I have a character in my game speaking english with a french accent. I tried to do that with a lot of z's and stressed vowels, like this:
QuoteI am wiz a scientific group from Pari'.
Zat is a seecret to be solved in zee very last ....
Now it was pointed out to me that that could easily be taken for a german accent too. So I need some input on how to write that accent in a distinctive way.
arj0n suggested the way Officer Crabtree from 'Allo 'Allo speaks:
Quote* God Moaning. The resist-once have accqo-aired a bum. They are going to ex-plod the whaleway brodge.
* I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty.
* Hole Hotler!
* My lips are soiled.
* I am disgeesed as poloceman so I am oble to move aboot with complate frodom.
* The troon carrying the painting has been bummed by the RAF.
* I am wicking this woo because my poloceman's troosers are full of deenamote.
* There was a wetness at the bonk.
* Dearly belivid. We are gathered here todoo to join this min and this women in haley weedlock.
* Then they will be taken to the arbour where a small boot will be waiting by the dis-used dick.
* Do not wirry
* I'm half Itolioen. I'm from Niples.
* I have bad nose.
* I have a massage from Michèlle.
I don't know if thats recognizable enough, but I'm from Germany and no native speaker so I am in need of some suggestions.
If the Crabtree-style is the way to go I would need help from someone who would be so kind to write my not very long dialogue in this style as I can't wrap my head around this.
Suggestions and help are most welcome.
The easiest way is probably to throw in some French words like "bien", "voila", and so forth, and some French articles or propositions.
After a second thought: the Crabtree-style actually is Italian-French...
Skip the 'h' especially if a word starts with one.
If you are going to change the spelling of the text, try not to have the new spelling look like other words (like the Office Crabtree examples you provided), unless the accent is MEANT to be a joke (as it seems from the examples. I only know Officer Krupke, and he wasn't in anything called Allo Allo :P)- it makes reading it very difficult, and since it is speech text, it'll pass too quickly, and people might miss stuff.
I don't think the Allo Allo route makes much sense, as it was designed to NOT sounds like a French accent..
Personally I would write in plain english, and add in vocabulary from French, as that is the most likely way a real French person would talk. To Signposts "THIS BIT IS IN A FRENCH ACCENT" kind of removes any illusion you might have that the dialog is really happening, reading it would be difficult in itself, making sense of it would remove you from the game.
Quote from: Zooty on Thu 26/05/2011 16:05:18
I don't think the Allo Allo route makes much sense, as it was designed to NOT sounds like a French accent..
Personally I would write in plain english, and add in vocabulary from French, as that is the most likely way a real French person would talk.
This looks like the best solution indeed.
Sounds reasonable, which explains why I didn't think of it. Thank you all!
Ah monsiur, you arrrr lookiing on 'ow ta wrat ah franch assornt a haw haw haw?
Sankfooly ah am le expére on sooch mattres! Steeck wiz me an' yoo will tek too ee' lahke a doock to watre a haw haw haw!!
Quote from: EHCB on Thu 26/05/2011 21:17:18
Ah monsiur, you arrrr lookiing on 'ow ta wrat ah franch assornt a haw haw haw?
Sankfooly ah am le expére on sooch mattres! Steeck wiz me an' yoo will tek too ee' lahke a doock to watre a haw haw haw!!
Now, you see, that's really hard to read as in-game dialog. It's too much.
I suggest that there's just a smidge of accent, like 2-3 letter pronounciations and some usual french words that are really common, like monsieur, oui, non, garcon, madame etc. Broken Sword 1 did that pretty well I thought, so watch the videos from that.
If you plan on doing Crabtree style, then keep that low as well, maybe a word per sentence or less, per paragraphs (or whatever you might call few sentences that make up an NPC awnser to 1 question).
Ah bonjour, you may call me Jean Claude. I think that, how you say... it is more in ze words than anything else.
Is it supposed to be a French person speaking English? In that case, they would most likely get all the easy words (garçon, monsieur, oui, bonjour) correct and not translate the hard ones.
How fluent are they supposed to be? Would they make mistakes with tenses and sentence construction?
Please don't use "ze" for the. That is such a cliché!
Here's what I would do: find some native French speakers and ask them to translate some dialog, then translate it back and see for example how French speech patterns are reflected in the result.
Quote from: EHCB on Thu 26/05/2011 21:17:18
Ah monsiur, you arrrr lookiing on 'ow ta wrat ah franch assornt a haw haw haw?
Sankfooly ah am le expére on sooch mattres! Steeck wiz me an' yoo will tek too ee' lahke a doock to watre a haw haw haw!!
I stared 5 minutes at this until I got it, damn duck.
Quote from: Kweepa on Fri 27/05/2011 00:18:44
Here's what I would do: find some native French speakers and ask them to translate some dialog, then translate it back and see for example how French speech patterns are reflected in the result.
That's a bit much for it, the char isn't really involved in the game, it's just a little cameo. But being french helps to understand to whom the char is referring, so it's kind of important.
Quote from: Kweepa on Fri 27/05/2011 00:18:44
Please don't use "ze" for the. That is such a cliché!
A cliché sounds actually just about right for my purposes...is it an very offensive one? :)
Aren't cliches good because the reader makes the connection straight away? If you come up with some entirely new nobody will know it's supposed to be French ::)
Quote from: mukk on Fri 27/05/2011 00:35:12
Quote from: Kweepa on Fri 27/05/2011 00:18:44
Please don't use "ze" for the. That is such a cliché!
A cliché sounds actually just about right for my purposes...is it an very offensive one? :)
"ze" still 'sounds' more german then french....
When I first played the "Broken Sword" games it was on a computer with no sound effects, so it was a while before I found out that Nico was supposed to be French. Perhaps you can mention that the character has a French accent when the player looks at them? Something like:
the inspector wears a beret and has a thin mustache, he greets you in a heavy French accent "Bonjour monsieur!"
Writing out any accent phonetically can come across as offensive to the particularly sensitive, but if you want it, then you should go for it. Honestly, every French person I've met who speaks English has a very different accent, so it'd be very tough to get it across without voice acting. In order to do the immediately recognizable French accent, use the 'z' for 'th' sounds, replace difficult English words with their French counterparts and so on. Nobody I've ever seen actually talks like that, but caricature is one of those literary things we just have to employ sometimes.
Note, the following webcomic is NSFW, so keep that in mind before reading it, but there is a French immigrant character named Didi in the comic Menage a 3 (http://www.menagea3.net/d/20080607.html) that does the whole French caricature quite well and only goes marginally over the top.
I say you don't do an accent at all ;) I can't stand having to read accents and trying to figure them out without voice work. Most of those lines you gave from above I did not understand at all. And if this character was a main character in the story, or an NPC I HAD to talk to in order to advance the story/current puzzle, I would probably quit as a result of not knowing what he's saying.
I also agree with Arj0n, "Ze" always makes me think it's German.
NOBODY IS FOOLED BY THOSE FAKE ACCENTS. Use french por favor.
Seriously, if it's one thing that puts me off in games, it's that.
hard feelings on that one ;D
I'm officially settled on using some french words, should be sufficiant and nobody gets stressed out :P
Thanks again everybody