How to write in a Russian accent?
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at
10:48 am
One of my characters is an immigrant from Russia. She's a maid for a rich family in Dallas, TX. I really want to capture the accent and pronunciation in her voice. How would I write that? She speaks fluent English, but she still has a fluent, lingering accent.
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Tagged with: accent • fluent english • immigrant • pronunciation • rich family • russia
Filed under: Russian - Written and Spoken
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you cant really write it but russians usually say their r’s in a long deepish sound and their o’s are long
Use the alphabet for Russian, or the phonetic equivalent at least.
Вдохновляет
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081105140530AAxqFgh
Even better is watching some Russians speak English. Maybe Russians on You Tube at least.
Try googling what you want: Go to You Tube and search for "Russian Accent" or use google search on ‘funny Russian accent’ and stuff like that.
Just a start for ya. I have noticed they say UMMMMM or MMMMMM a lot, some of them, like they are tasting the words they are about to speak.
The best way to do it is to use a real Russian persons accent as a model. You could add in the occasional Russian word instead of using an accent? The story would be better either of these ways. If you can’t use your own life experiences it’s better not to use it as it will come off as fake or off.
I’d introduce the character by describing her "r" sounds, which might be rolled when she forgets to Americanise them, and perhaps the occasionally harsh and deep sound of her "h"s. I’ve found that many Russians and East Europeans are taught the American form of English, using "ocean" for "sea", etc. These days their accents do sound American. Also, you might drop a few "the"s from time to time: "It is in bedroom" – but not too much, as reading a lot of speech in an deliberately contrived accent can be irritating. Suggest it at the beginning and let the reader realise the accent.