![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Sep. 12th, 2009 10:19 amDear people who use dialect in stories where it's being spoken by a main or frequently recurring character:
STOP. JUST STOP. If this is a TV show, we already know what that character sounds like. If you put an apostrophe at the end of every word endin' in' ing (sorry, in'), it doesn't convey that, it just drives me FUCKING NUTS. Use dialect SPARINGLY. Just because you *hear* "dose" when a character is saying "those", does not mean that you need to write every "th" sound as a "d" sound. It's annoying.
Also, if a character is Canadian or has an accent in which a particular phoneme sounds differently to the way you say it, DON'T SPELL IT DIFFERENTLY if they are the POV character. I think it's dumb to spell it differently anyway, but ESPECIALLY for the POV character. For example! When Rodney McKay says "lieutenant", he pronounces it the way that is standard outside of the States. But he really doesn't spell it "leftenant" any more than YOU spell it "lootenant" (or "aloominum".) I get that you're trying to make a point all funny and ha-ha aren't I clever. No. You're not. Spell it right or don't spell it at all.
Yours in perpetual annoyance because I wanted to finish that story, dammit,
T
STOP. JUST STOP. If this is a TV show, we already know what that character sounds like. If you put an apostrophe at the end of every word endin' in' ing (sorry, in'), it doesn't convey that, it just drives me FUCKING NUTS. Use dialect SPARINGLY. Just because you *hear* "dose" when a character is saying "those", does not mean that you need to write every "th" sound as a "d" sound. It's annoying.
Also, if a character is Canadian or has an accent in which a particular phoneme sounds differently to the way you say it, DON'T SPELL IT DIFFERENTLY if they are the POV character. I think it's dumb to spell it differently anyway, but ESPECIALLY for the POV character. For example! When Rodney McKay says "lieutenant", he pronounces it the way that is standard outside of the States. But he really doesn't spell it "leftenant" any more than YOU spell it "lootenant" (or "aloominum".) I get that you're trying to make a point all funny and ha-ha aren't I clever. No. You're not. Spell it right or don't spell it at all.
Yours in perpetual annoyance because I wanted to finish that story, dammit,
T
