Writing Accents

[Purdy Bear]

How do I write accents? I have both Irish, and Parkistan in the novel I am writing, but no clue how to do it.

I do know devon/cornwall accents you add an ee to the end of everything.

Thanks Purdy

[pyan]

There's a thread here that might help a bit, Purdy.

Personally, I don't like attempts to spell out accents or dialects...I prefer the system that goes:

"Good afternoon, and how are you all this fine day?" he said in a soft Irish accent.

This way, it doesn't slow down the story while you try to puzzle out what the character is actually saying!

[The Ace]

One word on writing accents, Don't. It's never convincing.

[pyan]

Have you read George McDonald Fraser's McAuchlan stories, Ace? About the only accurate accents I've ever read...

[The Ace]

Yes, but he's a Scot, writing about scots, and the characters are based on real people, the exception that proves the rule.

[Ursa major]

Flashman was real?

But I agree with the others: I hate having to decipher accents; it only really works in very short bursts that have a specific aim (i.e. to set up a deliberate misunderstanding or, at a pinch, humour).

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

Flashman was real?

You know, I actually began to wonder that myself at times....

But I agree with the others: I hate having to decipher accents; it only really works in very short bursts that have a specific aim (i.e. to set up a deliberate misunderstanding or, at a pinch, humour).

Gods save me from humorous accents....especially Roguish Irish....

[Ursa major]

I was thinking more of puns (an odd thing for me to do, you'll accept), rather than comic accents, which pall very quickly.

[The Ace]

McAuslan, Wee Wullie, Daft Bob, et al, were inspired by GMF's subordinates in his army days just post WW2.

Flashman does make you think, though, but although he meets people from all over the world (most of whom are trying to kill him), there isn't an accent in sight.

[Interference]

I tend to go with the idea that speeches in books are about what people say, not about how they sound. Descriptive passages can provide that info, but speech is their words and the meaning of their communication. Contractions notwithstanding, which are natural and fluid, accents just make readers criticise you when you get it wrong, which of course just pops them out of the story.

[Rider of scaled wing]

me, i personaly just have other characters notice the different inflection and then describe it, without interfering with the actual dialogue. it adds a kind of spice the reader lays down by themselves.

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by The Ace

McAuslan, Wee Wullie, Daft Bob, et al, were inspired by GMF's subordinates in his army days just post WW2.

Flashman does make you think, though, but although he meets people from all over the world (most of whom are trying to kill him), there isn't an accent in sight.

It's not just the excellent McAuslan books. I think that GMF was actually born in Carlisle (he certainly went to Carlisle Grammar), although his parents were Scots. If you read "Quartered Safe Out Here" (an autobiographical account of his time with the Border regiment in Burma in 1944, before he became "Dand Nichol" of the McAuslan books), you'll see that he can render North Cumbrian dialect perfectly. In the same book, he also takes off a cockney accent, which looks pretty convincing.

But Ace's point is right. If it's your own accent, or one you know well, you might get away with it. Provided it isn't so broad that no-one else can understand it.

If not, you can either flag up the accent by a dialogue tag as suggested by Pyan, or alternatively give a hint of the accent, but no more. This also assumes intimate knowledge of an accent, but can work. To whit:-

"Do you mind leaving me alone, my friend." (No accent or dialect).

"Git fired oot, marra" (Ethnic Cumbrian)

"Leave us alone, marra" (Literary fudge, but probably OK)

I have to say that it is West Country and Scots that are the two most mauled British accents. Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset all have different accents, as do Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hawick, Skye and Inverness...

Regards,

Peter

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by pyan

There's a thread here that might help a bit, Purdy.

Personally, I don't like attempts to spell out accents or dialects...I prefer the system that goes:



This way, it doesn't slow down the story while you try to puzzle out what the character is actually saying!

I would agree with this - I think trying to spell out accents can become intrusive and a block to a reader; you spend more time trying to decipher an accent rather than following the flow of a text! The odd dialect word or phrase at most is enough I think to give a flavour. Accents have such subtle qualities; I am East Anglian but I, as can most who are native to these parts, detect differences in, for example, the way that people from different parts of Suffolk speak. To try and capture that on page is tricky at best, and the results in my opinion are often artificial.

In my own writing I experimented with using accents but was never pleased with the results; I found that the dialogue sounded less convincing and that there are other, more subtle, methods to distinguish characters and to demonstrate their background.

[Threddy]

I don't mind reading accents if I know which accent I'm reading and as long as it's not over the top.

[Kissmequick]

I prefer to use word choice to indicate an accent

so:

I was very upset about it and I cried buckets.

becomes:

I were that upset, I just about cried a bucket

I didn't see any rabbits

becomes:

Didn't see none of them rabbits.


At least you don't have to translate as you go, but it's pretty obvious that the talker speaks differently.