Dialect Tools

Early this week, Jeffe mentioned actors and the training we receive in dealing with dialects. It is extensive, immersive work. We even learned an entire alphabet to help us mark our scripts so we could learn our lines with the dialect. For acting purposes, there's a neutral dialect (the west coat of the US - theory has it this is where words are said with the least phonetic morphing of the sounds.)
From that ideal neutral, each dialect in the world changes the sounds of letters a specific way. Using the phonetic alphabet, actors can teach themselves a specific accent. Terrific, right? It brings up a couple of problems especially for writers.

1. Accents are meant to be heard, not read - in a play, a dialect is music. In the written word, it's nails on a chalkboard. See James's H.P. Lovecraft example if you need proof.
2. For actors AND for writers, the phonetic alphabet only tells you how word sounds change - think aboot rather than about. There's a whole other aspect to dialect that actors cannot actually write into their scripts unless they have music training. It's a couple of concepts called cadence and tonality.

Cadence and tonality talk about the musical aspect of a dialect. This covers inflection patterns - where speech and tone of voice rise and fall. For actors, musical marks give us a way to get at that. Authors are limited to sentence length, word choice, and word order. Those are powerful tools, too, so don't despair because there is a point in here. I promise. To capture the music of an accent, actors must listen to a native speaker (who is subsequently speaking the actor's language). Most libraries have tapes or dvds or mp3s specifically for this purpose. Yay for actors. Authors don't get to do that much, because, you know, we don't write with musical marks.

Here's the point I took so long to get to: All of us know what an accent is. All of us, unless we've been living under a rock with no internet connection, have heard all kinds of dialect. Southern, Bronx, Aussie, British, Irish, Scottish, Slavic, Asian, you name it, we've all probably heard it.  As an actor, my job is to reproduce that accent so well that a native will mistake me for a fellow countryman. Your job as an author is the exact opposite.

There's a story about an interview with Lawrence Olivier wherein he said it wasn't his job as an actor to feel anything. It was his job to make YOU feel everything. Perfect description, I think, of writing dialect. An author's job isn't to dictate what she hears in her head to her readers - it's to suggest just enough dialect that the readers hear dialect for themselves. 

The best tool for hearing dialect? Movies, TV and Youtube. Americans have a tremendous resource in the BBC because there you have native speakers from all over the world. You can hear the music, the word choices, how sounds change. Youtube has videos from people all over the planet and you have immediate access to hearing speech patterns from just about anywhere. Where this falls down is in historical contexts because every historical period had its own dialect. Shakespeare, obviously, but also very notably the Regency...but that's another issue entirely. If you care about that, look at plays from the period. The speech patterns are very different from what we're accustomed to.

However. This stuff is research and backstory. It needs to be done and then it needs to be nearly invisible. Hint at these speech patterns in writing - preferably with word choice, regionalisms, and intonation rather than with dropping every g or all the r's in someone's dialog. Otherwise, you aren't trusting your reader.

Accent-tual Dialogue

by Linda Robertson

Hey y'all! Happy May!

I grew up in Ohio with family from regions south. Sometimes folks ask me if I'm from West Virgina. I don't think I have much of an accent, though I know I've adopted a few words and phrases that reveal the family tree. 

That said, I've always liked listening to the lilt of people's accents. I've had friends from Wisconsin who sounded similar to folks I knew in Canada at the little camp ground we visited when I was a kid. I've visited places where the accents are undeniable, South Ca-lina and Gaw-ja, I'm talking about you.

I like trying to talk in different accents. And while yes this includes the distinctive tones of Sarcasm and Pirate, I am mostly refering to actual location-specific tones. My handsome fella lived in Italy for a few years and had acquaintances from Ireland. He can mimic those accents quite convincingly. My son does a pretty good rendition of Cockney and he and I spent a whole day being 'British' on our vacation. At least we did until the younger son decided to out us on the boardwalk by shouting, "Will you two STOP that? WE. ARE. AMERICANS!"

I say all that to say this: I love accents. And yes, I use them in my books. Here are two examples: 

EXCERPT from WICKED CIRCLE
(#5 Persephone Alcmedi series)

     A tall woman appeared in the doorway. She had short, spiky black hair and a beautiful oval face that didn’t have a brush of makeup on it. Because Zhan usually wore business casual, I had expected similar of the new sentinel. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
     Ivanka wore a khaki green T-shirt and military fatigues. Add combat boots and a handgun on each hip, and the zero-percent-body-fat military bodyguard ensemble was complete. Her muscular shoulders and bulging arms dominated her appearance. She had a single backpack and a stuffed GNC bag.
     It was shitty of me, but I couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever been part of some Russian super-soldier experiment.
     “Erus Veneficus Persephone Alcmedi, this is Ivanka Chernov. Ivanka, this is your E.V.”
     Ivanka sat her bags on the floor, lowered herself to one knee and bowed her head. Then she stood and mimed shooting a gun. “I have ninety-eight-point-four percent accuracy with revolver.” Her accent was thick. “I have black belt and run mile in three minutes, forty-two seconds.”
     “That’s all very impressive, Ivanka.”
     She pointed at the nutrition store bag. “I fix own meals, and clean up. I sleep little, talk less. All I ask is three personal hours every day for strength training. This work for you?”
     “Yes. You’ll do just fine.”

EXCERPT from SHATTERED CIRCLE (#6 Persephone Alcmedi series)
     "What are you doing here?” Johnny asked Jacques Lippencot Plympton.
     In the meager light from a slightly opened curtain, the diviza’s wrinkles deepened as he squinted. “Because I’ve heard me a rumor.”
     “What rumor?”
     “That our dear Aurelia has joined the ranks of the dead.”
     Johnny didn’t answer. He didn’t even move.
     Plympton sat forward and rubbed his hands together.
     “Betcha you’re a-wonderin’ who told me.”
     The moment wore on in silence, then Plympton laughed.
     “Well, c’mon in, m’boy. We have oodles to discuss...and besides, you’re a-lettin’ the draft in. I’m not fond of your northern November weather.”
     Johnny reached for the light switch.
     Plympton made a sound, one decidedly disapproving note, that stopped him. “Better to leave the lights off.”
     “Why?”
     “You’ll have been seen a-entering the hotel. If these lights come on, that’ll only confirm that you’ve a-come to her room while she’s out.”
     Johnny let the door shut behind him but he stayed near it. “Who’s watching this room?” As he spoke he sensed around the room. No one else was here. His eyes had already adjusted to the darkness.
     “Maybe several people.” Plympton shrugged. “Maybe
no one.”
     “Why would anyone watch her room?”
     As the diviza sat back in his chair, he was again in the slightly brighter portion of the room. It made his hair seem like a ghostly halo about his head. “Some like to watch lovely women. Some keep an eye on their friends. Some monitor their enemies. Others enjoy a-studying the ways of shit-stirrers like her.”

Now I think the key to using accents, in written form, is to keep it natural, simple and clear. You're telling a story and you don't want your reader to stop their continuous scan to try and decipher just what it is the character is saying. An accent is a layer of a character, something that helps define them like an accessory. Use it enough for the reader to understand this is a part of who the character is, but use it sparingly enough that it doesn't overwhelm the reader or override the character. If the reader gets the gist of what you're giving them, they will hear the accent in their head when that character speaks. If that's the case, you've done your job.

Y'All Come Back, Nawh, Ya Wee Lassies, Aiiight?

Accents, Slang, & Stereotypes -- Yes? No? Who Cares? And Where's The Lynching Rope?

1. Accents
Writing with accents is kind of like cooking with essential oils. A little bit goes a very long way. One drop of cinnamon oil is enough to give a standard pot of icing a recognizable flavor. Three drops and your guests will demand a glass of milk to wash away the burn. Six drops and you'll be sent to GTMO for chemical terrorism.

Yesterday, James showed spectacular instances of how to do them right and how they've been done so very, very wrong. Go read them.

2. Slang
Today's slang is tomorrow's shame. Do you remember when "Shawty" and "Hot Mess" were the coolest hippest things to say?  If you have tweenagers then you know merely uttering "dawg," "bling," or "that's so yesterday," will earn you at least an eye-roll if not a room-evacuation. The only good time to use slang in a novel is if you are writing a historical and using historically-accurate colloquialisms. Even though the era of near-instant publishing allows you to ride the wakes of today's popular slang, why hard-code an expiration date into your novel?

3. Stereotypes
Here's a topic for which I am likely to be keelhauled. I could write a tome about stereotypes, the culture wars, and the impact on art. The short version is this: the backlash against novelists using stereotypes in their work is less about challenging authors to break moulds and more about the reader searching for reasons to pan -- not the book -- but author for not yielding to reader's real-world social concerns. If all authors heeded the hue and cry, there would never be another smart Asian, gay designer, or fat white villain shaped by words on a page.  That would be a pity, because every person has many relationships with all sorts of stereotypes -- good, bad, or gloriously tumultuous. Authors count on those relationships -- on those instant and visceral emotional bonds -- to hook the reader. Naturally, a writer can develop a character beyond the stereotype if it suits the plot or they can belabor the stereotype because the character development is happening in the surrounding cast as a result of the lack of change. Still with me? All right, I said I'd let this be the short version. Super short version is that stereotypes are functional and should not be feared.

And so, dear readers, there you have my opinions on transgressions real and over-hyped. Agree? Disagree? Out hunting for the perfect hangin' tree?

Dialogue and Accents - Don't Be the Monkey with the Bazooka

This is one of the magic wands I'll be handing out at the RT Booklovers Convention next week. They arose out of a post I did recently on my personal blog, about how I've become the Fairy Godmother of Good Sex.

I think they turned out pretty cool.

This week's topic is Dialogue: Accents/Slang/Stereotypes.

I think it's interesting that whichever Word Whore came up with this topic added "stereotypes" to the list. Because, while dialogue can be what lifts your story from boring, blank telling, stereotypes are what can make the reader throw the book across the room (even more dire today, with expensive eReaders involved) in frustration.

It's important to remember that the key component of dialogue is the "dia" part, as in two. Can be more, but you need at least two voices to have a dialogue. This is as opposed to the rest of the story, which is essentially a monologue. It's a monologue that might move from the omniscient narrator to the various POVs (points of view) of the characters. But, unless you have two or more entities talking to each other, it's all monologue.

Automatically, you can see why dialogue is higher energy, right?

It's interaction. You can explain things without sounding explainy. Dialogue reveals who the characters are and want they want - both by what the say and what they don't say. The spoken word also adds volumes to show where they come from.

We all know this. Where we come from influences how we speak. Language, first and foremost. Then accent. Then slang and word choice. Do you come from a place where they say soda, pop or Coke? How about creek or crick? Maybe kai-ote instead of kai-oh-te? There's even the famous song, you say po-tay-to, I say po-tah-to - let's call the whole thing off.

A good writer can weave all sorts of subtle cues about character into their spoken voice. How educated is she? How did that backwoods grandmother who raised him influence his word choice? What cadence do they use?

For all of this, it takes a good ear for the spoken word. Eavesdropping is a fabulous way to learn. I sometimes think writers who come from a theater background have an advantage here, because they've studied speech patterns. Having studied other languages helps, too. For example, a native English speaker says:

"I am sad" or "I feel sad."

Whereas a French speaker says (in translation):

"I have sadness."

So, even if your native French speaker is talking in English, she might reflexively frame feelings in terms of having them, rather than being them. This can be a terrific way to show character. Or, your native English speaker might have extensive counseling experience and thus he's more likely to explain himself as "I feel sad," instead of being sad.

Does this sound like a lot of work? It doesn't have to be. If you have a sense of how your character speaks, you should be able to hear them in your head. If this isn't the case, go find someone who's like your character and talk to them. Even on the internet, the way people phrase communications in casual conversations reflects how the speak. Finally, a little goes a long way.

And this is where we come to accent and stereotype.

Okay, you've all read a book where the accent killed you, right? If you haven't, you're lucky. But every once in a while, some tremendously earnest (and likely over-researched) author, will render a character's voice in all it's ungodly misspellings, anachronisms and slang. Thus you get something like"

"Aye, dere! 'En aren' ye ah bonny, wee lassie?"

After one line of this kind of thing, your head aches. Before half a page goes by, you're ready to throw that expensive eReader across the room.

Okay, okay - I know some of you are ready to hurl examples at me of authors who do this really well. Once you sink into the cadence and unusual words, you do just fine. Reading Shakespeare or books in Old English can be like this, and some modern authors CAN replicate this experience convincingly.

But, really, people - unless this is absolutely Your Thing, is it worth it? You can convey a Scottish accent with cadence and a VERY occasional "lass" or "aye." I also believe this is better because, unless you truly are an expert in that language/accent/slang background, you run the extremely grave risk of Stereotyping.

See above. Obviously I reeled off that line for a supposedly Scottish character, but how did I create it? I thought of every stereotypical, cliche word, phrase and phonetic spelling I could and jammed them all into one sentence.

I don't have to explain the problem here, do I?

Okay, maybe for the Branlis in the audience, I should. ;-)

By thinking about the language and how to cram the maximum amount of accent in there, I failed to remain faithful to THAT CHARACTER. I didn't write something my character would say - I wrote something I thought a stereotypical Scot might say. A possibly deranged Scot, totally unrecognizable to anyone who's ever talked to people from Scotland.

I took a great tool and used it badly, without finesse. Like the old adage of handing a monkey a bazooka. If you have something powerful, use it well and use it wisely.