Accents

[kingdark]

There is some dialogue in a story I'm writing and I need it to read like a Russian dialect. I don't have a clue how to do it myself accept cutting random letters in every words to make it seem like an accent.

Hell, I don't even KNOW if it is POSSIBLE to write a russian accent.

Speaking of accents, how do you write others? I know that it's possible to give impressions of certain languages but since I never needed to use them I don't know how to start now.

Help?

 

[daniel_gudman]

Hmm, I think <a href='http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/writing-with-accents.aspx' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>this</a> makes some good points.

It depends on the strength of the accent. If the pronunciation is pretty good, just spell it out normally and mention the character has a Russian accent occasionally, when the viewpoint is someone who's hearing them speak for the first time.

Other than that... too strong of an accent, transliterating that, would be a hassle to read, so I think perhaps substituting "Da!" for "Yes", keeping the relatively, uh, explosive rhythm of Russian, and maybe, maybe, more V and D than normal. Perhaps the occasional interjection in Russian, like Russian swearwords when angry, would be good too, just flavor to remind us.

 

[kingdark]

That makes sense actually. But I read fics before that pulled it of wonderfully. Others... Not so much. In particular Hagrid from Harry Potter. Sometimes I wonder why they don't write him normally. It makes him sound freaking stupid.

RANT ALERT
I mean, c'mon the guy is an adult for how many decades now already? Half giant or not, how he talks doesn't make any sense. He is the ONLY character that talks like that except maybe that fletcher character.
RANT ALERT OVER

Anyway, how authors manage that accent I don't know. With house elves it's easy. Just switch the words around a little and you've done it but with Hagrid...

Oh well, enough about Harry Potter.

Maybe you are right and an author should simply keep it simple and mention known keywords of their language as in 'hai' (japanese) 'da' (russian) and other examples that I can't think of right now.

Kingdark

 

[SotF]

With Hagrid it's more that the accent is in the books, and a lot of people associate ways of talking with their characters in their heads and want to convey them.

Some people also tend to forget the accent when reading without the clues, and the same clues also help in longer portions of dialogue in picking out who is saying what.

 

[kingdark]

That's true. But even canon accent that Hagrid has makes him sound stupid. And I'm just saying that he should only use the accent when he's upset or when he's with people that he trusts and cares about.

 

[Uldihaa]

With Hagrid, how he says something is a part of his character; similar to Chekhov's accent in Star Trek. For Hagrid it's meant to give the impression of 'homey/folksy simplicity' and that he's a simple country guy. Though I do think that fic writers sometimes overdo it.


I will say that I disagree with one point raised in that article.

The other option for communicating a character's accent to readers, which I recommend, is to use standard spelling along with a description of the character's speech in the text introducing the character. One might write, "Her roots in the South were evident in her slow, melodious speech," while using standard spelling when writing out her speech...

This assumes that the reader has ever knowingly heard the accent in question. I've heard that there is a noticeable difference between Northern Britain English and Southern Britain English, but I'm not sure I've ever knowingly heard both. So for me, a description of how they speak would mean less than when a writer tries to phonetically write it out, or better yet use words and phrases that are strongly associated with the accent/dialect.

On the other hand, overusing it can also cause problems by making it too difficult to actually read. The Cockney accent is often the victim of this.

I'd suggest trying to find a balance that works best for you, really.


As for a Russian accent, replace 'V's with 'W's maybe? It worked for Chekhov!
And maybe replace 'C's with 'K's. Or would that be more Germantic?

 

[trevelyan1983]

I think it's usually best to keep it simple. Spend a little time listening to accents and stuff in films and TV. Get used to some of the slang your target group uses and make sure you understand it, so you can use it properly.

Don't make your sentences unreadable, or drop huge amounts of foreign language into the story, both because it interrupts the flow, and because it's so very easy to make a hilarious mistake with language rules and use.

 

[Munch]

or drop huge amounts of foreign language into the story

Inserting random SOU DESU KA bullshit into a story is a great way of telling the readers to fuck off, so agreed. Personally, I don't think that any foreign language is needed, no matter how much weeaboo moon runes arouse the author. Just SAY they're talking in Japanese or Engrish or German if you want to, don't actually -use- the shit. If you're writing in English, write in English.

On the broader subject of accents - I feel that subtle but regular reminders work best. Not "yeah he's still talking in Russian" so much as remembering to use relevant Russian metaphors or the V/W thing, something that will remind the reader and help them picture the speech, but not beating them over the head with it. Exactly what qualifies as "beating them over the head with it" is personal preference, though; I don't think it can be easily defined. At least not a universal definition. At best, you might be able to suggest a range.