The When, Why, and How of Writing Dialects

By Koshka

While accents may be necessary for those mysterious side characters and to portray the complexity of our fantastic worlds, they also have a tendency to make dialogue difficult or even unintelligible.

We hand our beautifully written manuscript over to some unsuspecting reader who stares at the sheet in half bewilderment, half hypnosis. From their lips spring the dreaded words, "Is this Latin?"

We spend the next few days weeping at our computer, not sure if there is a way to salvedge the dialogue we have loved for so long.

This article will help you avoid such anguish by sharing what I have learned from this horrifying experience. 

Of course, there are many ways to write dialects from nothing more than an offhanded mention, to a full, twenty-page glossary. Here I present how to write a defined dialect without an appendix.

First, let's establish something.

What is your purpose?

Why are you writing a dialect? Is it an integral part of your world building such as Elvish in The Lord of the Rings?

Are you trying to amuse your reader like S. D. Smith did through Dr. Ziegler's confusing speech? 

Could you be referring to some questionable past as with Halt's soft bur in The Ranger's Apprentice?

Or are you pushing a deeper motive, like George MacDonald was in filling Sir Gibbie with Scots so he could portray his home country in a more favorable light?

Whatever your purpose, it needs to be settled before you develop your character's dialect, as everything from how you write it, to what type you will use depends on why you are doing this in the first place.

Take a moment to think this through before moving on.

Don't go too far…

Using complex accents and dialects in writing may add that deeper touch we were looking for, but they tend be difficult for some readers to understand, or even form dread of that character's lines.

Sometimes the best course of action is simply stating this character has an accent without writing the entire dialect. You don't want your reader skipping over dialogue and certainly not forming grudges.

Before You Write

Be familiar with your dialect.

If you are using a real language, listen to it as much as possible. There are quite a few free apps such as Duolingo which will give you a basic understanding of the dialect.

If you can't find something else, even Google translate will at least help you recognize sounds and usage.

If your character's accent is fictional, it may be helpful to record yourself or someone else speaking in it. Later, you can go through the recordings and pick out what parts you like best.

Both of these will give you a feel for how your character should sound even if his or her language is not actually spoken anywhere outside of their world.

Make a pronunciation guide.

Once you have learned as much about your character's dialect as you can, start preparing for when you have to write in it. 

And some of the best tools I've used are pronunciation or transliteration guides. These will keep you consistent and accurate while maintaining fluency in your writing.

You can make a writing guide by simplifying charts such as the ones from https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/roman.html , but I've found that these are better used for reference, not as guides themselves, as they were intended for scholars, not authors.

Start by pinpointing substitute sounds such as 'Ve' instead of 'Wh', or E's for I's. Write them down in a double column with the proper sound on one side and the substitute on the other.

Next, look for implied stress. Does there seem to be an over abundance of hard consonants? Do the vowels slide into each other? Are there sounds that don't appear at all? Take notes next to the column.

Now you have your basic guide to conquering any dialect, but what do you do when it's time to write?

As You Write

Introduce the dialect.

When you first introduce your character, it's usually a good idea to lightly describe their accent as you would a voice. This notifies the reader that something's different and builds the character. 

If none of your characters notice anything unusual, the scene may feel unnatural, especially if no one speaks a similar dialect anywhere nearby.

It need not be long. Something short like 'Oswyn could hardly understand her lilt' or 'His R's kept rolling off his tongue' will suffice when something longer may cause a breakup in your dialogue.

Writing the dialogue.

Begin by writing out the scene's dialogue as you normally would. Then come back and work in the dialect by swapping out letters.

Here's where that guide we made earlier comes in. As you move along a statement, change out those substitute letters and remove missing ones.

Example: "I hate patching that thing." Becomes;

"I 'ate patching zat fing."

Don't go overboard. Just as you don't need to show every detail for your reader to see, you don't need to swap every word for them to hear. Your reader needs a feel for how it sounds, not a full transliteration.

Example:"An Oy ne'er tho't o' that," is better replaced with"An Oy never thought o' that."

Try to avoid using real words unless otherwise necessary. For instance, writing the word Think as Sink may be correct with your chart but will confuse the reader.

However, if your purpose was to confuse, such as in the main character's first brush up with foreign speech, then by all means use contradicting words and overstressed syllables. These are mere tools for the pen.

Have fun, be creative! You know your character's voice better than anyone else. Let your pen fly!

Some Things to Remember

Conclusion

You now have a guide to traverse the somewhat rocky roads of character dialects. Hopefully this article will inspire you to write accents which sing from the pages, And may the King guide your pen.

Who knows? Maybe your next book will be in Latin.

Did you find this article helpful? Have you found other ways to help with dialects? Feel free to share in the comments.