: Re: Is it okay to mention a person's nationality and accent only once or twice in a story? For example, if you have a guy who is an Indian (from India), and you say something like, Sukant

@Debbie451

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I can think of at least two ways to demonstrate your character's nationality and accent without having to mention it constantly or write the dialogue crazily:

1) There is a difference between accent and dialect.

Accent is more or less the generally recognized version of the language, taught in textbooks, but with regional flavor to pronunciation. Maybe there's a lilt to the voice, or a drawl, or the Gs get dropped, or Rs added.

Dialect is when vocabulary and grammar change along with accent.

Examples:

Accent: "I'm gonna do something about that."
Dialect: "I'm fixin' to do somethin' 'bout that."

Accent: "Maybe something could happen."
Dialect: "Somethin' might could happen."

Accent: "Should I call you in the morning?"
Dialect: "Shall I knock you up in the morning, then?"
Dialect: "You want I should come call f'you tomorrow morning?"

The upshot is that you want enough differences from General American/English Speech to indicate that your speaker is of Indian descent speaking English as a second language, but not so much that it's impossible to read his dialogue written down.

2) When someone is learning English (or whatever) as second language, the speaker will often use the grammar of the native language, because s/he is still translating.

Example:

Native speaker: "My hair is so straight."
Native Italian, English ESL: "It's so straight, my hair."

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