Insane Dames

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Writing Dialect

by Sue McKlveen

Don't you just hate reading different dialects, where there are so many apostrophes, you lose count? Here's an example:

"He's goin' fishin' 'ere, rightchere, on ze spot 'ere near me foot."

So the guy's going fishing. Wouldn't it be better to explain that the man has a dialect or an accent and then write it something like:

The man's thick brogue made it difficult to understand, but John had spent enough time in the islands to figure it out. It was like a second language to him, translating the sounds to English.

"He's going fishing here, right here, on the spot, here near my foot," the man uttered.

It's almost better to show the different regionalistic sayings than the actual way the words sound. For example, I grew up in Amish country. The people in that area said things like, 'outen the lights', 'red up the room' (that means to clean it), and so on. It gives the illusion of the dialect, yet the reader would understand what's being said without making them stop and think.

If you're writing dialogue for a non-native speaker, instead of showing the sounds, drop the words a non-native would normally drop.

To the reader, a whole book of dialect is awful to read. It slows the pace and thus, the reader will lose interest and give up, which is one of the worst things to happen to a writer.

References:
www.writersdigest.com/archiveitemdisplay.asp?id=884&secondarycategory

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