A Nixle emma Bixle ond a goldigs Wartaweile (Patience)
I miss speaking Swabian sometimes. It’s a great dialect, but it’s dying out. Of course, any German who isn’t from around where I’m from, will have no clue what I’m saying — and we do so love to confuse those "Reigschmeckte" (Foreigners).
Every area in the world has its own slang and dialect. You either love it or you hate it. Most of the time you won’t understand it, even if it’s the same language. If I exclaimed "I don’t Adam and Eve it! Some Tea Leaf half inched my dog and bone!" — would you know what I mean?
I don’t think so.
It’s Cockney Rhyming Slang. It’s old and a lot of it dates back to a time when the East End still had working docks.
So, should you use it in your historical novel? It’s tempting, isn’t it? It would add flavor, it would add something uniquely London to the setting.
But will your reader understand if you have your dockworker hero tell his fellow worker "I’ll have to talk to the trouble and strife before she drags me in front of the garden gate and I’ll have to get the ol’ whistle and flute out." Or when he sits at the breakfast table and goes "Pass the Lady, Dear."
Probably not. At least not without a translation.
Just because you are comfortable with a slang, doesn’t mean anyone else is. Yes, it adds flavor, but that flavor needs to be kept up throughout the book. If you use something like Cockney Rhyming Slang, you’ll have to provide the reader with a dictionary. It gets tedious, and if they have to look up every other phrase, they will throw the book at the wall pretty soon and never pick up another by that author.
I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read where the author tried to convey the hero as Scottish. Some managed to keep me reading despite the mutilation of their speech patterns, but most of them… I toss on a pile for the charity shop.
There are only so many "Dinna ken?" "Ne’er!" "Ach, he’s nae guid." I can take. You know the type. The ones where every word they say is written as dialect, or with a ton of slang words.
I dare you to read "Trainspotting" and tell me that’s easy to read. If, indeed, you understand it.
So should you not use it at all?
No. That’s not what I’m saying.
Just don’t overdo it. If you can, you could use a familiar word and sprinkle that in. (and by that I mean a word people recognize as a specific region, i.e. y’all — which is associated with the Deep South) There are many books I’ve read where the author thought something was one region — but it was actually another. I recognize the mistake, so will others. Unless you are a native speaker of the slang you are trying to portray, it’s going to be neigh impossible to keep it up consistently – and accurately – throughout the novel.
Also, be very aware that using slang dates your book. What is cool today, may be completely lost on another generation. Today, who still knows what "Square" means?
So be careful what you have your characters say and even more careful of how they say it. Doublecheck that you’re not overdoing it.
Or, as the ones familiar with rhyming slang would say "Use your loaf and take another butchers."
Use your head (loaf of bread) and take another look (butcher’s hook).
Now… I’ll put you out of your misery.
Dog and Bone = Telephone.
Tea leaf = Thief.
Half Inched = Pinched. (Stole)
Trouble and Strife = Wife.
Garden Gate = Magistrate
Lady (in Silk) = Milk
Adam and Eve = Believe
Whistle and Flute = Suit
Loaf (of Bread) = Head
Butchers (hook) = look
There will be a test next week.
