\nOn Feb 9, 2012, writeforfun wrote, I\u2019m from Indiana. I\u2019ve read a tiny bit of \u201cthe Hoosier Schoolmaster,\u201d which is supposedly written with Hoosier dialect, and it doesn\u2019t seem all that abnormal to me. I\u2019ve read other books, even modern ones, that are a little harder to understand because I\u2019m not used to the expressions they use.<\/i>
\n I write my characters\u2019 dialogue as though they\u2019re ordinary people, so I use ordinary words, like \u201cpretty big,\u201d \u201cyou guys,\u201d \u201cgonna,\u201d \u201canyhow,\u201d etc., in their conversations even though they aren\u2019t standard.<\/i>
\n The problem: Most of my characters aren\u2019t from Indiana, or even the Midwest! Is any of that considered \u201cdialect,\u201d and am I using too much of it? I\u2019ve never noticed if I talk any different from people anywhere else in the country, but I must, right? I want the dialogue to seem real, but I don\u2019t want to be unclear. Should I stop using substandard expressions in their dialogue, or do you think there isn\u2019t any difference? Or should I try to figure out what words are used in other areas of the country \u2013 and the world?<\/i><\/p>\n
Later writeforfun added, I think I’m just a little paranoid because I’ve never left the state, so I have to go on what other people say, and those I’ve talked to who have traveled always insist that we’re very different from other areas of the country. And I remember reading a book series that was written by a British person, and I was baffled by some of the expressions he used.<\/i><\/p>\n
And the next day E. S. Ivy posted this comment: @ writeforfun – I’m from Texas and we use all those expressions too. But, we do have a few that are different. I started thinking about this when I wanted to write a character with a Southern accent; I found it’s very tricky to do! So one thing I’ve started doing is keeping a list of things we say that I think others don’t. Things such as we say “fixin’ to..” instead of “about to” as in “I’m fixin’ to go to the store.”<\/i>
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\n Even if you have never gone out of the state, the fact that you read a lot (and likely watch tv!) probably means you have a pretty good idea of how people talk all over.<\/i>
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\n If you want to write a dialect on purpose, one of the best tips I’ve heard… is that it’s not necessarily writing how the words are pronounced, but in the order your words are said. Writing a different spelling can be distracting, such as I just wrote “fixin'” instead of “fixing.” You might consider using words like “gonna” for only one distinct character.<\/i><\/p>\n
I\u2019m with E. S. Ivy on word order, a great tip, and also on non-standard spelling, which I\u2019m not crazy about. I see gonna<\/i> and the like routinely in screenplays, where I think it\u2019s fine because the spelling is meant to inform an actor about pronunciation and the audience will never see it.<\/p>\n
Going to<\/i> may seem formal as opposed to gonna<\/i>, likewise fixing<\/i> rather than fixin\u2019<\/i>. But if you establish the tone of a character\u2019s speech, the reader will infer the colloquial form, as in this snippet of dialogue:<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle Piggy, what ever are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy, I\u2019m fixing to head on over to the Hair of Your Chinny Chin Chin barber shop, and once I get there, I\u2019m going to fetch my brother home.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not Southern, and a genuine Southerner might do better, but I hope you get the feel of this. Without the regionalism, Little Piggy might say, \u201cI\u2019m about to leave for the Hair of Your Chinny Chin Chin barber shop to bring my brother home.\u201d Or a different kind of character might answer, \u201cMy intention is to sally forth to the quaintly named Hair of Your Chinny Chin Chin barber shop to persuade my brother to return to the family domicile.\u201d<\/p>\n
English is marvelous in the choices it offers! I picked family domicile<\/i> after considering ancestral abode<\/i>. But there are other possibilities for each word. For family<\/i> I could have gone with clan<\/i> or hereditary<\/i> or, my desktop thesaurus says, patrimonial<\/i>, and I\u2019m sure you can think of other options. Same with domicile<\/i>. They\u2019re not all direct synonyms for one another; shades of meaning differ, and the shades you select will color your prose.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all in the writer\u2019s voice and the character\u2019s voice, which I wrote about in a post in September of 2010 and in a chapter in Writing Magic<\/i>, both of which you might like to look at.<\/p>\n
As for representing a region, naturally not everyone in a certain place sounds the same. I often listen to talk shows that beam out of New York City. Some people who call in sound like caricatures of a Noo Yawka or a Long Gislander (hard G, if you haven\u2019t experienced this). In others the accent is faint. I like to think my own is faint but I hear it loud and clear when I\u2019m traveling.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure what expressions, as opposed to accent, signify New York. Well, here\u2019s one: if you don\u2019t live in Manhattan but you do live in one of the outer boroughs, going to Manhattan is called going to \u201cthe city,\u201d even though these residents are already in the city. And I just googled \u201cNew York dialect,\u201d and Wikipedia reminded me that people in the city stand \u201con line\u201d rather than \u201cin line,\u201d which is absolutely true. There were other New York dialect sites that I didn\u2019t investigate.<\/p>\n
And I googled \u201cHoosier dialect,\u201d and found an interesting blog that said that Hoosiers say they\u2019re \u201chalf-tempted\u201d to do something. Writeforfun, or anyone else, is this true?<\/p>\n
So if you want to represent a region, I suggest you google it. But don\u2019t believe everything you read. Go through a few entries for confirmation.<\/p>\n
Also, and this is fun, try reading whatever you\u2019ve written in a fake accent. If you\u2019re not British, read a paragraph in a British accent. Then try Irish, Australian, Jamaican, Southern, New York, whatever you can. You may discover that the authenticity will be strengthened if you add a word or change the word order. See what happens.<\/p>\n
Here are the week’s prompts:<\/p>\n
\u2219 In my fantasies I\u2019ve given characters accents but I\u2019ve never tried an entire dialect. It\u2019s a great idea, and I want to do it, so look for it in a future book. You can try it now. Your main character, Wendlyn, is behind enemy lines, a spy in the land of the Ruille people. She\u2019s been taught their dialect, but she\u2019s not comfortable with it. Write her conversation with two suspicious natives.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Pick a paragraph in a favorite book and rewrite it at least three ways using different word choice. Change the tone of the passage with your revisions.<\/p>\n
\u2219 Find a section of dialogue in a favorite book or in one of your stories and regionalize it. Turn it Texan or Canadian or Californian or more than one. Use Google or some other search engine for help.<\/p>\n
Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Feb 9, 2012, writeforfun wrote, I\u2019m from Indiana. I\u2019ve read a tiny bit of \u201cthe Hoosier Schoolmaster,\u201d which is supposedly written with Hoosier dialect, and it doesn\u2019t seem all that abnormal to me. I\u2019ve read other books, even modern ones, that are a little harder to understand because I\u2019m not used to the expressions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}