describe accents?

[foxylady2]

An Irish accent. I live in Ireland myself but having a hard time describing the Southeren Irish accent on the west coast. Have googled but nothing seems to come up all I got for my heroine is

She has a voice that sounds like music with her lifting Irish accents and her voice sounds pleasing and speaks sweetly but when she is stubborn ( weakness ) she mummbles.

Hope I am also in the right forum.Also how would you write an Irish accent down.

 

[AgonySceneGirl]

i describe an irish accent as probably the most sexy sounding accent lol
i live in the northern USA, when we are talking about canadians we make fun of the "whatcha doin there 'eh" kind of thing. lol yeah sounds weird but its some of them talk!
talking about the southern USA, its more like "How about ya trot on down yonder to that there fishin hole and catch us some suppah" rofl. ok now i'm just making fun of them but you get the point lol

 

[moosiedear]

accent

...try googling Irish Dialect insead of accent

 

[SweetErika]

You might add a few written interpretations of how words sound in the dialogue, but otherwise, I'd suggest sticking with something like the description you have above. Remember that most of your readers won't know the difference between Irish accents/dialects, so it will likely be difficult for them to interpret/relate to, and a story can get difficult to read and annoying quite quickly if the author uses phonetic/aural spellings heavy-handedly.

Just be careful, re-read what you've written for fluidity and comprehension with the critical eye of a reader who doesn't know or care about the regional variation, and consider whether whatever you have/are considering will really make a difference to your story and readers.

Description is great, but it's often best to provide a general description and leave the specifics to the imagination of the readers, you know? An example might be "soft, rounded breasts with ample cleavage" vs. "she wore a 38DD" - in the former, the reader gets the picture and can fill in the imagery themselves, and that's a good thing. That's a visual, but the same principle applies to language/dialogue.

Good luck!

 

[Reba67]

Please don't write in the dialect. I had one Scottish story I was trying to read and I basically had to read it aloud to myself to figure out what on earth the characters were saying.

If it's a piece of writing, just put in descriptions of the accent and let your readers do the rest.

 

[emap]

I do believe we had a similar thread last year about a southern accent. What I said in that still stands, show it with word usage and keep the phonetics far far away. I don't know an irish accent, I've never met an irishman who actually talked like an irishman, but for my ease of example, southern accent.

Let's amble on over to the store for some pop.

Obviously I could instead confuse the living daylights out of anyone not living in the south since birth. The above sentence gives you the feel of a southerner, or mainer without confusing anyone. Most people know what amble means, the rest, they got online dictionaries.

It's not needed to sound like an irishman, or southerner or mainer or well anything, you just gotta toss in a word or two that makes people who know think of whichever your going for. If they don't know they will probably think your just talking weird and keep reading.

Do be careful and not include to much accent though, as above except with an added.

Gotta amble on over to the store for some pop for pop.

I've heard and said pretty close to that, most yanks would hear that and be totally lost, we call dad pop and soda pop. Just be careful on how you say what you say, avoid uing two words that sound and spell the same but mean different things, english is confusing enough on it's own without adding in accents.

 

[Mansa Musa]

Irish accent, IMHO, equals an hour of licking pleasure. I love, love love[/i] their voices!

 

[SweetErika]

Irish accent, IMHO, equals an hour of licking pleasure. I love, love love their voices!

IOW, you might say they're magically delicious?



Now I've got that "Lucky Charms" jingle stuck in my head. I wonder if they've used it since the '80s.

 

[Mansa Musa]

IOW, you might say they're magically delicious?

You have no idea. Believe me, you have no idea.

 

[H0LLYW00DxWH0RE]

i have a long island accent...

 

[Paxter]

Well, I have an Irish accent and it has served me well in other countries but not at home, because everyone has one (funny thing that).