Thing is, I came across this entry on Kel's blog, and it got me thinking.
I actually tried to do a couple of lines of Cockney in my NaNo novel for one of the lesser characters.
Kel's plaintive request that no aitches be dropped, however, has made me remember the first time I read a Dorothy L. Sayers novel in the original English. I was actually thankful that I'd read it in Danish before; this meant that I knew beforehand what the dialogue was about and could concentrate on understanding the language.
So now I'm just going to make sure the reader knows my character is London born and raised the first time he opens his mouth.
The experience has taught me that accents can be incredibly hard to write - which makes me slightly more sympathetic towards those writers who can't pull it off properly - but only slightly - couldn't those people just realise the limits of their abilities rather than inflict them upon us all?
Little rant there. Feels good.
Kel: thanks for the inspiration.
The Radiant Future! (Of 1995)
1 week ago
7 comments:
Ah! Dorothy L. Sayers!
I love her work so much, but I still can't make it through The Five Red Herrings because of the Scottish dialect. Jeepers!
Not that dialect isn't sometimes necessary, or always a bad thing. In fact (here comes shameless plug #1267646) I use a little of it myself in Waiting for Spring when my character is purposely exaggerating her Maine accent to irritate an out of stater. But it's only one line, and I was careful (I hope) not to overdo it.
I was raised on Agatha Christie, and didn't pick up a Dorothy L. Sayers until I was nineteen or so. After reading the first one ('Murder must Advertise' - random choice at the library) I was all "BABY, where have you BEEN all my life!" Sayers' characters are just so three-dimensional and vibrant compared to Christie's.
Oh, I so agree! And 'Murder Must Advertise' is one of my favorites by her. Although I must admit to having a soft spot for the Harriet Vane/Wimsey romance. I actually think it's more the feminist angle than the romance angle that I love about their story, come to think of it. And 'Gaudy Night' is brilliant stuff..so ahead of its time.
'Gaudy Night' is my favourite. For, as you say, several reasons (and mine are pretty much the same as yours, I think).
Accent and dialect can be a problem for native speakers as well. I sometimes write pieces in the dialect of Somerset and it is realy difficult for people who are not from that county to undersand it. Using non-English dialect, for an English writer, can be fraught with problems too. In a story I have been working on I have needed to use Dutch, specifically Amsterdams, dialect. Luckily I had the advice of a person born and brought up in Amsterdam, otherwise some of it would have ended up being quite obscene!!
Obscene perhaps, but could still be a very interesting read ;-P
Hilarious actually, as some of it would not have made sense in the context. It would have been like Tourette's Syndrome on paper!!!
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