buyjupiter
Maester
I'm writing about a village that could be anywhere in England. After completing two thirds of the story, I've found that there is something missing from one of my characters. His dialogue bits aren't sounding, well, right.
I've looked into some West Country dialects, but they get far too dense, when all the other characters speak in standard English.
I think what I need is some kind of blend of countryside dialects, slang, and customs to fully flesh out his character. He's pretty much the only main character that's lived in the village his whole life, the others have popped off to London and other cities and only come back to the village as adults.
I think I've found the most helpful resources through the other threads on English dialects, but if anything new has come up since then, I'd be happy for the help.
Any help in the following areas would be appreciated (book recommendations doubly so):
--Standard village life (i.e. how big of a village would it have to be before it gets a pub, church, school? I've made it so there's a larger community outside of the village, and the village is the biggest thing in the area, so that's why they have all of that, but inside the village there's only about fifty families.)
--village customs (whether it's traditional in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Berkshire, or the Orkneys, if there's an odd custom you know of or a book of weird customs, please let me know!)
I'm trying to keep the non-fantastical bits as realistic as possible to contrast with the magic/fantasy elements.
I'm sorry if that's rather vague, but I have the feeling I'll know what I'm looking for when I find it. Thanks in advance to whomever can help!
I've looked into some West Country dialects, but they get far too dense, when all the other characters speak in standard English.
I think what I need is some kind of blend of countryside dialects, slang, and customs to fully flesh out his character. He's pretty much the only main character that's lived in the village his whole life, the others have popped off to London and other cities and only come back to the village as adults.
I think I've found the most helpful resources through the other threads on English dialects, but if anything new has come up since then, I'd be happy for the help.
Any help in the following areas would be appreciated (book recommendations doubly so):
--Standard village life (i.e. how big of a village would it have to be before it gets a pub, church, school? I've made it so there's a larger community outside of the village, and the village is the biggest thing in the area, so that's why they have all of that, but inside the village there's only about fifty families.)
--village customs (whether it's traditional in Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Berkshire, or the Orkneys, if there's an odd custom you know of or a book of weird customs, please let me know!)
I'm trying to keep the non-fantastical bits as realistic as possible to contrast with the magic/fantasy elements.
I'm sorry if that's rather vague, but I have the feeling I'll know what I'm looking for when I find it. Thanks in advance to whomever can help!