Kasper Hviid
Sage
The heroine in my story is rather crude. A bit like Gollum if you know that fellow, only a great deal more streetwise. I need this to be reflected in her dialect. Now, the usual way this is done is to make selected bits reflect how the words are spoken. ya instead of you, wanna instead of want to, and so on.
The problem is that this feels very unnatural to me. I'm mostly used to English being something I read in books, and have limited experience speaking it. If I somehow end up having to speak English, I feel like I'm faking it, and could be called out any minute.
Are there any concrete rules on how to do dialects? Also, any good medieval swear words?
And also, how do one make it sound medieval? As I recall, older texts have different rules for how to shorten speech, like "lock'd", which just doesn't fly today.
I remember a whodunnit, This Dame for Hire, which I think did it rather well. Perhaps I should hunt down some audiobooks, to get more accustomed to speech.
The problem is that this feels very unnatural to me. I'm mostly used to English being something I read in books, and have limited experience speaking it. If I somehow end up having to speak English, I feel like I'm faking it, and could be called out any minute.
Are there any concrete rules on how to do dialects? Also, any good medieval swear words?
And also, how do one make it sound medieval? As I recall, older texts have different rules for how to shorten speech, like "lock'd", which just doesn't fly today.
I remember a whodunnit, This Dame for Hire, which I think did it rather well. Perhaps I should hunt down some audiobooks, to get more accustomed to speech.