My grandfather is a man of many stories. One of his favourites takes place when he was young and working in a hotel in the Catskill Mountains in New York. One hotel guest, Mrs. Feldman, an old Jewish lady, would come down to breakfast and order (and he’d put on a proper Yiddish accent for this) “oytmeal middaht milk.”
Did she want her oatmeal without milk, or with hot milk? My grandfather had no idea. He decided to bring oatmeal without milk, and Mrs. Feldman yelled at him.
“I wanted oytmeal middaht milk!”
Written or spoken, this story only works when told with a heavy Yiddish accent. Try saying “middaht milk” out loud—can you tell which one she meant?
When should accents and dialects be used in writing?
I encountered this question in a discussion amongst a group of editors. (What would you call a group of editors? A query of editors? A correction of editors? A dispute? I like “query.” Anyway, back to our scheduled programming.)
This particular question was regarding the use of Scottish accents in a project. How heavily should the dialogue lean into Scottish accents and dialect? Is the accent helpful or distracting? After much thoughtful discussion, our query of editors decided that the best approach was to keep the dialect but lose the accent.
How are dialects different from accents?
As lexico.com explains, accents are the differences in pronunciations of the same words, while dialects include the different vocabulary, punctuation, and sentence structure of the same language within different regions or communities.
For example, Canadian dialect includes words like “eh,” “toque,” “keener,” “mickey,” and “washroom.” Certain words also have different meanings than their US counterparts: “university” and “college” are different things in Canada.
When my British father and American mother first started dating, they ran into a dialect issue when my mum ordered a biscuit with her breakfast.
Dad: “Why would you order a biscuit for breakfast?”
Mum: “Um… I like biscuits?”
Dad: “Me too, but not with my eggs! Why would you eat biscuits with your eggs?”
They went back and forth for quite some time before realizing that my dad thought my mum had ordered a cookie with her eggs.
Accents, on the other hand, can be easily explained with the question “How do you pronounce ‘crayon’?” Cray-on? Cran? Crown? That’s your accent.
Whose accents get singled out? Why?
In my blog post about italics and non-English words, I pointed out that putting non-English words in italics creates a cultural othering unnecessarily. The same is true for spelling out accents.
Would you spell out a British accent phonetically—“My fahtha and muhtha went to mahket”? I doubt it. You’d think it was unnecessary and distracting to the reader. In Western cultures, we tend to think of British English as neutral, or maybe fancy neutral. Same goes for American accents from northern states.
How did we decide what “neutral” English was? Privilege, wealth, and higher access to education.
It’s only “othered” accents that ever get written out phonetically in books. Phonetically written accents are used to show that a character sounds strange or different, that they’re “not from here” or are less educated. And for a writer to assume that their main character, with her posh British accent, has the “normal” or “neutral” accent is inherently privileged.
Back to our original question:
So when should accents be used? Should they ever be written out phonetically? I’d argue that accents should only be used in writing if the character’s accent is important to the story. It would be impossible, for example, for my grandfather’s story to make sense without phonetically writing “middaht.”
Consider why you’re including the accent. Is it just to add flavour? Is it an attempt at diversity? Do you just think it sounds neat? None of those work for me as a reason to write in an accent. If you’re using an accent to highlight a communication issue, you can highlight the word that is misunderstood while leaving the rest in plain text. Or, as Michael Chabon does in The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, you can write “he says in a bad Yiddish accent,” identifying the accent confusion in narration rather than dialogue.
You can include dialects without relying on accents.
In this conversation between editors about dialogue with Scottish accents, we decided to keep any words that were specific to Scottish dialect. We kept “wee bairn” and “didnae” but changed “yer” to “your” and “Ah” to “I.”
If your character is British, you wouldn’t change “jumper” to “sweater” or “trainers” to “sneakers.” Your Canadian character can wear a toque on a cold morning and say “eh?” at the end of a sentence. Your Jewish character can say “Time for a nosh, nu?”
By distinguishing dialects from accents, you can keep your characters’ dialogue culturally accurate without othering them through their accents.
(Important note: if you are writing in a dialect that is not your own, make sure you are being accurate and culturally sensitive!)
Do you need help getting your dialogue right?
Making sure your dialogue is culturally accurate and culturally sensitive can be difficult. You may need a sensitivity reader if the dialect you’re using is not your own, or you might need an editor to help you keep your dialogue smooth, clear, and consistent.
If you need an editor or assistance finding a sensitivity reader, Rookwood Editing is here to help! Get in touch today to make your dialogue the best it can be.