How to Avoid Writing Dialect in Plays

Video Transcript

"STEVE CAVERNO: Steve Caverno, on behalf of Expert Village, here to talk to you today about dialogue. Now we'll talk about dialects and accents. First up, what's the difference between a dialect and an accent? A dialect is someone who speaks the same language, but they're saying it in a regional tone, like a New York dialect or a--and a southern dialect. Also, an accent would be someone saying an accent--speaking in English with a native tongue that is actually a different language. So if someone speaks English with a French accent or someone speaks English with an African accent, that would be an example of dialect--of accent; this is actually dialect, but they're kind of interchangeable nowadays. Oh, we say accent, we say dialect kind of interchangeable but, in the official word, this is actually a dialect, the southern dialect. We're going to go through this. We're gonna, maybe, look at how a dialect can be written. Okay, one way to write a dialect is to write everything out phonetically, write everything out how you think it would sound. Okay, we'll look at how this is written. "Weyell, wahn atha thangs yew ought should dew ef yer ker ain't stertin' is chick ind see ef tha laights stiyell werk." Now, this is [SOUNDS LIKE] setting a dialect, but if you were reading that, if you're trying to read that for a cold read, you're going to stumble all over the place 'cause you're not going to be able to interpret what these words are. Now, the better way to do this is to show the--is to do it with phrasing and give someone a note the southern dialect. So this is what we're going to do here. Well, one of the things you ought should do if your car ain't starting is check and see if the lights still work. This way we still get the same connotation but it's easier to read. You can add the dialogue. If you know the dialect, which are made into CDs you can pick up, they give you instructional learning of the dialect, then you can learn that and bring into the table. And that way your script isn't incomprehensible; you don't have to decipher the word like it's a foreign language. You'll still have the language written in common American English, but you'll be able to interpret that language through their phrasing and add the dialect on top of it instead of having it written in a text for you."