Accents: just say no

[beccaelizabeth]

I tried to read some fic with Carson in it.
... I know he has a nice accent, but, seriously? Quit it with the trying to write it already.
Everyone has an accent. No exceptions. This writing that I'm typing here? Everyone is reading it out different. But, because it is writing, it always looks the same.
There's a whole thing about marked and unmarked differences and how it kind of pisses off the rest of the world when American English, or any particular region or class in Britain, is taken as the invisible, and everyone else gets their letters left off or rearranged. Being common doesn't make it either right or helpful.
There are some dialect words that he's more likely to use, yes, and if you know what they mean and can put them in a sentence appropriately, fine, that works. But they have a proper spelling too. They do not need mashed to make them look funny cause they sound funny to you.
Also? Not all the dialect words come from the same place. I have seen some wild misses in my quick skim of fic.

This one always winds me up. *shrugs* It just makes everything harder to read. Which is irritating. And kind of missing the point of this communication thing.

/cranky
(who am I kidding, I never manage to /cranky)

Comments

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Makes reading hard for some dyslexics, too.

[beccaelizabeth]

indeed, and all screen readers, afaik

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Nobody ever writes accents that even begin to properly transcribe the way characters actually sound, anyway; it's the vocabulary that's key, not elided consonants and extended vowells.

Julia, and attempts to make a Scottish "r" just make my head hurt.

[beccaelizabeth]

yes, trying to type accents just ends up exaggerating everything that catches their ear, it don't come out right.
vocabulary is key and a right bugger to get right. it's sort of painful to watch when someone gets it wrong for somewhere I vaguely know. even though I know I'm likely just as bad.