My current story’s getting quite long. I had started out hoping it would be about 5000 words long and I’ve already written double that! I knew I should have written something concerning the clocks going back on the same day as Halloween this year, but I could only think of some quite dark plots involving that idea.
Any way I thought given the length and given I’m using a fair bit of dialect in it I thought it might be handy to write a quick guide to Mackem (the dialect of Sunderland, which is of course completely different to Geordie). Obviously it’s not going to be a complete guide more just covering the words I might use in the story, and I’m not saying it’s completely accurate as it’s based on my understanding of the dialect. I’m also sure some words aren’t just North Eastern but I hope it’s of some interest if nothing else, so here goes in no particular order.
Hi, is yes
Ga, is a lazy way of saying gan
Gan, is go and ganin is going
Ham, is home although thinking more about it I think I should have spelt it halm
Nite, is night
Owt, is out, but can also mean “something” as in ‘have you got owt to say’
Nowt, is nothing
Ald, is old
Gadgie, is a man
Wifee, is a woman but there’s sort of sexist overtones to it
Canny, is fine, not bad etc. but it can also mean quite as in ‘describing the meaning of canny is canny hard’
Te, is to but to can also be used depending on the context
Knaw, is know
Hoy, is to throw
Thraw, is throw, and thrawan is thrown
Clarts, is muck
Al, is all
Reet, is right, and alreet, is alright
Me, is my
Us, is me, but can also just mean us as well depending on context
Colars, is colours
Nana, is grandmother
Heed, is head
Na, is no but nee can also be used depending on context
Bairn, is a child
Ya, is you
Like, is a sort of verbal tick
Haway man, is come on you, but it sort of depends on the context it can be used as a form of encouragement or to express disbelief
There’s also a tendency to not say the g in words ending in ing.
Well that’s it for now, looking at the list I can sort of see why my friends at uni claimed they couldn’t understand a word I said for the first month :-)
Comments
Dialect/accent
There is a difference. Dialect covers special words which are either different from so-called standard English or are used differently. Accent is the way in which both standard and dialect English is pronounced. In your case dialect words might be 'bairn', 'hoy' or using 'us' in place of 'me' (quite common in the Nottingham/Derbyshire coalfields too). Accent is things like 'heed' for 'head' 'knaw' for 'know'.
For me written accent/dialect is like the salt of the earth - a little goes a long way. I hate reading fiction supposedly depicting the way I speak and one of my real bugbears is the use of 'oo' by southern writers to depict the way I pronounce the 'u' sound. It's the same as if I wrote 'ap' instead of 'up' to indicate a southern accent. Use dialect and accent sparingly; I'm sure it puts readers off. Just use enough of it to indicate how the character is speaking and no more.
Many years ago I was riding a long distance motor cycle trial which ended in Cornwall and came across another competitor who was a Durham miner. I even remember his name - Gary Cooper :). We Derbyshire lads could barely understand a word he said - even when we asked him to speak more slowly - so I sympathise with your Uni colleagues.
I once spent a week's holiday in Sunderland and several long weekends when we were racing dinghies out of the harbour. Not many people know that :)
Robi
Dialects
I like dialects, and I particularly like reading those of you lot over the pond. I live in the midwest US, and we don't have much of the color that the South or Northeast have. I've lived all over the US, so I'm comfortable using many different dialects (I never lived in the North Eastern states, so those still give me problems. I have enjoyed the dialect you use in your story. I know, maybe I'm weird, but I had no problem. Thanks, though, for the definitions-some of them did surprise me! Now, bring on some more of the story!
Wren
>> color that the South or Northeast have
This depends are where you grew up. I grew up in California, and find the Midwest accent quite distinctive. There are no "neutral" accents, and every local accent is hilariously amusing to someone. Believe it or not, there are people around the USA who find California accents (there are quite a few, if you take the time to listen) peculiarly evocative of a "Left Coast" liberal attitude toward life, despite the fact that California was one of the early centers of activity of the John Birch Society, amongst the furthest to the right amongst anti-Communist and conspiracy-theory groups in US history. John Wayne, that notorious California actor, was an enthusiastic member, as was another California resident, Tom Metzger, who was also Grand Dragon of the California Ku Klux Klan and founded a neo-Nazi White Aryan Resistance group involved in hate crimes against people of whom he disapproved.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Salt
I'm familiar with the accent problem as well as language usage since I'm from the Southern US. More to the point, I did grow up in the backwoods. My accent was so strong when I first joined the Army that it got very frustrating to me. Over the years, I've fought to make myself better understood, but just ask anyone who's chatted with me about how strong it still is.
Writing and trying to get that favor in a story isn't easy. The only story I deliberately wrote trying to get that feel was my Ragnarok County story. I have two versions of it. One on StarDust that has a few words scattered though it usually by specific characters to give them, well, character. The other is posted here at BCTS, and is more Mark Twain like using it though out the story.
The funniest thing that happened to me about accents was in 'The Glade.' It too was set in the South, but I didn't set out to make it sound authentic. I only tried, to listen to my character's voices as they spoke to me, and I used very few words that, to me anyways, that was 'country.' I had all sorts of comments saying how much they liked the southern diction I used. My reaction was, 'Huh?'
I can't say what will work for you, but my advice is to use what you're comfortable with. Perhaps having certain characters use regional words which will give them some color and help the reader decipher their meaning with the same words associated with that character. The other thing is try not to force the usage. Sometimes the order of the words is good enough to supply your meaning. God knows so much of the South spoken grammar has given English teachers ulcers for years!
Good Luck!
Hugs!
Grover
Mark Twain...
...is a problematic model, as even his staunchest admirers have a bone to pick with the end of Huckleberry Finn, in which novel he first makes extensive use of dialect both for social commentary, but also for "comic" purposes. Although Twain had strong feelings about social justice, and was a supporter of the rights of "Negro" citizens of the USA, he was also a commercial writer, and the end of Huckleberry Finn is low comedy in the "minstrel show" style at the expense of Jim's full humanity. He wanted to make a few humanitarian comments here and there, but he also wanted to make money.
I agree with some of the commentators here, scatter in a few words for "flavour" (whilst at the same time making their meaning clear) and put almost everything else in plain English. These characters aren't talking in "foreign" languages, but in legitimate variations of English, no better nor worse than any other version. If we were natives, they'd sound like natives to us, so the author is responsible for the translation, unless he or she wishes to contribute to the national literature.
The point, however, is that if you have a Russian character they don't spend the whole novel talking in Russian, nor do Italians talk exclusively in Italian, even when talking among themselves, which is undoubtedly contrary to reality, but helps to drive the story forward -- not to mention saving the cost of bound-in Teach Yourself XXX lessons. You throw in a couple of "Nyets" or "Ciao, bellas" to let us know that they talk with an accent, perhaps mention that the particular accent is Neopolitan, or that of the Ukraine, describe any pertinent characteristics, and get on with the story.
Here's a handy resource:
The BBC has a similar collection, but much more limited:
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Accents
I'd be careful with the accents. Unless the story requires it, I don't care very much if a character uses a Sunderland, Liverpool, or Cornish accent. To establish a flavor, an author might mention how an accent differs from some norm, possibly show a short example or two, or use something mild like, "lookin'," instead of "looking," but if it becomes a strain to read, it turns me off.
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
Hyem
...not "ham". In Durham, "thoo" for you, and "yay" or "yee", plural "yees", in Sunderland. The only place I have ever been where 'register' is promounced 'red chester'. Never heard a Mackem say "ham". I refer the esteemed author to my character Jimmy Kerr, exceptionally loosely based on a certain Geordie fiddler,and whe is te be foond in me canny birra tyell "Something to Declare"
I won't go into the fifteen or so meanings that 'canny' has, which are very different to the two uses in Scots. I wrote a short dissertation on that one word once....
:-)
Yeah canny is a bit strange,
Yeah canny is a bit strange, as for hyem that always struck me as been a bit geordie, but then again I never thought I had an accent when I was growing up so I may well have just missed it
Oh well, as I started off using accents and dialect in this story I may as well finish what I started, I mainly wanted to see what it was like writing that way :-) The next story I'm writing seems to be fairly much in standard English, give or take a bit of slang
Regional dialects
My father grew up in a small village in Yorkshire. At age seven, his family moved to Scarborough. He said that his accent was so broad that no one could understand him, they only moved thirty miles! People just didn't move around much before WWII, and peculiar phrasing and pronunciations were amplified in some regions. There was a family in his village, who had moved there one hundred and fifty years before my dad was born, the villagers still called them, "The new people".
In one of my stories, a Russian finds himself in America. At the beginning, I sprinkled a few Russian words in his inner dialog, followed by a translation. I only did it at first to give the reader a taste of what he was thinking. I didn't think it was necessary to do it through the whole story.
Mr. Ram
Thanks for the comments everyone
they've given me something to think about, and it's been interesting to see peoples take on the subject