The authenticity of language in dialogue is not something one often thinks of when they sit down to write their story. First, the most important thing to a writer, especially first time writers, is writing to get from Point A to Point B. Then draft two comes around and you need to polish the grammar, the spelling, and so on. But what about dialogue, accents, language, diction, and colloquialisms? 

I often write about immersion and world building, but this time I'd like to shine the light on authenticity and why it is important in order to represent a place or its people or a group of people. Staying away from stereotypes and inconsistent narratives placed on language. Not everyone says "folks" and not everyone says "dudes." 

As someone who grew up in the northern part of California, close to San Francisco, it never occurred to me until I moved out of the state that not many people outside of California say "hella." Furthermore, people from San Francisco don't call San Francisco "Frisco." When you live near or around San Francisco you live in the "Bay Area." Colloquialism is not always connected to slang, sometimes it is the way that people speak in their area of the world. 

Why is this even remotely important? Well, aside from authenticity, it is a way to show what your character is experiencing through their ears, rather than just saying something like "the man with the black hat spoke with an English accent;" you could be more specific. Anyone can speak with an English accent, but what part of England? If that isn't important then whatever, but if you would like readers to pay close attention to certain details of characters (if it is relevant to the plot of your story) then, by all means, be specific. 

There are several ways to go about being specific when it comes to speech or dialogue, and in this article we'll cover the most simple way: phonetics. 

M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth takes place in the Scottish Highlands in a fictional town called Lochdubh. In the novels, Beaton will sometimes write things out phonetically to show certain characterizations of a character's speech: 

"I hope you've got this van well anchored down, anchored down," said Jessie. "The wind's awfy strong, awfy strong." 
- Death of  Bore (A Hamish Macbeth Mystery) by M.C. Beaton 

In this excerpt, a character named Jessie is speaking to another character named Blaire. In it, we see the way that Jessie speaks, specifically the way they say the word "awfully." It's a minor point but when reading it out loud we can hear their accent and their voice. Another good point I'd like to take away from Jessie's dialogue is how they repeat what they have already said to add emphasis. Another minor bit of writing that could go unnoticed, but is quite impactful if it applies to the narrative. Could it be foreshadowing? Of course. Dialogue can be just as useful as anything else you write when foreshadowing or setting up certain aspects of the plot. 

An even better example of using phonetics is in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. There are two reasons why Gabaldon's Outlander is a great example when it comes to dialogue. 

The first reason is the obvious reason: when we read it out loud or in our heads we hear the Scottish accents of the people her protagonist (Claire) meets. 

The second reason can sometimes go over a person's head: we are hearing everything through Claire's ears, she's an English woman, not one bit Scottish unless you count marriage. 

Here's an excerpt from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, Chapter 5 - The Mackenzie in which Claire is being groomed by Mistress FitzGibbons: 

"Weel now, that's verra gude. Now, ye've just time for a wee bite, then I must take you to himself." 

Context is not paramount to the example, the reason I bring this up is because of how it is written. We know that Claire is in Scotland and the people she is interacting with at that point are Scottish, but to write in phonetics, if executed properly, can help authenticate your story. Of course, if executed poorly it could lead to a lot of people being verra, verra offended. 

In the other half of this article, we'll cover slang, language, and colloquialism.