cut and pasted Russian translations of common words like "congratulations" and "excuse me" from Babelfish into the text, adding an English phrase to explain to the reader what's going on, e.g. “Простите. Excuse me,” said one of the men. I don't think it matters that the reader may not be able to pronounce the Russian word. [/quote] Ooops, where's the "edit" button? Hopefully, I've been more careful with my spelling/grammar in my novel LOL!

Re: How to Write an Accent

Moosetastic — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:23:32 -0400

I see in this thread a lot of posts about accents that exist in real life. What about accents that are invented? Many of the characters in my NaNo this year speak with a particular accent. You could say it's like the American southern accent, but it's not quite that; you could say it's like the British cockney accent, but it's not quite that. You could say it's like the Australian accent, but it's not quite that. It's something that is in between all of them, and yet part of none of them, because the story takes place in a world that is unlike our own. How do you describe an accent that is different from anything the reader has ever heard without writing it out?

Re: How to Write an Accent

Harlow — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:01:15 -0400

I guess I'm the lone dissenting voice in here, but I like reading accents. I find them to be inventive and interesting to see what people come up with and get out an accent when they transfer it to fiction.

Re: How to Write an Accent

MariAdkins — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:06:57 -0400

if you go here somewhere in the first half-hour of this broadcast, i talk about writing in dialect (and it gets rehashed somewhere along the last hour by the second guest and me, as well).

Re: How to Write an Accent

MariAdkins — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:09:16 -0400

[quote=overthehill] Ooops, where's the "edit" button? Hopefully, I've been more careful with my spelling/grammar in my novel LOL! [/quote] I think we're pretty much stuck without an "edit" button, sadly. :( [quote]I don't think it matters that the reader may not be able to pronounce the Russian word.[/quote] I feel the same about most of the French and Latin phrases in my stories. They're pretty commonplace, but for those people who don't understand them, there's always Google.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Nikk_E — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:37:02 -0400

Actually, I'm with you. I personally love reading accents and seeing it in the dialogue. It makes it feel more real to me when the author does it accurately and consistently. (Though I read fantasy mostly.) So I write them. I was rethinking because of the response of the thread, but I couldn't accurately represent my FMC very well if I wrote her dialogue normally.

Re: How to Write an Accent

coffeestain — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:35:17 -0400

Alright alright, I have a good question. What if you're writing Sci-Fi, and the story absolutely calls for an alien accent. Noticing it as an alien accent, you can't truly show how you think the accent sounds through writing. And you can't truly show how you think the accent sounds by just letting the reader make up his/her own view of the accent. But the story absolutely calls for that specific alien accent. How do you do it?

Re: How to Write an Accent

Harlow — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:44:29 -0400

Yeah. I write like this - I try to remain respectful to the reader, but I also try to remain true to the character. I don't like to pull punches much in my writing. If dropping a lot of 'g's and (sparingly) bastardizing spelling so that it forces the reader to attempt the accent out loud, is integral to understanding the character, then it will be about the character.

Re: How to Write an Accent - alien accents

cygwriter — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:37:23 -0400

For SF use concepts to portray differences. In mine I never write accents. I think of what issues are important to them. What context do they use their words in? Like one of my women, a leader, says Poison or Tea? If I ran against that I wouldn't know what she meant, even though the words are common and I would draw an assumption based on english. I would have an idea, then my mind would get blown. Sure, I would know it means something bad or good.. kill or heal? Save or destroy? To her it's more of doing what is perfect good and you better know it is for all worth, or committing a "vachei" a massive overrun complete idiot-fool of a botch in a major catastrophic sort of way. save the world, end the world, your choice. Otherwise it's just ve y va. good or bad, right or wrong, friend or foe, nyet, whatever. Knowing why they use certain words, an occasional adjustment makes sense. Spelling of names, some sounds, rules, like Muriea has three vows, one silent. Mada, Madai or Madasi, the difference between mother, mother ruler, and mother queen over all the planet and space too. Swearing, slang, an occasional sticking in a word that has no human meaning...defining a sound humans can't get. That is how I write alien languages. A great example to languages is how CJ Cheryyh does in her Foreigner series. She makes math the central logic tool, they think in numbers, then she adds that I Like you means you are a salad (the way one likes a salad). No word for love, like or friend. She doesn't need to accent or anything. The way she spells words and names and the way she draws the logic, you immediately know it's alien. A good study of linguistics, or latin is a good tool for alien languages for SF, you will find you write less accent, annoy readers a lot less and still make sense.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Nikk_E — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:09:49 -0400

Lol here, here. I do much of the same. I don't like to hold back in a any details really. I'll tone it down, if an editor says I must, but for me it's a fun way to show a different aspect of my characters. But I guess it's ultimately a stylistic choice. To me it's important for their character so I include it as well. But I can see why other's wouldn't feel that way.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Aerowolf — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 01:54:07 -0400

I don't write out accents simply because I don't really know any other accents well enough to accurately portray them. However, my characters met a group of people who are French and I don't imagine that the "leader's" inaccurate English would sound as though he was speaking in perfect American English [my characters are American, so they would compare it to the American accent, not the English/Scottish/Etc.] So I wrote that he said things with an accent and whatnot, so people who know the French accent would be able to hear it in their heads, but if they don't know the accent then they would read it however their minds process them. Personally, I love reading accents that aren't so exaggerate that it's impossible to read. It helps me get into it more and my mind has a fun time of reading it, haha. For example, the classic "Of Mice and Men." I could easily understand what the character's were saying and it was easier to truly understand the time period as well as where they lived, but without them it would feel a little more modern and they could have been anywhere.

Re: How to Write an Accent

PhantomDream — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 15:48:58 -0400

I'm not writing accents, per say, but I did end up tossing a character with a stutter. And I do write out that stutter. For one, it's kind of fun to do, and I think it illustrates it better than just saying he spoke with a stutter. Also, he's a fairly minor character. Given as I added him (and two others) at random only a few days ago, I didn't really over think it. Example: Alex shook his head. "I d-don't know." Opinions?

Re: How to Write an Accent

CarlJenkins — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:55:33 -0400

I tend to favor using them sparingly. The first few sentences in chapter at most, and not every word. If the reader has a taste of what you have in mind, it's generally enough for them to do the work. I've read novels where the accents were written out all the way through, and I've read some where they were only described in passing. In both sets I have found great and horrid examples. You can do more with word choice than you probably realize.

Re: How to Write an Accent

hmltwin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:06:21 -0400

I have the same problem. My characters have very definite accents but, beyond the fact that they aren't quite like any accent in the real world, the characters (and hence the narrator) aren't going to say that an accent sounds almost Scottish, almost Southern... not quite either - they've never heard either of those accents. They're going to identify the accent as what it is: a Nonian one, which tells the reader exactly nothing. I tend to adjust my word choice to suit how I imagine the character's speaking. I also employ some non-standard contractions and small changes in spelling - but nothing that will leave the reader scratching their heads (I hope). An example of one character's dialogue (and this is about as bad as he gets): "I just figured I’d check in with ya. I just come back from Shynia. They said it was you that helped their sovereign take care of that bad old spell, but… that were Blake. Weren’t it?"

Re: How to Write an Accent

skai413 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:23:03 -0400

I know I've read this somewhere before (it might even have been on here), but the rationale I like is thus: When a person typically uses a given accent, that person doesn't hear it, and will not write it out that way. A "Southern Belle," for instance, would not write out all that southern drawl on a regular basis. Therefore, someone who normally speaks with a Northern jabber shouldn't typically write out the southern drawl, either. Dialect, word usage, grammar, even mentioning the accent in a dialog tag.... These are likely the best ways to indicate how the person speaks, and let the readers supply the accents. On the other hand, there may well be times when writing the accent is useful. Like one of my characters who plays around with different accents, even when the other characters can't understand him. Another character has a magical ability to understand everything associated with different languages, and even she can't make out what he's saying half the time. So maybe I'd write out the pronunciation when he's doing it on purpose, and write normally when he isn't.

Re: How to Write an Accent

skai413 — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:34:35 -0400

[quote=BJLee] People live down a'ways or past the split in the four lane where the Daniels barn used to be before the fire took it... (BTW a 4 lane is a highway and if you're not from around here you don't know where thae Daniels barn USED to be BEFORE the fire ~ You see, I have just told an outsider they aren't welcome here because I gave directions I knew they couldn't follow....yet I did it all with a smile) yeah, we give directions that way and we talk that way... However, not all the time. I find my "Southern-ness" is soft I use words like Mama [/quote] Ahahah!! I liked those directions. And I know some people actually do give those kinds of directions...not always to get rid of someone, though. Some people just genuinely think in terms of where items are or were, and don't factor in that "someone from around here" won't know what they mean. Sounds like a good bit of characterization, if you ask me....

Re: How to Write an Accent

MariAdkins — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:26:26 -0400

yeah right up there with turn left at the fence post onto that gravel road down by the oak tree out past where the barnsez farm used to be before it got tored down by that tornado back in '55 ...

Re: How to Write an Accent

Starscream — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:51:58 -0400

I tend to write them, it gives a person depth and a quality that makes them seem more real, whether it's suspension of disbelief or just that people take writing for granted and when they see and accent, they automatically assume that it's based of a true story. However, it's a double edged sword as it's both annoying to read and to write at times.

Re: How to Write an Accent

Therealgirl — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:41:18 -0300

I don't write accents, but sometimes, I do write colloquialisms in my character's speech. Sometimes, it's just a part of their voice, and taking it out feels contrived. I never force colloqiualisms, though. It just feels annoying. I agree with what many on this thread have said- if you simply say, "x had this accent," that's good enough. Frankly, accents can be hard to read- honestly, you'll find this out if you ever have or ever try to read Wuthering Heights- the character Joseph has an accent so thick- and Bronte writes it- that for the majority of the time, the only way you can figure what he's saying (and maybe not even then) is reading other character's responses to them. Writing any accent like that is sure to send your reader running for the hills.

Re: How to Write an Accent

hmltwin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 09:08:42 -0300

I agree with you, up to a point. Overusing an accent can really annoy readers. However, as a fantasy writer, I have to say that saying that "X had this accent" is not a cure-all. It works for things like Scottish/Southern/etc. accents, because people will imagine them how they've heard them. However, as a writer of fantasy, I could say, "Keenan had a central Shynian accent"... it would do the reader no good. They have no way of knowing what I'm imagining that accent as sounding like. About all it would tell them is that he sounds different from a character from somewhere else. I tend to use colloquialisms to get the point across, though, rather than actually trying to write the accent out.