As for the accent, it’s very difficult. Sometimes I wished I’d never started it. what makes it difficult is I’m not from the area so I’m not exposed to it. I’m trying to write it out emphasizing the pronunciation where I’m hearing them in my head (which I think is just coming across as a heavy London accent), plus I’m missing all the other nuances like slang and phrasing which make the Scouse so great.
I see you are from the Liverpool area, how is my treatment coming across to you? I would love to get an insight from someone who actually speaks the accent.
The problem with accents is the person writing them and the person reading them.
My example is the German writer Goethe. The person doing the English phonetics was either upper class English or Bostonian and explained the “oe” as “er” instead of “uh”, so that everyone else calls him “Gertie”.
(my pet peeve.)
That’s true. What the reader is hearing is not going to be the same as what I’m hearing. I guess in the long run, it is what it is. We all know what region my characters are from, and hopefully that’s enough to help readers.
Sorry for the late, late reply! Lol. I’m living in Liverpool, but I’m not from there. Plus, my first language is French, so I’m not trying much to put it in writing in my own cartoon. There’s a few pointers I can give you, though. In Liverpool, they don’t say “my” but “me” (as in “can’t by me love” from the Beatles). Members of the family are : Me ma, me da, me Nan, me granddad, me missus, me fellah. (My mother, my father, my grandmother, my grandfather, my wife, my husband/fiancé/boyfriend). For the prononciation, it becomes almost impossible to put in writing with the “c/k” being very throaty like spitting (a sound very common in Welsh and Arabic) and the “t” at the end of words being very soft almost like “s”: “Take your bikhre down the streess” (take your bike down the street). Finally, there are few words typically Liverpudlian which I hear regularly, but there is a wide age divide. So many expressions I hear at work said by young people are unlikely to be used by Lucy’s mum. Can’t help you much, but I can say that “meff” is a common insult, but also a term of endearment as well. No one ever managed to define it to me, but I can say that Duff is a real meff. “Skanky” is a good one which makes my Canadian friends laugh. It means stinky and disgusting.
I’d like to add that almost every single adult in Liverpool from Lucy’s mum generation worked at some point in their life for TJ Hughes (department store) or at the Ford factory in Speke (now a Jaguar/Landrover Factory). Me Missus’ Da werked for both… (Oh yes, forgot about the letter “o” often pronounced like “e”)
Lucy’s mum probably grew up in the Scotty Road area (Scotland road), a big neighborhood flattened during the 60s slum clearances. Unless she’s from the “other side of the water” over in Birkenhead (bearkhrin’ead), the “One eyed City”, like me Missus’ granddad…
Thanks for the great input. Unfortunately, our scouse friend is moving on, for the time being. maybe I can apply some of this info to Lucy. She’s from Manchester, just down the road. I know there some differences though.
I once new a little kid who was so destructive that he broke cast iron window weights for fun. They finally had to give him an old ’56 Buick engine block to play with.
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It’s the old story of a bear and his thermite
I hear they’re making a movie out of that story. Directed my J.J. Abrams.
How was Duff allowed to take a plane in the first place?
How difficult is it to express the Scouse accent in writing?
LOL. Maybe he was in baggage?
As for the accent, it’s very difficult. Sometimes I wished I’d never started it. what makes it difficult is I’m not from the area so I’m not exposed to it. I’m trying to write it out emphasizing the pronunciation where I’m hearing them in my head (which I think is just coming across as a heavy London accent), plus I’m missing all the other nuances like slang and phrasing which make the Scouse so great.
I see you are from the Liverpool area, how is my treatment coming across to you? I would love to get an insight from someone who actually speaks the accent.
The problem with accents is the person writing them and the person reading them.
My example is the German writer Goethe. The person doing the English phonetics was either upper class English or Bostonian and explained the “oe” as “er” instead of “uh”, so that everyone else calls him “Gertie”.
(my pet peeve.)
That’s true. What the reader is hearing is not going to be the same as what I’m hearing. I guess in the long run, it is what it is. We all know what region my characters are from, and hopefully that’s enough to help readers.
Sorry for the late, late reply! Lol. I’m living in Liverpool, but I’m not from there. Plus, my first language is French, so I’m not trying much to put it in writing in my own cartoon. There’s a few pointers I can give you, though. In Liverpool, they don’t say “my” but “me” (as in “can’t by me love” from the Beatles). Members of the family are : Me ma, me da, me Nan, me granddad, me missus, me fellah. (My mother, my father, my grandmother, my grandfather, my wife, my husband/fiancé/boyfriend). For the prononciation, it becomes almost impossible to put in writing with the “c/k” being very throaty like spitting (a sound very common in Welsh and Arabic) and the “t” at the end of words being very soft almost like “s”: “Take your bikhre down the streess” (take your bike down the street). Finally, there are few words typically Liverpudlian which I hear regularly, but there is a wide age divide. So many expressions I hear at work said by young people are unlikely to be used by Lucy’s mum. Can’t help you much, but I can say that “meff” is a common insult, but also a term of endearment as well. No one ever managed to define it to me, but I can say that Duff is a real meff. “Skanky” is a good one which makes my Canadian friends laugh. It means stinky and disgusting.
I’d like to add that almost every single adult in Liverpool from Lucy’s mum generation worked at some point in their life for TJ Hughes (department store) or at the Ford factory in Speke (now a Jaguar/Landrover Factory). Me Missus’ Da werked for both… (Oh yes, forgot about the letter “o” often pronounced like “e”)
Lucy’s mum probably grew up in the Scotty Road area (Scotland road), a big neighborhood flattened during the 60s slum clearances. Unless she’s from the “other side of the water” over in Birkenhead (bearkhrin’ead), the “One eyed City”, like me Missus’ granddad…
Anyway, I’ll tell me ma in law about yer cartoon!
Thanks for the great input. Unfortunately, our scouse friend is moving on, for the time being. maybe I can apply some of this info to Lucy. She’s from Manchester, just down the road. I know there some differences though.
Gutted to see her go, after I wrote the comment!
No worries mate. She appears to be a fan favorite so she might be one of those reoccurring characters.
I once new a little kid who was so destructive that he broke cast iron window weights for fun. They finally had to give him an old ’56 Buick engine block to play with.
That kid wouldn’t be you, would it?
And a bit more of the bear’s sordid past is revealed. This bear is an enigma.
there is a lot we don’t know about Duff before he came to Bear Flatts. Maybe we’ll finally find out.