Since Karen wrote a blog on dialect I thought this video was appropriate this week.
Take a deep breath and for seven minutes be mesmerized by the language differences around the world.
If you are writing a novel set in one of these places…be very careful with your regional research!
Wow.
I’ve Been There and Now I’m Going There – For You
This is great! Thank you for sharing.
Really gives you something to think about. I’ve moved several times and just when I promised I would never utter the local slang I soon found myself saying it! Never say never! When in Rome…
Writing of dialects – Billy Bob Thornton once objected to the broad southern accent requested for a film situated in Texas. (Slingblade?) He said no one in Texas talked that way. The director said viewing audiences expected the broad southern accent. End of discussion.
I think it’s interesting that some cater to audience expectations instead of accuracy, and I think it’s worth noting that writers must be careful in using films to get a take on dialects.
Growing up in New England, moving to Oregon, and now having guests from England, my house resonated with similar slang this week. Did you know the British call the backyard a ‘garden’. I’ve yet to find out how what they call a place to grow vegetables. To this day I still get odd looks when I call my ‘purse’ a pocketbook. In New England, a purse is what old ladies carry. Not so in Oregon, that’s the definition of a pocketbook. After twenty plus years living in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve finally stopped calling a sub sandwich, a ‘grinder’. Fun to reminisce. Thanks for posting.
We grow flowers in the front garden, and veges in the back garden – unless we live somewhere with a tiny back garden, in which case we might have a plot down at the allotment.
Thank you for giving me 7 1/2 minutes to both increase my vocabulary and put it on the long finger, now back to writing more sculch. At least, that’s my craic. 😉