I need help. Again.
I realize that I have a character in the book I’m writing who’s speech is based off a Scottish accent. The idea of this was to show he’s not from the same country as the main characters. I can’t just make up my own accent either. I’m just not creative. Also, I write his speech differently than I write the normal speaker’s in the book. I base it off of the Scottish accents I’ve heard in movies like Braveheart and such. If I was writing for an American audience only, that might be fine. Here’s the problem – I’m not. I’d like for people outside the U.S. to see the book. So if this book happens to hit a Scottish audience… it may come off as farcical. I don’t want that! The entire McKenzie Clan (part of my heritage) would join arms and start burning the books! Maybe they wouldn’t be so mean.
So I need a Scottish person. I need you to check out the lines and see if it’s at least pretty close. Them also being a writer would be preferred. Here’s my email: officialgabrielpenn@gmail.com.
And for those who aren’t Scottish… is it a good idea to have people with different accents in your story? Better yet, is it right to write their dialogue differently, especially if they’re a main character? Let me know.
If you are a Scottish person and you are questioning whether you should help, let your patriotism guide you.
I’d say ‘MERICA, but this is for Scotland. So, “FREEDOOOM!”
Gabriel to Earth 
Try this: http://www.fonetiks.org/engsou2sc.html. Most accents vary based on pronunciation of vowel sounds -although this is not a hard and fast rule, some dialects of English with add an ‘r’ where it doesn’t belong! That said, I think this’ll get you pretty close. I expect there are other sites that’ll help too. I used an Irish vowel sound index when developing my languages, although one is based more on old english and the other more vowel rich, but not quite so much as Samoan.
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Thanks!
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The linguist in me also felt compelled to answer! The first word that popped into my head was “corpora” so here you go: http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk and http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/cmsw
You may also want to look at Rhinospike and Forvo for words and phrases pronounced by Scot(wo)men or to have your own sentences recorded. I suppose you could also get in touch with speakers that meet your requirements and ask for their help.
https://rhinospike.com and http://fr.forvo.com
Unfortunately, accents can’t be sorted through (at least, I have yet to figure out a convenient way to do so) but you can make audio requests and specify that you are only looking for Scot(wo)men to record your texts (and maybe make suggestions so that your text can be more faithful to their own speech).
In addition to English, Forvo includes Scots and Scottish Gaelic, so one way to find Scots may be to look through recordings in these languages and check whether the speakers also recorded anything in English.
Or you could check IDEA and similar resources. http://www.dialectsarchive.com/scotland
I hope your story becomes an audiobook!
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I used to listen to audiobooks all the time, so that would be a treat to have my book become one. Thanks for the info!
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Reblogged this on Gabriel to Earth and commented:
Few Scottish folk have seen this! Be patriotic and join the cause!
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