How do you give your characters accents?

[LaRascasse]

Picture this, a character has arrived from St Petersburg. Her English is broken and has a heavy Russian accent. Apart from occasionally sprinkling a Russian in her dialogue and giving her some broken phrases, how do I handle her dialogue? I want to make it so that the reader can hear it the way I can hear it in my head (if that makes sense).

 

[sr71plt]

Sparingly. And it's tricky on the broken English sentences. You really need to know the structure of sentences in both languages to do it well. The sentences aren't really broken; words in the spoken language just aren't coming as quickly they are in the language in the speaker's thoughts, so the mish mash usually still represents where the word would fit in the base language.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I season the speech with markers.

 

[PennLady]

This might help. I did a story with a Russian character, and I took five years of Russian.

First -- Russian does not have definite or indefinite articles, no a, an or the. This is why (I think) you'll hear sentences like "Where is dog?" instead of "Where is the dog?"

Second -- Russian does not have a present tense verb "to be." There is past tense and future but not present. So you can write your sentences like "I going to store," or "He not here right now."

Third -- there are various sounds that Russian has that English doesn't and vice versa. They have no "W" sound, for example, and no "J" sound.

I wouldn't try to write the accent exactly or phonetically. I think if you state she has a Russian accent, and that it's heavy, people will form their own idea. It may not be exactly yours, but it never will be anyway, and it will be what makes sense to them.

If you'd like some Russian words to sprinkle in, let me know. Don't forget that Russian uses a different alphabet and so the words have to be transliterated to render the sounds in English. If you're going to do that, best to be consistent and do it sparingly.

 

[TE999]

You could always watch some 'Rocky and Bullwinkle' reruns and listen to Boris and Natasha.

"Dis bomb vill fix dot interfering moose and skverril, da, Natasha?"

"Da, Boris. Fearless Leader vill tank us for dis; pay us back vages even."

 

[damppanties]

I wouldn't try to transliterate the accent exactly. I think if you state she has a Russian accent, and that it's heavy, people will form their own idea. It may not be exactly yours, but it never will be anyway, and it will be what makes sense to them.

This. With the sub-genre of Indian stories on Lit too, the writing that seems to have a Hinglish or Indian English tone to it isn't rewarded in the ratings, receiving comments about getting an editor and such. So trying to write like a character speaks exactly will not really endear you to your readers, imo.

 

[slyc_willie]

You could always watch some 'Rocky and Bullwinkle' reruns and listen to Boris and Natasha.

"Dis bomb vill fix dot interfering moose and skverril, da, Natasha?"

"Da, Boris. Fearless Leader vill tank us for dis; pay us back vages even."

I used a variation of this style in my Hansel & Gretel retelling, using a lot of apostrophes to indicate broken words and infliction when writing dialogue for my country bumpkin characters. I never had anyone comment with any flack about it, but I've often wondered if there was a better way to do it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

After this thread started I took a peek at Disneys SONG OF THE SOUTH. None of the white players speak Southern.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Picture this, a character has arrived from St Petersburg. Her English is broken and has a heavy Russian accent. Apart from occasionally sprinkling a Russian in her dialogue and giving her some broken phrases, how do I handle her dialogue? I want to make it so that the reader can hear it the way I can hear it in my head (if that makes sense).

My Russian co-worker frequently adds "isn't it?" at the end of statements to convert them into questions: "You're on holiday next week, isn't it?" I pinched that quirk to help establish a Russian-ish character.

 

[PennLady]

My Russian co-worker frequently adds "isn't it?" at the end of statements to convert them into questions: "You're on holiday next week, isn't it?" I pinched that quirk to help establish a Russian-ish character.

I don't know how much you'd want to or could work it in but a lot of Europeans learn British English and have those turns of phrase. It doesn't say "Russian" but it could add a little foreign aspect to it.

I think I might also have had my guy use "Da" and "Nyet" when he spoke, just occasionally.

 

[oggbashan]

Don't overdo it. State that she is Russian and her English isn't good.

A sprinkling of a few sentences that aren't US norms, or 'How you say?' will be enough.

Rudyard Kipling's attempts at 19th Century soldiers' speech is how NOT to do it. He overemphasised their use of non-standard English and ended with dialogue that no one ever spoke.

 

[jomar]

You could always watch some 'Rocky and Bullwinkle' reruns and listen to Boris and Natasha.

"Dis bomb vill fix dot interfering moose and skverril, da, Natasha?"

"Da, Boris. Fearless Leader vill tank us for dis; pay us back vages even."

LOL, I used them on the flashfic thread with the word "envy."

“Envy sneak avay in zeecret, meet undercoover contact and fly to Mooscow for our great revard.”

 

[lovecraft68]

A lot of my stories take place "locally" in RI or Mass.

One of these days I'm tempted to write in the accent.

The Fahm isn't fah from here.

Hey, not for nuttin, but this watah tastes nasty.

Did you just fot?

Yes, the letter R is non existent in RI.

It becomes real fun when someone says "I went to the pawn shop."


They could mean Pawn or Porn and they both sound the same.

 

[Saxon_Hart]

A lot of my stories take place "locally" in RI or Mass.

One of these days I'm tempted to write in the accent.

The Fahm isn't fah from here.

Hey, not for nuttin, but this watah tastes nasty.

Did you just fot?

Yes, the letter R is non existent in RI.

It becomes real fun when someone says "I went to the pawn shop."


They could mean Pawn or Porn and they both sound the same.

King has done the Maine vernacular for years so I don't see why you couldn't.

 

[TE999]

There's also a 'Bahston' accent; "Pahk tha cah in tha yahd behind tha bahn."

 

[lovecraft68]

There's also a 'Bahston' accent; "Pahk tha cah in tha yahd behind tha bahn."

Like the "Brody" routine in the beginning of Jaws?

The Boston accent is very similar to RI except its got more of a nasally pitch to it. It's hard to explain unless you've heard both.

My wife grew up in east Boston and me in RI so we have both and she invited some people over who were in from California and they swore we spoke completely differently, but we can longer hear it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Like the "Brody" routine in the beginning of Jaws?

The Boston accent is very similar to RI except its got more of a nasally pitch to it. It's hard to explain unless you've heard both.

My wife grew up in east Boston and me in RI so we have both and she invited some people over who were in from California and they swore we spoke completely differently, but we can longer hear it.

I know what you mean. One of my sons in law is from RI, and the sound is softer than up in Boston.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There's also a 'Bahston' accent; "Pahk tha cah in tha yahd behind tha bahn."

They also call Cokes TONIC and the water fountain is a BUBBLER.

 

[TE999]

Like the "Brody" routine in the beginning of Jaws?

The Boston accent is very similar to RI except its got more of a nasally pitch to it. It's hard to explain unless you've heard both.

My wife grew up in east Boston and me in RI so we have both and she invited some people over who were in from California and they swore we spoke completely differently, but we can longer hear it.

My mother was born and lived in Providence until she married my father at age 27. She had many friends in both Providence and Boston and they'd kid each other about their respective accents. Even after living in Florida for many years she never lost her RI accent and would become incensed when someone would refer to her as a 'Yankee'.

 

[Ironiclaconic]

I wrote a story with a Russian character and did most of what Penn Lady suggested. I also sprinkled in some challenges with irregular English grammar ("teached" instead of "taught"), slang ("I had a crunch on him"), and screwed up idioms ("easy as pie"). Every late learner of English I have ever met will screw up their idioms until their cows come home to roost.

One last point is that Russians drop about a half octave in tone on the last word of declarative statements, which they take with them when they speak English. It makes them sound world-weary and bored.

Don't try to make it phonetic. It just slows the reader down trying to figure out what the hell they are saying. If you ignore that advice, ignore Chekhov on Star Trek. V is one of the most commonly used letters and sounds in Russian.

 

[SamScribble]

I think that trying to ‘spell’ accents is almost always doomed to fail. Readers don’t read one letter at a time; they read one word at a time – or even one group of words at a time. And to do that they need to recognise each of the words. Immediately.

If a character has a regional accent, or if a character speaks English as a second language, it’s usually easiest to convey this by the character’s choice of words or (as others here have suggested) by applying a toned-down version of the grammar and word order of their original tongue to their quirky-sounding English.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think that trying to ‘spell’ accents is almost always doomed to fail. Readers don’t read one letter at a time; they read one word at a time – or even one group of words at a time. And to do that they need to recognise each of the words. Immediately.

If a character has a regional accent, or if a character speaks English as a second language, it’s usually easiest to convey this by the character’s choice of words or (as others here have suggested) by applying a toned-down version of the grammar and word order of their original tongue to their quirky-sounding English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0j2dVuhr6s

JIVE SPOKEN HERE!

 

[DeYaKen]

first tell the reader.

Picture this, a character has arrived from St Petersburg. Her English is broken and has a heavy Russian accent. Apart from occasionally sprinkling a Russian in her dialogue and giving her some broken phrases, how do I handle her dialogue? I want to make it so that the reader can hear it the way I can hear it in my head (if that makes sense).

It is doubtful that the reader will hear it exactly the way you do. We all have our own idea of what a Russian accent sounds like. In all probability a St Petersburgh accent will be different from a Moscow. My first thought would be to tell the reader (she spoke with a heavy Russian accent) Describe the accent ( melodic, harsh, singsong, etc ) As others have said you can look at the structure of the Russian language and occasionally structure the English the same way.

I noticed, when living in Romania, that people had a tendency to add "I think" when they were expressing an opinion. I used this when writing a Ukranian woman.

Another thing is to look at the way letters or letter combinations are pronounced in the Native language. (i.e. in Polish w is often pronounced as a v hence the name walkowski was pronounced voll-kov-ski) You can use this to add to the accent idea by spelling a word the way you character might pronounce it. However you then run the risk of having the story rejected for poor spelling

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

After reading and considering the ideas showcased on this thread I think I'm gonna do this: Salt the dialogue with words that give-up the ethnicity, nationality, sex, whatever of the speaker. Ya'll get that? Lemme axe you this.


Reminds me of a funny incident in Alabama 50 years ago. We stopped for gas and the kid says to my mom, HOW'S YA'LL? And my mom says, WE'RE JUST FINE, THANK YOU. And the kid says, NO MA'AM, HOWS YA'LL? And she looks at him like he was a dunce, and says, WE'RE ALL JUST FINE, YOUNG MAN! And he repeats his question again. And I say, MOMMA? HE WANTS TO KNOW IF WE NEED OIL.

 

[ishtat]

This might help. I did a story with a Russian character, and I took five years of Russian.

First -- Russian does not have definite or indefinite articles, no a, an or the. This is why (I think) you'll hear sentences like "Where is dog?" instead of "Where is the dog?"

.

I think that some Russians who know a fair bit of English tend to over compensate. For example, we might say "I like hockey," and "I like to go to the hockey." Russians will tend to say the first sentence as "I like the hockey," and find it hard to understand why we include "the" in the one instance but not the other.

If you want to see some of the problems Russians have expressing themselves in English look at one or two of the sites where Russian women advertize for western husbands. The self descriptions will give a good examples.