What is Phonetic Dialogue?

Is it OK to write speech phonetically (phonetic dialogue) to illustrate an accent or lisp?

The answer, as with pretty much everything else, is ‘it depends’.

There is a time and place for differentiating characters based on how they speak – for example to indicate a different social background or level of education. We do need to remember though that absolutely everyone speaks with an accent of some kind. Why pick out one character and use dialogue to indicate their accent, without also doing this to other characters?

We will also inevitably bring our own prejudices into play. If we speak in a home counties English accent, we wouldn’t try to differentiate a character who speaks in a home counties English accent. So why should we pick out a Scottish or French accent? Clearly this is acceptable if the story needs it. But if the story needs it, is there another way to illustrate that someone is from a different part of the world? Can another character notice and comment on their accent? Or can we drop idioms into their speech, that would be particular to a specific locality? Or can we drop in the occasional “oui” if they are French?

If you do decide that phonetic dialogue is a completely essential, totally important part of the book, then what is the best way to do it? The single most important thing (for me at least) about reading a book is that NOTHING gets in the way of my enjoyment of it. Anything that makes me trip or stumble, or (even worse) need to re-read a sentence is going to seriously frustrate me.

If writing a fantasy book requires an author to make up some names, why make up names like Xtian which my head voice finds almost impossible to pronounce? Why not use a name like Xad which at least I can hazard a guess at?

Read the dialogue below (from Thomas Hardy’s A Pair of Blue Eyes, 1873):

‘All right, naibours! Be ye rich men or be ye poor men, that ye must needs come to the world’s end at this time o’nigh?’ exclaimed a voice… ‘Time o’night, ‘a b’lieve! and the clock only gone seven of’em.’

Now this dialogue is – for us modern readers – very hard to read. Taken out of context, it makes us hesitate. I suspect that by the time we’ve read a few chapters of the book though, we could probably read it fairly easily. We would get used to the voices, and would only need to “translate” the words a few times before we could hear them clearly in our minds as we read. In any case, we can definitely understand what they mean. And it may well be that readers back then were used to seeing dialect represented like this.

However, have a look at this dialogue (Joseph from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights):

‘”T’ maister nobbut just buried, and Sabbath not o’ered, und t’ sound o’ t’ gospel still i’ yer lugs, and ye darr be laiking! Shame on ye! sit ye down, ill childer! there’s good books eneugh if ye’ll read ’em: sit ye down, and think o’ yer sowls!”

It’s pretty much impenetrable. And actually it puts me right off, whether it’s a classic or not. I’m not sure how long I would persevere. I read for fun. Maybe that’s just me. I also think that it’s vaguely patronising to the reader to think that they need constant reminding that this character speaks this
way. Instead, the occasional prompt – to remind us of their dialect – would probably work just as well.

So instead of the above, how about the following (with apologies to Emily):

“T’maister only just buried, and Sabbath not yet over, and the sound of the gospel still in yer lugs and ye dare be larking! Shame on ye! Sit ye down, bad children. There’s good books enough if ye’ll read them: sit down and think o’ yer souls”

It tells us enough about the character, but we can now understand what’s being said. So the occasional prompt is probably enough. Although even this edited version is still quite hard to read.

Writing phonetic dialect is also actually quite hard – you need to have an excellent ear. But also, what the brain hears and what the brain reads are two very different thing. So capturing an accent correctly is not easy. And at all costs, an author should avoid falling into the trap of caricature. We don’t want French accents to be peppered with “ze” instead of “the”. Unless we are writing about Inspector Clouseau.

How about stutters? As long as the character is being presented in a non-offensive way, there is no reason not to draw attention to their stutter if it is essential. However, do we need to hear it every single time?

“I d-d-don’t s-s-see why t-t-teachers c-c-can’t just t-t-teach.”
This is quite hard to read, and not entirely necessary.

How about:
“I d-d-don’t see why t-t-teachers can’t just t-t-teach.”
This is much easier to read, although possibly still overkill.

How about:
“I d-don’t see why teachers can’t just t-teach.”
This version doesn’t get in the way of the reader’s ability to read the dialogue, doesn’t slow down the voice in their head, but does illustrate that the character has a stutter. Clearly there might be occasions where you want the character to stutter more frequently, maybe to illustrate heightened stress levels for example.

Summary
So to sum it up, there is absolutely a place for some kind of phonetic dialogue or phonetic spelling to illustrate accents or speech characteristics if it is essential to the plot or characterisation. However, in this case, we need to trust that our readers have the ability to interpret and remember character traits without it being constantly waved in front of them. In this case, less is very definitely more.

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