The use of dialect in fiction

[Angeline]

It's the Culture Thing

Oh Earl I think you are carrying this Englishman act a wee bit too far. I have heard TIT being used as a colloquial expression for IDIOT for most of my life! A common phrase for "I felt like an idiot" - "I felt a right tit."

Harold, as usual, is right. Americans, unless they are learned in English regional dialects (and I would guess there are around three of those, in total, in the continental U.S.), are not familiar with the use of "tit" for "idiot." Nor would the term "right" fot "complete" be familiar.Thus, the response in my hometown to "I felt a right tit" would most likely be "Whose?"

 

[SlickTony]

I liked it fine, Alex. But then I am also a bit of an accent slut; I married the first time out of the country and after I got back to the states, I saw a good bit of action with foreign students before I settled down with my present husband, who interestingly enough, had cultivated an I'm-from-nowhere TV anchor's accent before I met him, although all the TV work he did was in operations and not before mike or camera.

I had no trouble in following the dialect, but then I have always been a heavy reader of historical novels, and furthermore one of the FSWs where I work is a Scot and if I can transcribe something spoken in her brogue, reading Geordie isn't going to seriously discommode me.

I also liked the part where Jenny reached down between herself and Tom and stroked her clit in order to really get off. This is one of these open secrets that is quite usual in life but tends to get glossed over in literature.

 

[BigTexan]

The only question that remains, BT, is what you would do to make you look like a man's tit

Well for starters, I'd have to lose about 180 pounds (American weight, not British money)



BigTexan

 

[TheEarl]

BT: Losing £180 to the right kind of girl, could certainly end up with you feeling a right tit.

More double-entendres than a Bond film.

The Earl

 

[jon.hayworth]

Well I did stir up a Hornet's Nest.

Let me answer my critics in turn -

1st off WH - Tit v Twit - this probably brings into play another factor of English as it is spoken, the class system (that as you will know affects nearly every aspect of life in England) Tit is a working class usage. Twit would be more common amongst the upper-middle class.

2nd Angeline - I would multiply your guess by a minimum of 3 aand say there are aprox 9 distinct regional dialects -
"Estuary" around London and the counties surrounding London:
"West Country" Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset (known within BBC casting as Mummesetshire):
"West of England" Bristol, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire:
"Anglian" Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Huntingdon:
"East Midlands" Northants, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire:
"Midlands" Warwickshire, South Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire:
"Brum" Birmingham, Walsall:
"Black Country" Towns just north of Birmingham:
"Shropshire" is distinctive due to being on the Welsh border:
"Scouse" Liverpool, parts of Cheshire, Warrington:
"Lancastrian" Lancashire and remainder of Cheshire:
"Cumbrian" includes parts of Northumbria
"Yorkshire" Yorkshire and Humberside:
"Geordie" Tyneside (Alex will scream at this loose use of the term - strictly speaking Newcastle on Tyne)

There I shocked myself and many including myself will disagree with my large grouping under "West Country" - in Cornwall alone we have at least 3 distinctive dialects, Devon has about 6 etc. So I have used the very broadest of Categories.

jon

 

[TheEarl]

Jon, I think you'll find Essex is in East Anglia.

The Earl

 

[Natural Born Eros]

Since we're nit-picking, Jon, isn't the black country south-east of Birmingham (Wolverhampton, Kiddeminster, etc)?

 

[Alex De Kok]

jon.hayworth said

"Geordie" Tyneside (Alex will scream at this loose use of the term - strictly speaking Newcastle on Tyne)

No Jon, I forgive you. New Year, peace and love to all mankind.

Thanks everyone, for your contributions to this thread. Like the other good ones, it's taken on a life of its own! Keep up the good work.

Alex

 

[wildsweetone]

i'm catching up slowly

wow what a thread!

sorry, but i'm still having fits of laughing at the being 'knocked up in the morning' comment i love it

dialect is interesting. yes it's possible to write any dialect in any story you like. the trick is i think, how much to write.

in all seriousness, people who do not hear geordie often, are unable to relate to the intonnation used and therefore probably would find it difficult to follow a story using only geordie dialect. (the same goes for the very broad scottish accent, which is hardly understandable when an excited scotsman gets worked up - or so i am led to believe - though anything will rile them, beginning with politics methinks - NO OFFENCE INTENDED! ).

i would respectfully suggest that any dialect used would be preferably 'sprinkled' through a story. keep the narration straight, but use a touch of dialect in the dialogue and enhance it with the story's setting.

having said all that, Alex congratulations dear, you rose to the challenge and suceeded obviously well in proving your ability to write geordie dialect. well done

 

[SlickTony]

The view from the American south

still having fits of laughing at the being 'knocked up in the morning'

Looking back over the circumstances under which my son came into the world, I was forced to conclude that I was probably knocked up in the afternoon.

 

[Dirt Man]

Holy shades of My Fair Lady Batman!!!

In answer to your question about dialect, if it enhances the story then use it, if not delete it. There are many opinions just on whether to put speach into a story or not, and again I say if it enhances the story go for it, if not drop it like a hot potatoe. All of which is what editing is for. Now I congratulate you on writing a story in dialect, but that being the case your readership shrinks correspondingly. And too those that don't or refuse to try to understand it will vote low accordingly so you can't go by votes as a guide to measure how your story is being taken by those who do as just one 1 vote screws up the whole mix. Especially since the voting here is annonymous no matter what people tell you they won't tell you why they voted the way they really did in many cases. While others are perfectly blunt. So my suggestion is do what the story tells you to do to it.


As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man