The
Joy of Accent
By
Feath MacKirin
© 2003, Feath MacKirin
here are many
ways to make your characters stand out from the crowd. One of the easiest -- and
hardest -- is to give them an accent. With an accent, or distinctive voice, you
can tell the reader a great deal about your character, without falling into
"telling."
Here is an
example of three people from different backgrounds saying the same thing:
-
"That buzzer wen' off louder than ah huffy sheep; I mashed that button over 'n over 'gain, but it wouldn't be stoppin' for nutin. I figgure the battery was messed up."
-
"The smoke alarm went off loud enough to wake the dead and when I tried poking the little red button, it didn't do nothin'! I suppose the battery was diddling up."
-
"Da alarm bout skart us ens to death, an hitten that bitty button didn't do jack. Guess there was sumpin' wrong wid the battery."
Word choice is
a large part of regional accents. "Mash", "push",
"poke", "punch", "hit"; all mean to push a button.
Swallowing the
end of a word: "nothin'" ... In acting circles, it means you're lazy,
but it also can indicate lack of education. Unless, of course, your characters
are from Boston -- even highly educated people from Boston swallow the end of
their words.
Specific
letters not pronounced: Again, using Boston as an example, the letter R is often
not said. "Take the caw and pawk it at the drive."
Word choices
for education level: "figure", "guess", "suppose",
"suspect", "deduct", "surmise",
"speculate", "conjecture".
Word choices
for country: Most Europeans cannot tell an American accent from a Canadian. I
tell them to listen for a "eh" (pronounced A) at the end of a
sentence. Most Canadians will pepper their speech with them, while an American
will only do it if asking a question (and then, rarely). And even though the
British and American's both speak English, their word choices clearly show the
differences.
Here is an
example of a Brit and a Yank, saying the same thing:
-
"The geezer in my flat went off, so I lit a fag and thought who to ring."
-
"My apartments water heater broke, so I lit a cigarette and thought who to call."
Can you fake
an accent?
No. You must
know the accent to depict it realistically, unless of course, the entire
language is created by you. If you're not sure what the accent is, what the word
choices are, what the education choices are, you need to research it. Reading
will help. Or you can watch movies with characters from that time or place.
One thing I do
is "listen" to my grandfather. If I want "hick," I think of
how he spoke when he made fun of his roots. I also think how my great
grandmother spoke for a "western" accent. Another great source were
the people I worked with. I also listened to the people at the bus stop, or in
any large congested area. How does a Scotsman say 'river'? (Rrrivrr).
(Englishman (riV-ah), Pakistani (reevah).) Ah, the joys of accent!
How much is
too much?
A good rule of
thumb is the more words that are 'accented' the less your characters say. It can
become fatiguing for a reader to wade through a large section of accented
dialogue. Once you've set the 'voice' of your character in your readers mind,
you can tone it down a bit, and the reader will still 'hear' the accent. Word
choice can still help, as well, by setting the tone.
Getting the
accent right can be difficult, but once you do, you will find your character has
greatly improved. We are a reflection of where we live, who we learned our
language skills from, what our education is and our intelligence. It's all there
in our speech; all you have to do is ... listen to the accent.