Comments on: Check that accent

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:49:39 +0000

I think some authors have used the recordings at the American Folklife Center to authenticate their characters’ accents: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/

By: EelKat

EelKat — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:54:32 +0000

I love it when people try to write out our Maine Yankee accent. There should be one for anyone writing Maine speak who’s not from here.

By: R-U-minator

R-U-minator — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 02:17:42 +0000

Gawd!! I so wish there were something like this for British authors who were writing American dialogue. I listened to Zadie Smith’s “On Beauty” from audible.com and I had to CRINGE every time she had an inner city Boston character say “meant to” instead of “supposed to”, as in “well, what am I meant to do?” instead of “what am I supposed to do?” There was some dialogue that sounded so British that I was just waiting for a hip-hop poet to start calling everyone “bloke”. Honestly, she has lived in the US. Why did she have such a tin ear about the way people talk here?