Thread: Writing Accents?

Hi guys, wow long time since I've posted

So I'm working on a script, and I have some characters from all over the world. Irish, American, British, Armenian, Australian etc.

Anyway, my question is: Do you "write" the accents of these characters into the script? Or do you explain where they are from and just write the dialogue as normal?

I guess I mean do you write character dialogue as it will be said?

Eg. For my Irish character, do I write:

"Lissen 'ere lad. When me mam and pap were raisin' me as a youngun', 'twas never me place to question the rules they laid. But make no mistakin', never did I 'esitate to push me interpretation of said rules."

Please don't critique the sentence - I literally just made it up now as an example. My point is - do I write accents like that? Or do I just write it in plain/standard english and use the notes/make aware that the character is Irish as "leave it to the imagination of the reader"?

Sure and ye’ll be makin’ a blatherin’ mess of it, if you try doin’ dat.

Based on critiques I’d been given when I attempted the same thing - admittedly in prose, but the principle should be the same - and based on what I’ve read elsewhere, it’s a very difficult thing to pull off successfully. It takes a lot of learning, and a lot of practice.

I’ve also heard it said - about the Scottish accent, reproduced in prose, as in Taggart - that it slows the non-Scots reader right down, while they translate it all. That type of thing is a death knell for a novel. Maybe that applies to scripts too.

Overall, it’s probably better to leave accents out.

It even takes some thinking for me to reproduce the Queensland accent in writing, and I speak that one all day and every day, eh.

I love the Queensland accent. When I was living in Australia, I was working for a Queensland farmer, who one day didn't answer my phone call. The next day, he apologised - 'Sorry mate, I was driving, eh.'
'No problem, so it's illegal to use the phone whilst driving over here too huh?' I replied.
'No idea mate, but I had my beer in the other hand and couldn't just let go of the wheel, eh'.

Love it..

Irish people do not speak like that. Ever. Write them like normal people. We're not fuckin' little leprechauns that go around saying "Top o' the morning to ya!". Just say they're Irish and leave the rest to the reader. Anyone outside of Ireland trying to write an Irish accent has about as much chance as I have of being the next president. That's because there isn't one universally-Irish accent. There's thirty-two counties and each one has about a hundred accents.

Sorry if I'm being harsh, but I can't stand generalised Irish accents.

It just depends.

Sometimes it's enough enough to say what accent a character has and leave it at that. However, if your character's from a region where people have a certain way of speaking (syntax, vocab, etc), then it's only true to write them that way.

Your characters should be described clearly within the screenplay, including appearance, accent, etc. Your job is to write good dialogue, including any regional slang. Just be careful not to over do that aspect or you may find your characters becoming caricatures or stereotypes.

I agree with the other responses here: don't try to write the accents. Especially with a script. Let the actors bring the accents to life!

In the play I'm working on, I just noted that one character speaks with a slight Cuban accent, and another with a slight Colombian accent. The actors have to take it from there.

I think it's fine to have a character speak another language than English, though. I use Spanish sparingly in my play, so an English speaker can always follow it.

However, an extreme example of this is the current production of West Side Story on Broadway. Half the play is in Spanish now! I love that--I mean, come on, why would the Puerto Rican Sharks be speaking English among themselves? (Ok, they probably wouldn't break into song and dance either, but we'll leave that detail alone.) Most reviews I've seen are positive, and the bilingual aspect hasn't hurt ticket sales.

I have to admit, I do tend to cringe when I see local words/terms/pronunciations on the written page. It is just so hard to do well. And might mean very little to most of the readers anyway. So definitely, DON'T!

when writing a script, all you need do is indicate when the character is introduced [and/or as a wrylie when he first speaks], that he speaks with such and such an accent... it's then up to the actor and the director, to turn your 'normal' dialog into the accented version...

what you can and should do, however, is be sure you use the syntax that a person with such an accent would use... this is especially important if the person's native tongue is not english, since other languages form sentences differently than we do in english and the person would be most likely to keep to that sentence structure even when speaking in english... you can see what i mean by studying the best scripts that feature foreign characters...