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  EDline Vol. 8, no. 88   (8 September 2003)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Q & A
  [2yp]  Accents (spoken) in writing
            [Offshoot of [2yn] Advice on comma usage]

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---[2]-- Q & A --------------------------------------------------

         Date: Thurs, 4 Sept 2003
         From: Simon Cauchi, simon.cauchi@paradise.net.nz

Alison Black wrote:

> Harking back to the question of stress, I am reminded of an
> American editor's comment on an article of mine to which she
> had been applying her red pen. Meeting me for the first time
> and hearing my Scottish accent, she said: "Now that I hear you
> speak, I understand the way you write." The rhythm of the
> writing had at first confused her, but ultimately she realized
> she could not "correct" the writing without destroying the
> whole fabric. That was more than thirty years ago, but I have
> never forgotten it.

And nearly fifty years ago, when I was teaching at a minor public
school in Berkshire, one of my colleagues picked up a new
textbook and started reading the preface without glancing at the
author's name.

  "This writer can only be Scottish," he declared after a minute
  or so. "What's his name? Ah, Innes. There you are, you see!"

And he proceeded to read a paragraph aloud in a broad Scots
accent (an Edinburgh accent, I think it was). I can't now
remember any of the words he read out, but we were all totally
convinced the passage could only have been written by a Scotsman.

My colleague was the principal Latin teacher at the school.


         ----------------------
         Date: Mon, 8 Sept 2003
         From: Anna McCormack, mccormack@goulburn.net.au

It's not hard to tell the provenance of a book or article written
by someone with a Welsh accent either (if they haven't tried to
be too formal). The cadences are different.


         ----------------------
         Date: Mon, 8 Sept 2003
         From: Iain Brown, iain@iainbrown.net

The idea that an author's accent could be guessed by examining a
piece of text is fascinating. How does a Welsh accent influence
texts? Can you give any examples?


         -----------------------
         Date: Tues, 9 Sept 2003
         From: Anna McCormack, mccormack@goulburn.net.au

I'm no linguist and can't explain technically. It seems to depend
mostly on word choice, on alliteration and rhythm---remembering
that Welsh tends to pronounce more syllables clearly than English
does. Here are a few lines from John Davies' "A history of Wales'
(1990):

-- 'The only evidence of the presence in Wales of people of the
Lower Palaeolithic cultures comes from caves.' (p.3)

-- 'With the country leaderless, it became increasingly
tumultuous.' (p. 217)

-- 'the mills were dependent upon the power produced by rapidly
flowing streams. Such streams were plentiful in the uplands'
(p.191)

By slowing down the vowels in some words, often at the ends of
sentences, Welsh accent gives phrases and words like 'caves',
'increasingly tumultuous' and 'rapidly flowing streams' a
richness that ordinary English just skips over.

Here are a few lines from 'The diary of a Welsh swagman, 1869--1894':

-- 'I read in the papers that the Black Death Plague is mowing
down wholesale the residents of St Petersburgh in Russia.'
(p.107)

-- 'The heavy rain has been a boon because it has drowned many of
the locusts. I cut my finger when slicing bread. I almost severed
the tendon. I am a clumsy fellow at these household duties!'
(p.186)

-- 'The water channels are foul with Scotch thistles, docks,
hogweed, sorrel and native grasses. Their roots are fast between
paving stones.' (p. 139)

This 'swagman' was a Welsh farmer who at 51 went off to spend 25
years as a labourer in Australia. Even notations about weeds are
almost poetry.

Try also Gwyn Williams, Alexander Cordell and Richard Llewellyn.


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