HOME | DD

Description
Accents, Foreign Languages, and Regional Dialects

There are times when your story may have one or more character speaking a different language, or with a different accent than the rest. There are many different ways a writer can go about presenting this to the reader, and before we go any further, I will concede that some of it is a matter of personal taste, and on this particular matter, you won’t be able to please everybody. So, consider this bit not so much a lesson, but rather a series of guidelines.

Accents

Everyone has one. Even if you think that you don’t, there’s someone, somewhere in the world who would disagree with you. Some people may have a very faint trace of an accent, whereas with others, you can hardly make out what they’re trying to tell you. But how should you translate these simple speech patterns to text? Well, that depends, really.

Since I’ve been listening to the audio books lately, and it’s the best example I can come up with, let’s look at the Harry Potter series. Most of the characters in the series are English. Barring any unmentioned regional dialects, they all sound roughly the same, as far as accent goes (there could be someone from Manchester or Gloucestershire stomping around Hogwarts, but I don’t recall it ever being mentioned).

But there are characters from Scotland, France, and Bulgaria that show up as well (I’m looking at you, Hagrid). Why J.K. Rowling chose to spell out Hagrid’s Scottish accent syllable-by-syllable is completely beyond me, though. I’m gripping at straws here, but the only reason I can really come up with for that choice is that it’s a children’s book, and children like it when people talk funny.

Many people (the chronicler included) find this practise tedious and unnecessary, though. We know Hagrid is supposed to be Scottish, and most of us are capable of hearing a Scottish accent in our head. By typing out every single dropped letter and diphthong, the “accent” on the page comes off as more of a parody of the real thing than an actual Scottish accent.

Look at it from this perspective: Imagine you’re reading a book where most of the cast of characters is X nationality, except from one, who happens to be your nationality. And imagine that the author has chosen to phonetically spell out your entire accent from their point of view. It might be cute for the first few sentences, but after a while, it’s bound to get old, isn’t it? It’s like... Well, it’s like every time Jeremy Clarkson has ever been in trouble for saying something which he believes is true, until the person(s) his comment is directed at hears it, and says, “Wait a minute. That’s slander.” Okay, not quite to that degree, but you get the point.

Sometimes, though, an accent does honestly get in the way. It’s the difference between “Kirsche” and “Kirche”. Missing a simple S is the difference between eating a church (Kirche) and going to a cherry (Kirsche) on Sunday morning. Things like this are funny, no matter who you are. If you’ve opportunity and reason to use it, then by all means, do.

In most cases, the reader won’t take fault with a speech tic, like occasionally dropping a G from the end of words, or a phantom letter sneaking in. If it’s done in moderation, small tics like this can be used to effectively set one character apart from the rest. If your story is set in rural Gloucestershire, and most everyone is going to be apt to dropping Gs and sticking in phantom letters, then it’s wise to leave out the verbal tics all together. Otherwise, you’d wind up sticking them into everyone’s dialogue, and we’re back to being a parody of speech.

Basically, it’s all moderation. Do it just often enough for the reader to notice the difference, but not so often that it’s literally all spelt out for them.

Foreign Languages

Occasionally, you’re going to have a character pop up that not only has a different accent, but might speak an entirely different language. This, in and of itself, can present a world of problems.

First, there’s the language, itself. Let’s say your story takes place in Brooklyn, and most of the characters have never been more than a few hundred miles outside of New York. This goes back to the bit about the accents. Again, we know they’re from Brooklyn, and most of the characters will sound the same, so leave it. But, let’s throw in a character from the United Arab Emirates. And for the sake of argument, let’s say he’s one of the UAE citizens who are able to speak English and Arabic. He’d still likely have a bit of an accent, but what about when/if he speaks in Arabic? The first thing you have to know is how to speak Arabic, yourself.

This is not to say that you must be an expert in the language. No. But you do need to make it sound as though your character is. This means not going to Babelfish. Find someone online or in person who speaks English and Arabic, and ask them for help translating your lines.

Now, if your story is written in English, you’re going to want to avoid putting in a lot of Arabic. Just enough to get the point across. Maybe a few sparse sentences here and there. If you put in paragraphs and paragraphs of Arabic, you will lose your readers. Chances are, only a very small number of them will actually speak Arabic, but it’s for those few that you want it to be correct. If you put in Babelfish Arabic, you’ll lose those readers.

Once you have your sentences all translated, you need to type them up. Again, you’ll only have a small number of Arabic readers, if any at all, so you’re going to run into a second hurdle; one of the Arabic alphabet. If the rest of your story is written with any other alphabet (we’ll use Latin for the sake of this lesson, since it’s a nice, common one), then you can’t just go stick in Arabic letters. They’re hugely different from the Latin alphabet, and your readers’ eyes will just gloss right over the sentence, and possibly, the entire following tag/paragraph. When they do this, they may miss important bits. Even with a language as foreign as Arabic may be, you need to give it some familiarity, which means that you need to phonetically spell your translation with the Latin alphabet. It may seem clunky (especially with the vowels, in this case), but your reader will at least know what it sounds like to a point.

You’ll also want to include something which serves to translate the speech. You don’t have to translate it directly, but don’t count on your reader to be able to read between the lines, either.

We’ll use a German example, since I don’t actually speak Arabic (it just seemed like a really good example, given the alphabet).

The two men stood in silence, looking down at the small screen. “Ja,” said the first in hushed tones. “Ich habe es gern.”

He nodded curtly and walked away.

Do you have any idea what he said? One might be able to infer that he said, “yes”, but what else did he say? There’s really not a whole lot of context.

The two men stood in silence, looking down at the small screen. “Ja,” said the first in hushed tones. “Ich habe es gern.”

Noel let out the breath he’d been holding, and even dared a light chuckle. “Oh, thank god. I mean, you hated the other ten versions. I was afraid you might hate this, too.”

Mister Schwarz cast him a sideways glance before walking away.

The other character was able to add a bit more context to the German line, and the scene didn’t change much. But now we know that he said that whatever it is that he’s looking at, he likes it.

This can be rather tedious, though, and should be used sparingly. If your character will be speaking in a foreign language more frequently, you may just want to write it to the language of the narrative as often as possible.

Regional Dialects

Not necessarily an accent, and not quite a different language, dialects cause their own unique sorts of problems. For example, if you were in San Francisco, you would not grab a trolley from the car park and take it into Tesco. Likewise, if you were in London, if you wanted some chips, you might be surprised to find them rather hotter than you’re used to, and more resembling a potato wedge, rather than thin, crispy, and in a foil bag.

The easiest way to tell if the author is from a different region from where the story takes place isn’t necessarily how well they describe the local, but the smaller words that they use. Some people even go as far as to no longer consider American English a dialect of English, but its own language, because of the grammar and spelling differences. I’m not sure if I entirely believe with that, but I can see the logic.

Want to test this? Go to the fan fiction part of deviantART, and look for some Harry Potter stories. Chances are that you’ll be able to tell where the author is from just reading the story. It’s not just having Harry nip off to the 7-11, either. Words are spelt differently, and as we explored in previous lessons, verbs will sometimes conjugate differently.

Are you wrong if you don’t write with English spelling in a story set in England? No. It’s hard to learn all the different rules, and if you get it wrong, you’ll look a bit of an idiot.

However, it’s the niggly little bits that a writer can change to make the setting feel organic. If the characters go to a shop, make sure it’s one that exists in that area. You won’t find a Fred Meyer in southern Nevada, and you won’t find a Smith’s in Oregon, despite both being owned by the same company. Someone in the UK wouldn’t go to a 7-11, but they’d go to a newsagent. You could “start your car” in California, and “crank your engine” in Florida (though, this may just be a very odd, very localised thing, if the comments to this are anything to go by).

You don’t have to observe the differences, but your reader might appreciate it.

Description
Accents, Foreign Languages, and Regional Dialects

There are times when your story may have one or more character speaking a different language, or with a different accent than the rest. There are many different ways a writer can go about presenting this to the reader, and before we go any further, I will concede that some of it is a matter of personal taste, and on this particular matter, you won’t be able to please everybody. So, consider this bit not so much a lesson, but rather a series of guidelines.

Accents

Everyone has one. Even if you think that you don’t, there’s someone, somewhere in the world who would disagree with you. Some people may have a very faint trace of an accent, whereas with others, you can hardly make out what they’re trying to tell you. But how should you translate these simple speech patterns to text? Well, that depends, really.

Since I’ve been listening to the audio books lately, and it’s the best example I can come up with, let’s look at the Harry Potter series. Most of the characters in the series are English. Barring any unmentioned regional dialects, they all sound roughly the same, as far as accent goes (there could be someone from Manchester or Gloucestershire stomping around Hogwarts, but I don’t recall it ever being mentioned).

But there are characters from Scotland, France, and Bulgaria that show up as well (I’m looking at you, Hagrid). Why J.K. Rowling chose to spell out Hagrid’s Scottish accent syllable-by-syllable is completely beyond me, though. I’m gripping at straws here, but the only reason I can really come up with for that choice is that it’s a children’s book, and children like it when people talk funny.

Many people (the chronicler included) find this practise tedious and unnecessary, though. We know Hagrid is supposed to be Scottish, and most of us are capable of hearing a Scottish accent in our head. By typing out every single dropped letter and diphthong, the “accent” on the page comes off as more of a parody of the real thing than an actual Scottish accent.

Look at it from this perspective: Imagine you’re reading a book where most of the cast of characters is X nationality, except from one, who happens to be your nationality. And imagine that the author has chosen to phonetically spell out your entire accent from their point of view. It might be cute for the first few sentences, but after a while, it’s bound to get old, isn’t it? It’s like... Well, it’s like every time Jeremy Clarkson has ever been in trouble for saying something which he believes is true, until the person(s) his comment is directed at hears it, and says, “Wait a minute. That’s slander.” Okay, not quite to that degree, but you get the point.

Sometimes, though, an accent does honestly get in the way. It’s the difference between “Kirsche” and “Kirche”. Missing a simple S is the difference between eating a church (Kirche) and going to a cherry (Kirsche) on Sunday morning. Things like this are funny, no matter who you are. If you’ve opportunity and reason to use it, then by all means, do.

In most cases, the reader won’t take fault with a speech tic, like occasionally dropping a G from the end of words, or a phantom letter sneaking in. If it’s done in moderation, small tics like this can be used to effectively set one character apart from the rest. If your story is set in rural Gloucestershire, and most everyone is going to be apt to dropping Gs and sticking in phantom letters, then it’s wise to leave out the verbal tics all together. Otherwise, you’d wind up sticking them into everyone’s dialogue, and we’re back to being a parody of speech.

Basically, it’s all moderation. Do it just often enough for the reader to notice the difference, but not so often that it’s literally all spelt out for them.

Foreign Languages

Occasionally, you’re going to have a character pop up that not only has a different accent, but might speak an entirely different language. This, in and of itself, can present a world of problems.

First, there’s the language, itself. Let’s say your story takes place in Brooklyn, and most of the characters have never been more than a few hundred miles outside of New York. This goes back to the bit about the accents. Again, we know they’re from Brooklyn, and most of the characters will sound the same, so leave it. But, let’s throw in a character from the United Arab Emirates. And for the sake of argument, let’s say he’s one of the UAE citizens who are able to speak English and Arabic. He’d still likely have a bit of an accent, but what about when/if he speaks in Arabic? The first thing you have to know is how to speak Arabic, yourself.

This is not to say that you must be an expert in the language. No. But you do need to make it sound as though your character is. This means not going to Babelfish. Find someone online or in person who speaks English and Arabic, and ask them for help translating your lines.

Now, if your story is written in English, you’re going to want to avoid putting in a lot of Arabic. Just enough to get the point across. Maybe a few sparse sentences here and there. If you put in paragraphs and paragraphs of Arabic, you will lose your readers. Chances are, only a very small number of them will actually speak Arabic, but it’s for those few that you want it to be correct. If you put in Babelfish Arabic, you’ll lose those readers.

Once you have your sentences all translated, you need to type them up. Again, you’ll only have a small number of Arabic readers, if any at all, so you’re going to run into a second hurdle; one of the Arabic alphabet. If the rest of your story is written with any other alphabet (we’ll use Latin for the sake of this lesson, since it’s a nice, common one), then you can’t just go stick in Arabic letters. They’re hugely different from the Latin alphabet, and your readers’ eyes will just gloss right over the sentence, and possibly, the entire following tag/paragraph. When they do this, they may miss important bits. Even with a language as foreign as Arabic may be, you need to give it some familiarity, which means that you need to phonetically spell your translation with the Latin alphabet. It may seem clunky (especially with the vowels, in this case), but your reader will at least know what it sounds like to a point.

You’ll also want to include something which serves to translate the speech. You don’t have to translate it directly, but don’t count on your reader to be able to read between the lines, either.

We’ll use a German example, since I don’t actually speak Arabic (it just seemed like a really good example, given the alphabet).

The two men stood in silence, looking down at the small screen. “Ja,” said the first in hushed tones. “Ich habe es gern.”

He nodded curtly and walked away.

Do you have any idea what he said? One might be able to infer that he said, “yes”, but what else did he say? There’s really not a whole lot of context.

The two men stood in silence, looking down at the small screen. “Ja,” said the first in hushed tones. “Ich habe es gern.”

Noel let out the breath he’d been holding, and even dared a light chuckle. “Oh, thank god. I mean, you hated the other ten versions. I was afraid you might hate this, too.”

Mister Schwarz cast him a sideways glance before walking away.

The other character was able to add a bit more context to the German line, and the scene didn’t change much. But now we know that he said that whatever it is that he’s looking at, he likes it.

This can be rather tedious, though, and should be used sparingly. If your character will be speaking in a foreign language more frequently, you may just want to write it to the language of the narrative as often as possible.

Regional Dialects

Not necessarily an accent, and not quite a different language, dialects cause their own unique sorts of problems. For example, if you were in San Francisco, you would not grab a trolley from the car park and take it into Tesco. Likewise, if you were in London, if you wanted some chips, you might be surprised to find them rather hotter than you’re used to, and more resembling a potato wedge, rather than thin, crispy, and in a foil bag.

The easiest way to tell if the author is from a different region from where the story takes place isn’t necessarily how well they describe the local, but the smaller words that they use. Some people even go as far as to no longer consider American English a dialect of English, but its own language, because of the grammar and spelling differences. I’m not sure if I entirely believe with that, but I can see the logic.

Want to test this? Go to the fan fiction part of deviantART, and look for some Harry Potter stories. Chances are that you’ll be able to tell where the author is from just reading the story. It’s not just having Harry nip off to the 7-11, either. Words are spelt differently, and as we explored in previous lessons, verbs will sometimes conjugate differently.

Are you wrong if you don’t write with English spelling in a story set in England? No. It’s hard to learn all the different rules, and if you get it wrong, you’ll look a bit of an idiot.

However, it’s the niggly little bits that a writer can change to make the setting feel organic. If the characters go to a shop, make sure it’s one that exists in that area. You won’t find a Fred Meyer in southern Nevada, and you won’t find a Smith’s in Oregon, despite both being owned by the same company. Someone in the UK wouldn’t go to a 7-11, but they’d go to a newsagent. You could “start your car” in California, and “crank your engine” in Florida (though, this may just be a very odd, very localised thing, if the comments to this are anything to go by).

You don’t have to observe the differences, but your reader might appreciate it.