The following is a list of resources for writing dialect. This goes in conjunction with today’s craft chat on dialect.
- Writing Dialect: It’s in the Rhythm by Cameron Michaels
- How to Avoid Writing Dialect in Plays
- Dialect Survey Maps – A collection of maps showing the regional variations in terms and pronunciations in the US.
- Writing Dialect in Fiction by Tony Burton – Contains several examples from classic literature.
- Using Dialect in Fiction by Jennifer Jensen – Another discussion of use of dialect.
- Writing Accents and Dialects by Charles Carson – Includes some caution that how you write accents and dialects may say more about you than about the characters.
- Write stuff: Avoid using dialect, phonetic spelling by Rusty Lang – Advice on using dialect and phonetic spelling in journalistic writing.
- The International Dialects of English Archive – "IDEA was created in 1997 as a free, online library of primary source recordings for the performing arts." Includes transcripts of the audio samples. Note: Each audio sample begins with the person reading a passage. You may want to skip past this to the unscripted speech.
- Internet Archive – Contains many freely available movies and audio recordings. May require some digging to find the dialect you’re looking for.
- radio-locator and Web-Radio – Search for radio stations; results will show you which ones you can listen to over the Internet. Both include search by state.
#1 by Tony Burton on December 14, 2008 - 6:04 pm
Thank you for referring to my article on Writing Dialect in Fiction, as published in Reflection’s Edge. A version of the article was also published in The Writer’s Journal, a print magazine.
I recently began teaching Creative Writing classes online at EduFire.
http://edufire.com/users/4739-languages-tutor-tony-burton
#2 by Kathie on December 14, 2008 - 6:22 pm
You’re welcome, Tony. Thanks for passing along that information for our local writers. Best to you.