# Do you like when people write in accents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 12, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151 "2007-11-12T18:12:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/1 "2007-11-12T18:12:59Z")
I, for one, hate it. Although I’m sure most people get it, I’m talking about when the writer makes an effort to write in, say, the Scottish brogue, or some Old Wolrd accent, or some Russian mode of speaking. It’s annoying, it breaks up the flow of the book, and for me at least, distracts the heck out of me. I don’t equate this to style of speaking. Style of speaking to me is more like - **Sampiro** and I have a very different style of speaking, for example, and when he writes I feel the “style” coming through, but not the accent. Which is fine with me. I like to hear accents, but I find it’s painful trying to read them. What say you? it’s about books, but it’s a poll. Torn between CS and IMHO - mods can decide if it needs to be moved. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/2 "2007-11-12T18:19:05Z")
I despise it for the most part but can handle double contractions (couldn’t’ve instead of couldn’t have) and swallowing some letters, like ‘im instead of him or dropping trailin’ gs. Not really sure if that counts as accents so much as dialect, though. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/3 "2007-11-12T18:24:15Z")
I -hate- when authors try to spell out an accent. It’s one thing to try and make your characters have different voices but something else entirely to just put down a whole stream of oddly apostrophized phonetics. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/4 "2007-11-12T18:25:38Z")
(looking up thread, counting), I, for four, hate it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/5 "2007-11-12T18:28:20Z")
I hate it. It was the straw that broke the camels’ back for me when reading Wuthering Heights. About 100 pages in, the gardener goes on 2 page rant in unintelligible English and I decided that it wasn’t worth my time trying to figure it out. Pile that on top of the rest of the book which I already hated and it was time to toss the book in the back of locker until the test. Ended up with 50% on it. It was one of two books that were assigned reading in high school that I didn’t finish. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/6 "2007-11-12T18:32:56Z")
It worked well in Huckleberry Finn. However, I read an English translation of Lysistrata where they gave the Spartan women American southern accents. That was just weird. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/7 "2007-11-12T18:48:13Z")
I, for six, hate it too. I know what, for example, an Australian accent sounds like. The author can just tell me that a character has an Australian accent, and I’ll imagine the character speaking in said accent. A typo is like a speedbump to me, but forgivable. Creative spelling for an accent is like one of those tire setups on obstacle courses. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/8 "2007-11-12T18:52:35Z")
Not a big fan. Hated _Huckleberry Finn_ for this very reason. [me in the 10th, 11th grade or whenever] Dammit, it is spelled “G-O-I-N-G”! Not “G-W-I-N”, not “G-A-W-A-Y-N-E”, nor any of the other idiotic ways you have it spelled - “G-O-I-N-G”!!! [/me] ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/9 "2007-11-12T19:00:19Z")
So if we all hate it, why do they continue to do it?? ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/10 "2007-11-12T19:06:34Z")
I don’t mind it if I know what the accent sounds like. Charles W. Chesnutt’s book _The Conjure Woman_ is a good example of this–I hear people using Uncle Julius’s down home eastern NC accent all the time. I can puzzle out the Yorkshire accent in _Wuthering Heights_, but I have to read it out loud to really understand it. I think that’s the key. When I read something written “in accent” I have to read it out loud. If I don’t know what the accent sounds like, I’m totally lost. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/11 "2007-11-12T19:10:07Z")
It depends on the book. It made Delores Clayborne unreadable to me. Maybe it was a good book, I don’t know never made it past page 5 or so. Other books it didn’t bother me. Which ones I can’t remember since if it didn’t bother me it wasn’t an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/12 "2007-11-12T19:24:20Z")
It depends. I don’t mind a little attempt at dialectic authenticity, but when it gets to the point where I can’t understand what the character is saying, it’s gone too far. I was recently re-reading Dorothy Sayer’s “Five Red Herrings,” and there are some sentences written in a Scottish accent that I can only figure out by reading them aloud while doing my best Groundskeeper Willie impression. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/13 "2007-11-12T19:52:49Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] It worked well in Huckleberry Finn. However, I read an English translation of Lysistrata where they gave the Spartan women American southern accents. That was just weird. [/QUOTE] The one I read had the Spartans speaking with a Scotish accent, which actually worked fairly well. But it did did take a few pages to get in the habit of reading with an accent. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/14 "2007-11-12T20:13:39Z")
I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin a while ago. That was rough. Good story, though! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@The\_Blue-Sighted\_Shadow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Blue-Sighted_Shadow)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/15 "2007-11-12T20:24:35Z")
I hate it. It’s a distraction from the story, which may be the point. I think some authors use the accent to hide how stupid their dialogue is. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/16 "2007-11-12T20:43:28Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] It worked well in Huckleberry Finn. [/QUOTE] No, it didn’t. 😛 I’d have liked the book otherwise. When it’s a major character with a good chunk of dialogue, just _tell_ me he’s got a heavy accent. Don’t make me sit there and figure out your transcription of the accent on top of whatever point the character is articulating. For most passages of text, it’s not worth the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/17 "2007-11-12T21:12:24Z")
I can usually take it in small doses. Otherwise it’s hit or miss. In Richard Adams’ _The Plague Dogs_, two dogs come across a fox in the English countryside. The fox speaks with a heavy accent (I couldn’t tell you exactly what part of England the accent is from) and reading it was difficult but also suggested how foreign the fox was to the dogs both because the dogs had lived in a lab for so long and because the fox was only loosely related to the other canines. The dogs themselves only half-understood the fox. On the other hand, it was difficult to read and took me out of the story to slowly mouth the words and try to glean what was being said. The fox has significant enough sections of dialogue that you couldn’t just skip it. And that was in the _American_ printing of the story. I hear it was watered down from the English printing. On the other hand, Richard Adams uses accently lightly in _Watership Down_ and they serve to add a little flavor and the suggestion that each species has its own particular way of speaking. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/18 "2007-11-12T21:13:51Z")
I don’t know, I guess I don’t mind it. I really like Nick Cave’s _And The Ass Saw The Angel_, for instance, and that’s written in heavy dialect. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/19 "2007-11-12T21:21:20Z")
I liked it with, say _The Commitments_ or _Trainspotting_, but then I’m a big fan of _Ridley Walker_. I don’t read books word by word, just as chunks of text, and dialouge written phonetically makes me pay more attention, which I appreciate. Those of you hate it, how do you feel about _A Clockwork Orange_, or the middle section of _Cloud Atlas_. Still anoying, or does the fact that the whole book is written tht way make it less distracting? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151/20 "2007-11-12T21:26:24Z")
I was thinking about that. I actually find Dolores Claiborne to be one of the few novels I don’t mind the dialogue in. I find it easier it seems when the whole book or the majority of it is in the accent. So I guess it’s the mental shifting of gears that really bothers me; if I can adjust to one accent ahead of time (or maybe 2) I can deal a little better. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-like-when-people-write-in-accents/426151.md?page=2)