Backlist Books: Dialect Edition
Greeting and Salutation Scribblers!
Today’s focus is on dialect. Dialect is defined as a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group. It’s something we easily pick up on when we hear it in real life, but it can be difficult to put on the page of a book. We’ve probably all read books where an author has attempted to include dialect or even just an accent and it’s a bit cringey to read.
Overusing dialect can bump the reader out of the story. It’s something that needs to be used deftly so that the reader is aware of it, but it doesn’t interrupt their enjoyment of the story or make them have to reread everything multiple times. Otherwise it’s too heavy handed at best and downright offensive at worst. Getting dialect right is definitely a skill that needs to be honed if you plan on using it to some degree in your writing. Today we’re going to discuss four books that do an absolutely spot-on job of embracing dialect and using it to create another layer of world and character building in their stories.
First up is Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James. So, in this story, the main character, Tracker, is hired to find a missing boy. The world building is grounded in African mythology and folklore and so as James was writing, he also pulled in elements of dialect and sentence structure that add to the authenticity of this made up world.
What I really like about how he handles dialect is that it’s intuitive and I don’t get stuck trying to figure out what’s actually being said. It’s definitely something that slowed me down a bit just because the grammar and word order was different from what I’m used to, but it ‘s so deftly done that I settled in quickly.
Second on my list is The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junuada Petres. In this beautiful and heartbreaking book, Petres taps into the rhythm and cadence of creole language spoken in Trinidad. Unlike the dialect in Black Leopard, Red Wolf, we have more of a blend of english and a variety of other languages used by the people of Trinidad–like French, Hindi, and Spanish. The language flows like poetry and again, although it varies from the standard English we’re used to in books, it’s very intuitive for readers and it does so much work in developing Audre’s character and her emotions. You immediately feel at home listening to her tell her story in a way that’s authentic to her.
Third in our list of books with stellar dialect is Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This book goes in a very different direction from our previous books because instead of using existing dialects, it creates its own version of a future dialect. Cloud Atlas brings together [FIVE?] separate stories wherein characters are being reincarnated in different lives and in the most future of these, society has collapsed. Mitchell creates a new pidgeon language based on American culture that is fascinating to read. This one did slow me down a bit the first few times I encountered it, but I found by speaking it out loud as I read, I was able to figure out what they were talking about. And I feel like the author wanted to jar the reader and make them pause. It just felt very intentional to me. The film version of his book incorporates this pigeon language as well and it’s really cool to hear. As an additional bonus, because this book spans centuries, Mitchell even gets into the colloquial slang of different eras and while this isn’t quite dialect, it’s dialect adjacent. It’s just a really cool book and I highly recommend it!
Fourth is Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson. Similar to Cloud Atlas, this book heads into the future and has created a new version of English. When you read it, you’re immediately aware that this isn’t what you’re familiar with, but the context and the way it’s crafted allow the reader to easily understand the meaning. It helps that it generally follows the basic grammatical structure of American English.
I know I normally do five books, but I try to only highlight and discuss books I’ve actually read and these were the ones that stood out to me from my own reading history. Dystopian books set in the future are great places to find dialects and conlangs (put definition on screen: language that has been artificially created). You might want to check out Scot Westerfield’s Uglies series, and of course, the all too relevant 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Alduous Huxely.
Leave a comment and share your favorite book with strong dialect or a conlang!
