Accents in Dialogue

Ramsay

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I know there used to be a thread about this, but the last entry was from 2005. If need be, though, go ahead and consolidate them.


Two words: just...don't. Have mercy on your reader and don't try to write thick accents. I love the Brontes, but good grief. Some of their dialect is so unintelligible that modern editors translate it in the footnotes. Don't put your readers through that kind of work.

I have lived in England. I never had any trouble understanding the accents while I was there. The main difference was the choice of words and phrases they used. Do your homework and find out how the other culture speaks. I'm currently working on a novel set in Edwardian England. I have read many books actually written during that period, and have made a list of words and phrases that will convey that time.
 

blacbird

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There are a lot of threads here that address this issue, many of them recent. But, in summary, the general consensus is you should be very very sparing in the use of "phonetically" spelled words to indicate speech accent. There are a number of reasons behind this consensus, but two of the most prominent are:

1. It makes the narrative harder to read.

2. Even "standard" English is a long ways from being spelled phonetically. (speak these words aloud: tough, though, through, trough, bough, bought). English is filled with words spelled alike, but pronounced differently (bow, bow, lead, lead, etc.), and homonyms pronounced the same, but spelled differently (read, reed, cite, site, sight, time, thyme, etc.), and words whose spelling defies rational explanation or includes a multitude of "silent" letters (rhythm, gaol, psychic, etc.). We even manage to have some homonyms so different in spelling that they contain zero common letters (you, ewe).

I know a lot of 19th to early 20th century writers employed "phonetic" spellings to indicate accents, and I also know that Irvine Welsh was successful doing in in Trainspotting*, but I, as one avid reader, found that novel a waste of my reading energy, precisely because of the accentage. I can deal with the older writers' style, because it was standard for their time, but in today's literary world it tends to come across as contrived and unnecessary. Word choice and syntax will carry you a long way in indicating a speaker's ethnicity or linguistic background.

caw

* And I lived in Glasgow for a time.
 
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Albedo

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Another reason it's bad is that by writing a 'non-standard' (or even one of the many standard ... Are we talking Midwestern American? Estuary English? General Australian? Singaporean? Which of these is THE standard English accent?) accent phonetically, you're implying that that accent is strange and foreign, which won't endear you to potential readers who speak that way. That's if they can even understand your butchery, because why would someone imagine their own accent with anything other than standard spelling? I haven't seen many attempts at trying to render an Aussie accent phonetically. Those I have seen ... weren't good.
 

Harlequin

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I do both. I use word choice and very light dialectal writing.

An example of when an apostrophe can be helpful; some of my speakers use "and that" as a dialogue filler. This is something which actually crops up in actual accents. However, people find it less confusing to read "an' that" at the end of a sentence as "and that" conveys an unfinished sentence.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Dialect writing was more popular in the 19th century, possibly because many books and stories were intended to be read aloud. The dialect helped the reader deliver the different voices.

Today, you can derive Rudyard Kipling's own accent by reading the dialect in Captains Courageous, assuming you know what a New England Gloucester accent sounds like, by adjusting your pronunciation until the dialect sounds like Cape Ann. It turns out that by reading the work in a plummy British accent that the thing works. But reading that book with an American accent ... the dialect comes out to be something of an eldritch horror.

(Tennessee Williams, in his plays, used phonetic spelling for his deep-Southern accented characters, to help actors deliver the lines properly. Listening to someone who already has a deep-Southern accent attempting to read the text aloud with the phonetic pronunciation is just plain weird.)
 

Jack Judah

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The main difference was the choice of words and phrases they used. Do your homework and find out how the other culture speaks.

This is spot on. Syntax and vocabulary can do more to establish an accent than torturing the spellings of every word a character speaks.

Another reason it's bad is that by writing a 'non-standard' (or even one of the many standard ... Are we talking Midwestern American? Estuary English? General Australian? Singaporean? Which of these is THE standard English accent?) accent phonetically, you're implying that that accent is strange and foreign, which won't endear you to potential readers who speak that way. That's if they can even understand your butchery, because why would someone imagine their own accent with anything other than standard spelling? I haven't seen many attempts at trying to render an Aussie accent phonetically. Those I have seen ... weren't good.

Just to prove Albedo's point at how ridiculous even attempting something like this can be, here's my very American, probably insultingly tone-deaf attempt at phonetically reproducing an Australian accent: "Guh-die mite. Oy reckon on goin' fishin doon boy the rivuh."

If that reads as anything remotely like an actual Australian speaking, I'll eat my hat and hold the mustard. Not to mention that if I had to write that consistently, let alone read it for more than a few paragraphs, I'd tear my hair out at the roots. And it's not like saying, "G'day mate. I reckon on going fishing down by the river" doesn't accomplish the exact same thing.
 
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Laer Carroll

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Reproducing accents in a story is like spice to a meal. Use, but use sparingly. Too much is as bad as too little.

When accents are important to a story in some way, I sometimes use telling rather than showing.

"Anne recognized her new friend's accent as that of central rather than suburban Miami and adjusted her own to match." This tells us several facts. One is that Anne is an accomplished linguist with a good ear. Another is that she is trying to fit in, at least at this point in the story. (Perhaps she's not just friendly, but a fugitive trying to stay anonymous.)

In this case telling is better than showing. For one, it avoids all the effort of showing, which usually takes up more textual space and takes more work to do and do well. Reproducing actual speech also might irritate rather than please the reader. Too, the flatter less emotional tone of telling saves us story landscape for when we want to use the more vivid and emotion-inducing language of showing.
 

neandermagnon

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Just to prove Albedo's point at how ridiculous even attempting something like this can be, here's my very American, probably insultingly tone-deaf attempt at phonetically reproducing an Australian accent: "Guh-die mite. Oy reckon on goin' fishin doon boy the rivuh."

This highlights another issue - each writer has their own accent and that affects what sound each letter has. For example, in my accent, "mom" has a very short /o/ sound and without knowing the American dialect, it wouldn't be automatically read the way Americans would pronounce "mom" (it'd be read to rhyme with how I say "Tom" in my accent).

The sounds Americans make when they say "mom" sound to me like "Ma'am" as in how we'd address the queen. It actually took me many years as a kid/teen to realise that the American characters in American books when they say "mom" they're pronouncing it "Ma'am" (even though I'd hear Americans say "mom" on TV a lot, I never made the connection with the odd spelling). I was mentally pronouncing it to rhyme with "Tom" (in my accent) and thought it was weird that characters in books pronounced "mum" this way.

These differences in accent between the writer and the reader cause phonetically written dialogue to be read completely wrongly. Going back to Jack's attempted rendition of an Australian accent, he's written "doon" which to me sounds Scottish. I've never heard an Australian pronounce "down" like that - but I rather suspect that the /oo/ sound is pronounced differently in his accent to mine. How I'd read his sentence phonetically sounds like a complete butchery between various accents and I'd only know it's supposed to be Australian because it contains the phrase "G'day mate" - which I can't read in any accent other than Australian anyway, because it's an Australian phrase.

Another example - the /r/ in r-controlled vowels isn't pronounced in my dialect, so I'd mentally pronounce "river" without the /r/ on the end, so rendering it phonetically as "rivuh" doesn't change the sound so my mind grasps around for a reason for the incorrect spelling, meaning I mentally read it as "rivUUUUUUUUUUHHH" like the character over accentuates that sound on the end of the word.

This further highlights how expressions that are unique to that accent are much more effective than trying to render it phonetically.

Awri'e ma'e, vis is my aksen' rend/d fneticlee can yer reed i' ukay or duz i' ge' to'ally b/ch/d in yer 'ed? (slash = schwa (dunno how to make that upside down e thing on a keyboard) and ' = glottal stop)

Compared with:

The cabbie looked at me like I was insane. "Bloody Brixton? I ain't going south of the river this time of night!"
 

Cindyt

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Never had trouble understanding the Brontes, but then I'm odd.

I give my dialogue and POV narration a flavor.
 
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Albedo

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whiuw we're wriding ow own accence ow*.. (What is that last sound, anyway? It's neither a 'd' nor a 't' sound, but it's not a Cockney glottal stop, either.)
 

Harlequin

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Not to nitpick, but phonetic spelling is a specific "thing", which is not what any of the examples cited so far are doing. FWIW I'd quite like to read a novel written in IPA but I doubt it'd have much of an audience beyond sociolinguists.
 

Helix

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I was reading this thread, came to that rendition of an Australian accent and thought ermagerd stahp! Then I picked up the book I'm reading -- Peter Mathiessen's 'Blue Meridian' -- and saw this:

Finally he spoke in his measured Australian cockney.

"Yis," Taylor said. "'E should be."

Dearie me.
 

Albedo

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Australian Cockney? Is that like Brooklyn Scouse?

And since when do Aussies speak in a way that could be described as 'measured'
 

BethS

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It actually took me many years as a kid/teen to realise that the American characters in American books when they say "mom" they're pronouncing it "Ma'am" (even though I'd hear Americans say "mom" on TV a lot, I never made the connection with the odd spelling). I was mentally pronouncing it to rhyme with "Tom" (in my accent) and thought it was weird that characters in books pronounced "mum" this way.

You've just confused this American. :) Mom and Tom rhyme. Ma'am rhymes with Pam. Is that not how you hear them?
 

Albedo

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Here, 'Mum' rhymes with 'bum', 'Ma'am' rhymes with 'Pam', and 'Mom' looks like it should rhyme with Tom, but Americans say it more like we say the vowel in 'arm'.
 

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Here, 'Mum' rhymes with 'bum', 'Ma'am' rhymes with 'Pam', and 'Mom' looks like it should rhyme with Tom, but Americans say it more like we say the vowel in 'arm'.

Just some 'mericans. In New England, in general, Mom rhymes with Tom. You'll also hear "Ma" in 'merican, which is pronounced very like the word maw meaning "mouth".
 

ajaye

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Mom and Tom rhyme.
Well I'll be. Now that spelling makes sense. :)

ETA ...hang on a sec, how are you guys pronouncing Tom? :)
 
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Albedo

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Just some 'mericans. In New England, in general, Mom rhymes with Tom. You'll also hear "Ma" in 'merican, which is pronounced very like the word maw meaning "mouth".

I just had a look at the Wikipedia chart of English sounds, and holy balls, look at the vowels. Talk about divided by a common language.

I still think it's funny how marvellous my Canadian rellies thought it was that I pronounced 'bald' and 'bold' differently.
 

Bufty

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Same way I pronounce Mom. Doesn't matter how you hear it - that's the way it's pronounced.

Well I'll be. Now that spelling makes sense. :)

ETA ...hang on a sec, how are you guys pronouncing Tom? :)
 
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indianroads

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One of my characters is Mary Chung, a woman of Chinese descent that grew up in North Carolina - so she has a southern accent. She's fun to write.
 

Ramsay

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Wow, this has gotten interesting! :)

We live in Texas, and my husband is English. People love it when he does his Anglo imitation of a Southern accent. :ROFL:


Somebody touched on how having a character speak in obvious dialect might come across as paternal/racist. A great example of that is the novel Gone With the Wind. I love the book, but all that thick dialect with which the African-American characters speak is hard to read. I tolerate it because that's how it was back then. :e2bummed:Sure reminds me of how far we've come, though.

Right now I'm reading Natchez Burning by Greg Iles. The novel jumps back in forth from the 60's to the present in Mississippi. In the flashbacks Iles doesn't write the dialog using any dialect. Instead, he lets his readers imagine it based on the character, which I think is the smart thing to do. I mean, if you read that a man is a white-trash member of the KKK, then it's not hard to imagine how he'd talk.
 

anakhouri79

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Reading Dickens, I often have to stop and read aloud, phonetically, because otherwise I have no idea what his Cockney characters are saying!
 

WriterDude

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I'm not a fan of accents, which is ironic because no one can understand a word I say. Hence, writer.

Unless of course the meaning of the accent is otherwise sign posted in the narrative. Eg:

'Skooj May!' The strange little man called as he pushed his wheel barrow frantically through the crowd. By his actions, we assumed that was the local dialect for 'excuse me'.
 

NateSean

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The sounds Americans make when they say "mom" sound to me like "Ma'am" as in how we'd address the queen.

Keeping in mind that Americans include people from fifty unique states spread across a large landmass and no two Americans learn American English the same way. Just as a UK school child from Belfast, Ireland is going to learn to pronounce things differently from a kid brought up in Swindon, England.

I've heard "Mom" pronounced in more ways than there are recipes for preparing rice. Where I live "Mom" is pronounced, "Stop nagging me," , "Get off the cross, someone else needs the wood," and "Just remember, I'm choosing your nursing home".