Accents in roleplay.

[Rick345]

Depends. I prefer to say what the accent is.... and then if certain words are different or need to be emphasized as different, I do them.

"Like I'm def a country gal ya'll...."

Accents are tricky and I often use them as well as local southern colloquialisms.

I would write your example like this: "I'm form up n the country, Y'all..." which is how we would say it in South Alabama.  South Alabama is known locally as LA (Lower Alabama) I hear ther's another LA somewhere out west but I ain't never been thar...

I sometimes use local colloquialisms like: "That dog don't hunt", in the south a good hunting dog is worth its weight in gold and then some, a dog that can't hunt is useless... So if you tell me an idea and I reply, "That dog don't hunt", it means your idea won't work.

Another example would be "Bless your heart", which is a polite southern way of saying your stupid...

Another I use is "Sunday week", which in the south is the way we say "A week from Sunday", maybe we are just a little lazy...

Another one I use is, "Honey them bisques are so good it'd make me slap your Mama.."

When I use the colloquial terms I PM my partner and explain what I'm saying but, I guess the rest of the world often wouldn't have a clue.. And that's probably a bad thing... I only use those kind of terms when I'm playing a Redneck AKA Bubba.

[Oreo]

Another example would be "Bless your heart", which is a polite southern way of saying your stupid...

Has to chuckle. I did not know that. Out west in the other LA that phrase is often used as a compliment, "Bless your heart, you have been so kind." Something you might say to a clerk that has gone out of their way to help you.

[Oniya]

It actually can be used as a compliment in the South, like when you've helped a little old lady carry groceries to her car.  Context is everything.

[Rick345]

It actually can be used as a compliment in the South, like when you've helped a little old lady carry groceries to her car.  Context is everything.

And the insult is usually "bless his/her heart" or "If she had a brain she'd take it out and play with it"

[TaintedAndDelish]

I'm OK with a little bit to flavor the text so long as it doesn't muddle it. I absolutely hate it when dialog is so garbled that I have to slow down or reread it.

[TheFallaciousOne]

In actual, face-to-face roleplay I don't care for them. They detract from the overall experience, at least for me. One instance comes to mind, in a recent excursion in Pathfinder with my brother, his girlfriend, and the gaggle of misfits they had aligned themselves to. He would attempt a goblin accent--a sort of gargly can-of-worms affair, and his GF would perform a squeaky falsetto for her gnome. I found it difficult to concentrate on the messages they were each trying to convey, for only being able to think of how much I would prefer they not speak in in such irritating formats.

However, in PbP format, I would say as long as the intent of the dialogue is being made clear, go for it.

[Oniya]

One terribly useful thing for PbP posts with accents, foreign languages, and speech that might otherwise be incomprehensible in-character is the [ acronym ] tag.  It works more like a footnote, in my opinion, providing hovertext that clarifies the text that it is applied to.

For example:

Code Select Expand

[acronym=I don't know why I'm having so much fun doing it.]Ah dinnae why ah'm huvin so much fun daein it.[/acronym]

becomes:
Ah dinnae why ah'm huvin so much fun daein it.

[meikle]

A lot of people write characters with accents that they don't actually understand and nothing really tanks authenticity more than that huh.

[Rogue]

This is true. *nods* If you're going to bring in accents at least do your research!

[Amazee]

I try not to do accents since I'm 99.99% sure that if I did, I would screw it up. I like if my partners have accents, but if they can't do it, I would understand.

[Lady Laura]

I like words to be spelled normally rather than trying to spell it out to suit an accent especially if the reader is unfamiliar with the accent in question they could read the phonetically spelled words as gibberish or just poor writing.

If a character has an accent than just write that they do.

Other than that I am ok with writing in a way that brings out their accent, like say if the character is a Prussian Vampire or whatever you might write his speech in the way that he might actually speak if he were speaking English, I find that better than mutilating words.

[wander]

I've done an accent in Pbp in the past, but I realise now it's a bit of a point of contention. I also found myself more than once asking if I was doing the thing right and that I was hopefully not offending anyone... Doing that, looking back, was taking away my enjoyment of the game somewhat than if I just wrote the dialogue as I usually write.

Really sometimes I love the idea of a game but have zero inspiration for a character, until I come up with something that culturally I really like and that effects the rest of the character's backstory growth. But then one of my fave characters of the past was a pirate who spoke pretty much with a cockney accent though I was playing it up and having fun (the guy wasn't a cockney at all, they were a Frenchman living in the Pacific, but I was having fun back then :D) more than going for authenticity. Even then, it wasn't thick and mainly just knocked the 'h's off my dialogue. Silly, I know.

But like Lady Laura mentions, nowadays I am 99% going to show an accent by writing in the post that they happen to have an X accent than try and write it out in their dialogue. Saves on alot of contention, I think.

[Dhi]

As writers we should endeavor to pay attention to people, and not just their most superficial characteristics.

I co-wrote one story on E where my writing partner was very into phonetically written accents. I was happy to oblige her and write such an accent, but even as I was doing it I was thinking, gosh this is butchered, I'm making such a mess, this will be the time she asks me to just stop already. I would ordinarily never write that way.

Where I normally see phonetically written accents are among beginning writers who are in their special snowflake stage of character development, where there is a desire to make a character quirky and different, instead of making her relatable and genuine. It is easier to write a caricature of a person and harder to communicate who this person truly is. If you are serious about writing, the hard route is the way to go.

To give a character a voice I think it's important to pay attention to their vocabulary, their turns of phrase, their sentence structure and how they think about things. Words are our way of expressing the way thoughts occur to us, and we are so, so different in that regard. Even though a bunch of other posters have largely agreed with my thoughts here, my post is noticeably different from any of them. It's solely my voice that makes it so.

And see, I did not even have to adopt an accent. Would my post have been more interesting if I did? Or would it merely have been harder to read?

[wander]

That makes me feel a little bad and amateurish for doing it in the past, however I realise we all grow up and I've said more than once that a good character is about making them three-dimensional than relying on stereotype. I totally understand that giving a character their voice comes from more than just how they speak, actions plus who with, why, when and where a person speaks is important also.

[Steampunkette]

Mai hofercreft eez fool off eelz.

[Oniya]

I vill not buy zis record.  It is scretched.

[wander]

Must... not... make... funny... accent... post... >_<

[Steampunkette]

I vill not buy zis record.  It is scretched.

POINTS!