Advice/Help Typing Accents?

Fangs9090

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So, one thing that almost always appeals to me is when a character has some kind of accent. I'd like to give some characters accents, but frankly I don't have a clue how to do it write. Does anyone know of some kind of guide I could use or something to keep in mind?
 
Tbh I thought this thread was called "Typing Accidents" and I was about to walk in and expect to see people discussing the various misspellings that they always end up making no matter how hard they try to train themselves not to make them. Whoops!
 
Slightky off topic, perhaps, but never forget slang if the accent is specific to an English-speaking culture. It can make all the difference.
 
Dependent on the accent in question, it can be a difficult thing to master, even if you live in the same region your character is from. Like the link suggests, typing an accent must be moderated and carefully crafted, else the sentences you write as speech for your character can look like a complete and utter incomprehensible mess.
It helps if you're familiar with the accent you intend to use as you can study the people who use it and listen for slight intonations etc, but translating those to written word can be a struggle.

Your best guide might be to look up works which already include various accents. Comic books are some of your best sources there.

The only suggestion I will make would be to keep it simple. Don't overdo it. If I were to type every nuance of my own regional accent, it would be illegible (trust me, I've tried), so you have to pick and chose at times which words to accent and which not to. Just keep those specified words constantly accented and you should (hopefully) be onto a winner.

Endearments are helpful too. E.G: Your character speaks a different language, insert certain words from that language into your dialect, so perhaps something along the lines of "This is not what I expected chere." Or "Looks like another long day amigo." And so on and so forth.

You can also just not actually go to the trouble of writing an accent, but instead infer that the character has one, e.g: Instead of writing:
"Nah then, this 'ere thread is becomin' complicated t' understand" (Northern England in case you were wondering)

You could write:
"Now then, this here thread is becoming complicated to understand" Tom spoke, his harsh northern accent cutting every other word into nearly unrecognizable stumps.

Anywho... I hope that made sense... and I hope you found it helpful.

Good luck! :)
 
Generally, don't. Not unless you can do it very subtly. One mistake a lot of writers do is clap on a thick accent that makes it incredibly hard for the reader to muddle through.

State the character's accent, pick one or two words/phrases/ect to be consistent with (I.e. "Gonna" or "don't fash" , and let the reader's imagination work instead.
 
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This is almost off topic, but this reminded me of a character in GTA IV. Can't remember his name, and I'm not gonna guess where he was from, but he had this accent and way of speaking where I couldn't understand most of what he said, and it was both audio and subtitles.
 
Nthing it: don't 'spell out' accents. At least, that's the consensus of every good writer I've heard talk about it. Apart from being painful to read, it's also slightly insulting - you imply that YOUR type of English is the NORMAL kind, and other types of English are so wacky you need to jumble the letters up.

Like -Q- -Q- said, your best bet is doing it with word choice. But make sure you actually know how the words are used in conversation, don't just google 'british slang' and start slamming words in. You can watch documentaries and movies for this if you don't feel comfortable.

Neutral/robot: "Friend, let's go to a tavern to drink. Shiela is there betting on trot races."

Deep rural Australian: "Mate, come down the pub and have a few? Shielz's already there having a punt on the trots."

Annoying as fuck: "MAAAYT, come daaaawn the pab and have a few? Shielzzz awlredy thare having a punt on the trots."


As for people speaking English as a recent second language, there's often characteristic word patterns associated with the grammar of their first language that'll flow through to their use of English. They often also use more words than really necessary, because paring back to the minimum is something that takes a lot of practice to learn. Something they generally DON'T do is splice in random (and incorrect) words from their native language. When they don't know a word they will replace it with a similar word in order to get by, so you can go a long way with using slightly jarring word choices.

French migrant to Australia: "Hey! You want to come eh... buy some drinks with me? Shiela is there already, she is betting on horses I think?"

Annoying as fuck: "Hey! Vous want to come ehhhhhhhhh have drinks with me s'il vous plait? Sheeela is there alreadeeee, parce qu'elle est betting on horses, je pense?"

Also, most contact that non-English speakers have with English is via. Hollywood, so if they use any slang terms at all they're most likely going to be the kind of weird generalised LA slang from movies.
 
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