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Originally Posted by tshiggins
I enjoy reading these, but as someone who grew up with a southern (Appalachian) accent, some of the things that Taylor says come across as a bit... jarring.
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I suppose I ought to expect that.
Please point out things I should stop doing and, by all means, words and phrasings I can put in to evoke the correct feel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
Not that I'm really criticizing. As far as southern accents go, yours is probably much better than my Icelandic one, but there are a few things that stand out as a bit odd.
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Well, I wouldn't want to set the bar too low. An accent better than someone who doesn't speak a language at all is no feat. Even if I never visited the Deep South and the closest I've got to Alabama is a half day spent in northern Florida almost three decades ago, I at least speak English and ought to be able to figure out regional dialects.
Mind you, Chase Taylor doesn't
just have a Southern accent, though. His speech is ungrammatical, excessively drawled and archaic to the point that
other Alabama high-school students would mock him for sounding like a dumb hick redneck.
Cherry Bell ought to have a Southern (North Carolina) accent, but because she doesn't speak like a retarded love-child of Forrest Gump and Gomer Pyle, but makes an effort 'not to sound dumb' (i.e. modifies her native dialect into more generic American diction), it's rarely visible in her written dialogue, except occasionally in choice of words and sentence construction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
Firstly, southerners seldom misuse "is" and "are." In fact, the Alabama accent leans really hard on the "aaahhrr" sound (it's almost an "or"), while other areas sort of drop it in an almost French fashion (Louisiana, in particular, pronounces "are" as "ahh.")
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As noted, mostly going off movies and television, which is probably not the best source. That particular linguistic quirk was prominent in
O Brother, Where Art Thou?, set in 1930s Mississippi, which led me to assume that it might be representative of
truly archaic Deep South vernacular. A particular example would be reform candidate Homer Stokes saying: "
Is you is or is you ain't my constituency?"
In real life, I've heard this particular grammatical quirk among black Americans in Maryland, which at least sounds plausibly linked with archaic Deep South usage. So I, perhaps foolishly, assumed that it was a valid dialectical quirk for someone poorly spoken to the point of Social Stigma: Uneducated*, Distinctive Speech (Alabama Drawl) and Epitome (Southern Redneck).**
*Taylor's way of speaking and his comparative ignorance of computers, smartphones and social media combine to yield a -1 Reaction modifier from typical modern Americans and -2 or worse from hipsters or anyone priding themselves on their modernity.
**From GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
Secondly, I've never heard anybody say, "I's" ("eyes"), except as a contraction of "I was" -- past tense. If it's present-tense, quite a few will say, "I'ma," as in "I'ma walkin' down this hallway."
If using a future tense, they'll usually say, "I'm about ta..." as in, "I'm about ta walk down this hallway," or they'll say, "I'ma fixin' ta..." as in, "I'ma fixin' ta walk down this hallway."
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That's a good point. I think I even used I'ma for Taylor once or twice. I should probably go back and alter any I's into I'ma. Conveys the same poor grammar and sounds more authentic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
In some of the most remote rural areas, they'll say, "I'ma walkin' down this here hallway," or "I'ma fixin' ta walk down this here hallway," and pronounce it as, "I'ma walkin' down this-hyer hallway," or "I'm a fixin' ta walk down this-hyer hallway."
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That sounds good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tshiggins
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Thanks. Do you know of any good sources for written dialogue that suits Alabama, in particular dialect that would lead typical Americans to consider the speaker uneducated and ignorant?
I read Forrest Gump*, but would welcome other suggestions.
Even if I were somehow to magically learn how to distinguish between one Southern accent and another, I'd still need to learn how to convey the difference in print. I strongly suspect that paying attention to grammar, word choice and word order yields better dividends than excessive phonetic reconstruction, but I lack the intuitive sense for these things in Southern speech.
Reading dialogue written by native speakers ought to be a help, at least.
*Incidentally, the book was much worse than the movie. And I never feel that movies are better.