100 things, writing, #28, writing accents

[jana_denardo]

{Take the 100 Things challenge!}

100 things #28 - accents

For the most part, by and large, writing out the accent used to be frowned on. A decade a go it was the kiss of death (unless you were writing comic books, funny we thought kids could suss them out but not adults). I’m less sure of that now but over all, I’m not thrilled with writing accents.

I used to be (blame the comic books). When I originally wrote Luc and Arrigo over fifteen years ago, Luc had a Cajun accent. Coming back to this story again when I sent Crisis in Faith to Dreamspinner Press, and last month doing camp nano, some of the old stuff I’m adapting had it in there. It looked pretty awful, to be honest. So now I’m left with how to differentiation Luc’s accent.

I think, over all, the best bet is to find phrases or key words that will define him. At least now, you don’t have to live in Louisiana to know the accent. All you need to do is turn on Swamp People or Cajun Justice (which has become a guilty pleasure for me). It’s more accessible. Luc definitely has a thick Cajun accent which looks wrong written out. It also defines him as being different in his new Las Vegas home where his family relocated post Katerina.

So now I’m on a look out for local idioms and phrasings to make it more believable (why or why don’t I ever have a modern Pittsburgher in a story? I KNOW those local colloquialisms).

Comments

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

And the problem with local colloquialisms is inevitably, when you run the manuscript past people who aren't from that location, they get confused (i.e., John Dillon, the Texan, calling all soda pop "Coke" -- which is what they do, in Texas!).

The closest I'll go with writing out accents is dropping the G at the end of words, and of course "ain't," which has become pretty standard English, oddly enough...

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

exactly. If it isn't a) apparently from context or b) something someone would logically question in the book then you have a problem.

that's about as far as I've gone with accents. Or Y'all for southerners or Yinz (pittsburghese for y'all which would be apparent from context).

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

All soft drinks are 'Coke' to my area, too. Though, after living with CoM for a while, and having to differentiate between various salesmen, I have learned to say 'pop', though it still sounds WRONG.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Hee. I still say "soda pop," so I'm not sure what that says about me -- my family was both Eastern and Mid-West. But we talking about it at work once and someone said when they when to Texas they heard this exchange:
"I'd like a Coke, please."
"What kind?"
"Um, 7-Up."

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

that's happened here, too, when I was a kid, and Mom was actually able to buy different flavors of Coke - we had RC and 7-Up, so. XD

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

yes i remember you and the coke is all pop thing

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

It's a thing.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

yeah I just call it pop.

I've heard of the various 'flavors' of coke before.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

it's pop dammit. Coke is a brand

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Coke's a drink. :D

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

a nasty one unless there's rum

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Glass bottle Coke with real sugar is good. Or better, as the case may be.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

fair point

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I agree! I am definitely all for not writing out the accent phonetically, but representing it with speech patterns instead. There are some authors who do it so well that they can get away with writing in dialect without having it come across as clumsy, disrespectful, or incomprehensible (and often all three), but usually these are authors who are writing a dialect they grew up with and know intimately. When most writers try it, what they end up with just comes across as a pasted-on attempt at injecting local color and makes me wince.

The whole matter of phonetically representing accents (or not) used to be debated back when I was in Stargate Atlantis fandom, years ago -- a fandom that had a number of characters in canon who spoke English with various accents. People pointed out that not only did fandom tend to turn what were light accents in canon into virtually incomprehensible dialect-speech in fanfic, but also, if you're from (say) Scotland, having a Scottish accent sounds perfectly normal, and it's a bit jarring to see it written out in clumsily rendered phonetic transcription of what it sounds like to an American ear. At the very least, it's a dead giveaway of what sounds "normal" and what sounds "foreign" to the author!

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

this is it exactly. I'll be honest, written out Cajun looks both illiterate and disrespectful to the people. I've tried writing out a Scottish accent in my younger days and there again was the clumsy and unintended disrespect.

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

most of my peices take place in MA - some in Boston, some in Springfeild and I'll normaly hit one or two words like 'retaahdid' or 'straight around' (that is when you are following a road and there is an old bilding in the middle and you have to go around the building but never leave the road) but mostly leave the accent alone.

The funny thing is one of my betas is always trying to pull out the colloquialisms.

[jana-denardo.livejournal.com]

yeah i have a beta that does that too. If it doesn't belong there (i.e. some Welsh character talking like a pittsburgher) but i think thats probably the best way to handle it, just flavor it a little

[bodgei.livejournal.com]

Oh if it dosn't belong that's alright - but she takes out any local color.

Oh and to add my 2 cents into the soda debate - it is Seltzer. Or it was seltzer - a lot of the New England terms are going out the window, but you still hear seltzer, druggest, spa (small store) and clenser from time to time.