Medival and Deep South accents

[Bomber D Rufi]

I was wondering if someone could help me out with those? I have characters who speak in both coming up in my story...and i'd like to be able to convey them properly. Thanks!

[Wiglaf]

Personally, I don't like it when they mangle the writing to convey a dialect. I'd stick with an occaissional y'all, contractions, and maybe a few colloquialisms. For South Missouri, for example, it would be you all, crick(for creek), nekkid(ain't got no clothes on), and Missoura. Spelling every word phoenetically is too much. It actually makes the dialog hard to comprehend.

[Bomber D Rufi]

Originally Posted by Wiglaf

Personally, I don't like it when they mangle the writing to convey a dialect. I'd stick with an occaissional y'all, contractions, and maybe a few colloquialisms. For South Missouri, for example, it would be you all, crick(for creek), nekkid(ain't got no clothes on), and Missoura. Spelling every word phoenetically is too much. It actually makes the dialog hard to comprehend.

Hmm a good point. I want it to be readable, but i also want readers to understand that the characters aren't speaking as normally as the others. So how much would you consider to be 'too much'?

[Wiglaf]

I would focus on their choice of words. Then just change the spelling on the most characteristic pronounciations. For a 19th century Cockney replace the initial H's with a '. For a New Englander add or remove R's. (worsh, caw). I'm not sure about Southerners or Medieval speech, but you can still use word choice. Just don't change the spelling of every word in a sentence unless absolutely necessary. Just an occaissional "wot", "dis", -in', or -a (for -er). For a short exclamation, its different. Its easier for the reader to translate a short sentence and accents come out more when you are surprised (or drunk).

[Bomber D Rufi]

Originally Posted by Wiglaf

I would focus on their choice of words. Then just change the spelling on the most characteristic pronounciations. For a 19th century Cockney replace the initial H's with a '. For a New Englander add or remove R's. (worsh, caw). I'm not sure about Southerners or Medieval speech, but you can still use word choice. Just don't change the spelling of every word in a sentence unless absolutely necessary. Just an occaissional "wot", "dis", -in', or -a (for -er). For a short exclamation, its different. Its easier for the reader to translate a short sentence and accents come out more when you are surprised (or drunk).

Hah i see, thanks a lot. I wouldn't even worry about it if the character didn't appear often. (She and They are more secondary characters if anything.) So i felt it was important to try to make sure i did things right. I didn't want to overdo it though so i decided to ask just in case. If only i could find someone that knew more about medival...Southern isn't so hard to look up....

[Wiglaf]

I just thought of something else.
If the character is a foreigner or has a speech impediment and the other characters can't understand him, you could probably get away with more.
Some books I've read have six characters each with a unique Britsh accent: Scotland, London, Wales, York. For one, in some cases, I can't really appreciate the differences. Secondly, if there is two pages of nothing but dialog, I get lost. So how many accents and if every character does a monologue comes into play.
Good luck on the midieval accent. I wish I had something for you.

[Bomber D Rufi]

Originally Posted by Wiglaf

I just thought of something else.
If the character is a foreigner or has a speech impediment and the other characters can't understand him, you could probably get away with more.
Some books I've read have six characters each with a unique Britsh accent: Scotland, London, Wales, York. For one, in some cases, I can't really appreciate the differences. Secondly, if there is two pages of nothing but dialog, I get lost. So how many accents and if every character does a monologue comes into play.
Good luck on the midieval accent. I wish I had something for you.

Thanks for wishing me luck...i'll need it. But you've been a big help though! At least the two characters with southern accents will be a bit easier to write for. Now the girl with the midieval accent...she'll be tough, especially since she appears before the other two.

[Dragonlady]

I'm not a big fan normally, but try reading some agatha christie. She doesn't write poirot's belgian accent, but she uses a lot of continental syntax (word order) for his dialogue, giving the reader the impression of his accent withouth compromising intelligibility. That could certainly be your best bet for the mediaeval one.

[Bomber D Rufi]

Originally Posted by Dragonlady

I'm not a big fan normally, but try reading some agatha christie. She doesn't write poirot's belgian accent, but she uses a lot of continental syntax (word order) for his dialogue, giving the reader the impression of his accent withouth compromising intelligibility. That could certainly be your best bet for the mediaeval one.

A good suggestion. I'll give that a try too. Thanks a lot for the quick response.

[Wiglaf]

Look up thou on wikipedia. I was going to post my own explanation, but my computer keeps acting up.
I hate gremlins!
ps. it includes ye, the fact that thou was rude, and his was used for it's.

[Omphalos]

Originally Posted by Wiglaf

Personally, I don't like it when they mangle the writing to convey a dialect. I'd stick with an occaissional y'all, contractions, and maybe a few colloquialisms. For South Missouri, for example, it would be you all, crick(for creek), nekkid(ain't got no clothes on), and Missoura. Spelling every word phoenetically is too much. It actually makes the dialog hard to comprehend.

You can do it to interesting effect though. In trainspotting I hated it, but the average buyer at the Borders I worked at then loved it. I think it was pretty well done in Davy, by Edgar Pangborn too.

[Wiglaf]

It can work, if done right. The trick is doing it right.

[Jarshen]

I think the trick is to describe how the character speaks, slowly, with a drawl, breathy, excited and then choose the vocabulary like Wiglaf suggests and the syntax like Dragonlady.
You can always have another character commenting on their slightly archaic way of speaking.
I think accents are really hard to put down convincingy on the page, go with how you think your character speaks, ie if it is medieval what is that you want to suggest about him/her that makes medieval appropriate.

[Omphalos]

One of the problems is that you cannot use objective phonetics. Everyone who reads the phoneticized words you use puts their own local accent to them, and winds up butchering them in their minds. The two books I suggested above both did a pretty good job communicating objectively, so to do it right, something like that is in order.

[Flavia]

Someone who did a good job with dialect was T. H. Lawrence in his characterisation of Mellor, the gamekeeper. Derby dialect, if memory serves.