Writing in an accent/dialect

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Writing in an accent/dialect

Just one question......

Can anybody imagine reading, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' or 'The Help' written in Queens English?

 

Dunno wot 'appened 'ere. Pushed the wrong bu-on or sumfink I spose.

 

Dialect is a tricky one isn't it. So easy to do badly and hard to maintain but crucial to characterisation. Celt always comes to mind when I think of good dialect use. I am not brave enough to tackle it with much commitment. Both of those novels were strong based on effective use of dialect. I love your dog photo Ed. 

 

I was going to use the same example as vera - celticman is really good at it. If it's done well it shouldn't be a chore to read - constantly trying to sound out things in ones head instead of being engrossed in the writing, and it is really hard to achieve that. Less is more.

 

It is tricky, but I think under certain circumstances it is necessary to try.

Yes Celt is good at it. Having spend several months working in East Kilbride some years ago it took me a while to learn the language, it would take a brave (or daft) man to try to write all the Glasgow expressions in print phonetically. (much more diffcult than CRS wink)

 

It can work in novels too. I'm reading Marlon James's Brief History of Seven Killings at the moment and a lot of it is written in Jamaican 'yardie'. It kind of works. But the best example I think is Peter Carey's True History of the Kelly Gang. A lot of other attempts have fallen by the wayside. So, when done well, it works. When done badly, it's a disaster. It's certainly a high risk strategy.

 

I have just finished Sanjeev Serota's Runaways. Written in standard English but with dialect words in the dialogue. Not too brain-twisting to understand and yet we get lifted inside the characters' heads a little more. Agree about CM being good, of course. Trainspotting is a dialect classic, also The Color Purple.