When writing a book with characters that speak foreign accents, is it required to "write in" the accents?

Question

One book I have planned to write is about a romance between a young Scottish minister and a British schoolteacher in the late 19th cen. England. I spent a little bit of time listening to Scottish folk speak and such and I'm wondering...

...is it possible to phonetically "write in" the Scottish accent? The reader will already know that some characters are from Scotland, so should that be enough?

Thanks for your help; it is much appreciated. Maybe you might get the first signed copy when it comes out....LOL.

Answer 1

PUBLISHERS HATE DIALECTS.

Having said that, I suggest you use a little Scottish slang and a few words to remind readers the character is Scottish. You also need to decide uneducated versus educated. Same thing with the British character.

It's fairly easy to convey a sense of character through choice of words. Dialect is VERY hard to read and even harder to get right. Modern publishers don't want to mess with it.

Oh, here's a clue on pacing. When you want to speed up the action, have short sentences. When you want to slow it down, go with long sentences.

Answer 2

It all depends on your style.

Some authors just say that someone is speaking with a Scottish accent and leave it at that. Others use a bit of accenting and misspelling to get a brogue that sounds right to them. I would suggest you do whichever you're comfortable with.

One thing I would advise AGAINST though is accenting to the point that it interferes with easy reading. Perhaps the best thing to do if you really want to demonstrate the accent is to start hard to establish it, then slowly phase out most of your modifications - readers will have the right tone established in their minds and probably won't notice the subtle changes you've made as they go on (that's what I often do).

Just remember - it's paper, not stone. If you don't like it, you can erase it and change it later!

Answer 3

I suggest that you do whatever is necessary to foster the illusion of reality and desist from anything that would be contrary to that process. In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eyes she wanted to capture the sentiment of a child while using vocabulary that is beyond most adults. You might argue that her word choice is not that of a child and thus here writing is unrealistic but she did that so that she could achieve her greater goal which was, I think, to capture the depiction of a child's mind and innocence that is harmed in a prejudicial world and that had to come at the cost of the believability of the language that she used. In daily life we always prioritize one thing over another for a greater good and as a writer that seems particularly germane. I suggest that you read a given chapter aloud to yourself and observe as a reader of it if you have made it believable or devoted so much time to capturing an accent that the whole story suffers as a consequence.

Answer 4

in the 80's and 90's there was a rage in Scotland for writing characters with Scottish accents that started with James Kelman, and as far as I can tell peaked with Irvine Welsh's book Trainspotting (which also had the movie made of it). if you want to see this technique done really well you should read Trainspotting. if you read it out loud you WILL have a Scottish accent.
but it is by no means necessary to write these accents into your story. I wouldn't recommend doing it unless you're really spot on with the accent, otherwise it can seem contrived and distracting.

Answer 5

Actually, in all the courses on creative writing I have taken, professors discouraged me from writing in dialect and recommended allusion to the presence of dialect through the language. If you learn enough Scottish slang (without overdoing it,) you could intersperse it cleverly through the dialogue to give the reader the impression of the accent's presence. If your readers are familiar with the brogue, they will already read into it without the aid of the phoentic dialect spelling it out for them. It's the same thing with any kind of dialect. Borrow from the slang terminology in moderation (unless you're making a point,) but be careful of making the words seem foreign to your readers.

Answer 6

It's common in many of the books I've read, but not necessary. Just say they're Scottish and English and anybody who knows what Scottish and English accents sound like will fill them in.

Answer 7

Often a writer will just use italics to indicate an accent. (the readers can guess from context which one) In the case of Scottish there are several interesting idioms and little vocabulary and spelling cues that can give the the feel of the language. If you throw in a few of these 'Scottish' words then the reader will get the idea. (eg. 'loch' instead of 'lake', 'ben' instead of 'mountain', 'aye' instead of 'yes', 'laird' instead of 'lord' etc)

Answer 8

Please don't try to write accents. It is very hard for even a professional writer, and it doesn't wear well. If you want to see what I mean, get a copy of Joel Chandler Harris "Uncle Remus Stories". Harris wrote for the Atlanta Constitution and understood Southern Black speech in the early 20th Century. In the 1930's my father read it easily and with meaning to me. Now I can only read it with difficulty. BUT if you must try a little Scottish dialog read a bit of Robert Burns poetry, and stick with only a very few of these colloquial words.

Answer 9

Include words that irish people would use in their dialect and the same goes for the british character. But whne you inroduce the characters, letting the readers know what nationality they are is uaully good enough to let their imagination provide the accent.

Answer 10

Of course it is possible to write in a Scottish accent. Read Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and you'll understand what I mean.