Describing an Eastern European accent in a universe without Eastern Europe

Eastern European isn't a singular entity with a singular language, let alone a singular accent. I'd advise narrowing your inquiry down to a specific country in Eastern Europe and reading through the wikipedia page of its language(s). Better yet, read through the pages regarding the dialects of its language(s) to find out how wikipedia describes their specific pronunciations and characteristics. All dialects vary in orthography, just as they do in English.

 

Not Eastern European, but let's go with it German is a diverse language composed of many dialects which differ to such an extent from one-another that they veer into languages of their own (Bavarian, Franconian, Westphalian...), but for simplicity's sake we'll just assume a stereotypical Standard High German accent. A simple way to convey in your writing that this is a faux-"German" accent is to (in-world) describe how your average German pronounces words when speaking English. You can preface the character by writing a description such as: "When he spoke my language, his words were clear, but something was amiss. I realised throughout our conversation that it was the manner in which he spoke. He pronounced his w's as v's and his g's as k's. At times he elongated a sound that should be short, and pronounced consonants which should be silent. I noticed he pronounced the K in Knight and the second B in bomb. He must have learned my language through reading not hearing I reckon."

If on the other hand the character in question speaks their (again in-world) "native" language, as opposed to the language of your main character(s), I'd advise you simply focus on describing the sounds as unfamiliar and unintelligible to the main character. You can spice it up by adding adjectives of your own to the mix describing how your character thinks the in-world German sounds, but I wouldn't focus on any details of the language. Simply listen to some recordings of German or any other language/dialect you fancy and think for yourself what you believe they sound like. Do they sound melodic? Harsh? Clear? Muffled? Subdued? Forceful? And so on and so on.

 

You don't need to reduce your prose to stereotypes. Language gives us the best ways to talk around a subject.

 

In my opinion, always try to ask a pro.



For me, I would take some of these points and describe them in the narrative rather than mimic them in the dialogue.

 

As a Limburger I've been called a German and a Belgian plenty of times by the northern Dutch. Eastern European is a first

 

>Meh, everything east of Utrecht is Eastern European...
OK, that got a chortle.

To the OP, what are you trying to do here? I'll anticipate your reply.

When you posted, you had some particular accent in mind. It sounded a particular way in your head, and you wondered how in the world you could get across to the reader that accent. You thought this accent would distinguish a character, or maybe get across how a village sounded. Either way, it was in contrast to one or more other characters. A distinguishing facial feature is easy, right? But what about an accent?

At least wrt this, fuggedaboudit.

Whatever sounds are in your head, there's no way in the world you can be sure that's what your reader is going to "hear." In fact, I can pretty much guarantee they'll get it wrong. They're going to "mispronounce" character and place names, fail to get references, and in general your descriptions aren't going to come across with 100% fidelity.

So it comes back to the original question: what are you trying to do? Emphasize a difference in speech. Kewl. Do that. You can have characters lisp, stutter, drawl, and so on. They can use distinctive turns of phrases. Any of these will give the variation you want.

Also, just to echo what others have said, "east European" is way too vague. Heck, even German is (don't ever overlook the difference between north and south Germany). Then there's how a Frenchman pronounces German words. And so on. If you are an English speaker, just take a look at how various peoples pronounce American dialogue. Even better is hearing them try to imitate someone from the Bronx or Boston or New Orleans. An accent is not just one thing, though there are a hundred ways to get it wrong.

 

Johnny, you reminded me of this bit by Trevor Noah, which just makes my linguist wife crack up every time.