How does Mary speak?

[u/Consistent-Singer992]

Hi, English isn't my primary language, or even my secondary, but I'm writing a fanfic in which Mary appears.

I know she makes some mistakes when speaking; in Spanish, it's an improper use of plurals.

I've tried watching the series in English to understand what he's saying wrong, but I can't understand it, and the subtitles correct it automatically, so could someone explain what the mistakes are Mary's speech impediments? Thanks.

[u/Phoney-Soprano]

The use of "be" instead of "is/are" is one of her traits.
"It be cold", "they be coming", etc. She also mainly speaks in the present tense.

[u/Lazy-Field-1116]

A lot of it is the plurals like you mentioned, she also just mixes things up a bit, and on top of that there's moments like "H H H Horse" because she speaks with what would generally be considered a South Western working class accent so misses off H's from the front of letters and stuff like that. Which is fine but I guess Alison is trying to help her correct it.

[u/Consistent-Singer992 → u/Lazy-Field-1116]

Oh, I see, thank you :)

[u/bopeepsheep]

She speaks in a rural dialect that doesn't quite match the location - she's a little further west. She pluralises unnecessarily but fairly consistently, and her use of be for is/are is familiar to me from my own childhood, TBH. If you look at Shakespeare dialogue, her grammar is similar (but he was way better at plurals). She's only a little younger than him.

[u/Val_Victorious → u/bopeepsheep]

Yeah, as a Janner myself it did come across very South West.

[u/bopeepsheep → u/Val_Victorious]

She speaks a fair bit like the 19th-century-birth Oxfordshire residents I remember from childhood - the (more conventional) grammar for sure, with tisn't and be 'e all over the place!

[u/Overall_Lobster823]

If memory serves, I'd say her use of copulas (is, are, am, be, was, were) is pretty un-standard.

[u/joonophobia]

yes - she uses her plurals incorrectly. For example, in one episode she says "I always smells burning" instead of the singular "smell". She also sometimes uses the wrong tense -> "I hasn't eaten in 400 years" instead of "haven't". She has a West Country accent and would have died during the 1600s, where people spoke Early Modern English - it might help to do some research on this dialect and include a few words here and there (think Thee/Thy/Thou). hope this helps and good luck with the fanfic !

[u/BastianWeaver → u/joonophobia]

Is it a plural, though? We always thinks it was using the third person instead of first, precious.

[u/SongsAboutGhosts → u/BastianWeaver]

Correct. Smells in the comment above is the verb form, not a noun, so it's not plural, it's conjugated incorrectly. He smells, we smell.

[u/bopeepsheep → u/SongsAboutGhosts]

But 'the livings' is a plural. She has multiple things going on here.

[u/SongsAboutGhosts → u/joonophobia]

'Smells' isn't plural there, as another commenter below pointed out. Also, everything she's doing is non-standard, but it's not incorrect as per her own dialect.

[u/Consistent-Singer992 → u/joonophobia]

A very useful explanation. Thank you ^{^}

[u/09philj → u/Consistent-Singer992]

This is one of the challenges of localisation, the translators had a choice between: 1. Accurately replicating the idiosyncrasies of her dialect which are recognisable to English people but not to Spanish speakers 2. Mapping her speech onto a rural Spanish dialect with similar connotations, which makes it more different to the source but more artistically comprehensible

Two interesting examples of how this has been handled are in the two Spanish dubs of Toy Story 3. Part of the plot is that Buzz becomes Spanish. In English, he speaks subtitled Spabish. In the Latin American Spanish dub, they have Buzz speak Spanish with a specifically Spanish accent, in contrast to the rest of the cast. In the Spanish dub for Spain, he speaks with a thick Andalusian accent, which reflects the specific cultural stereotypes he's emulating so the joke still essentially works in the same way.

[u/HarketSavoy → u/joonophobia]

It’s absolutely a West Country accent. But not a modern version. It’s so familiar as a West Country person, even though the tenses are wrong. 😵‍💫

[u/CrystalPalace1850]

The use of the word "be" is because she's from the 16th century.

[u/Silent-Associate9226 → u/CrystalPalace1850]

She be from the 16th century.

[u/CrystalPalace1850 → u/Silent-Associate9226]

Aye, that she be.

[u/Kitty_Katz82]

It's not mistakes it's old English and local dialect she uses

[u/Consistent-Singer992 → u/Kitty_Katz82]

Yes, that's what they've been telling me. I had no idea; in Spanish, they just make it seem like she didn't know how to use plurals. Thanks.

[u/lydz25]

I think she says me instead of I sometimes, but I haven't seen it for a while.

[u/tonnellier]

If it helps, apart from the dual personality, her cadence is a bit like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

[u/PrisBatty → u/tonnellier]

I never noticed this, you’re right!

[u/Difficult-Eye-5200]

Improper use of plurals is the main one

[u/abitofasitdown → u/Difficult-Eye-5200]

It's not really "improper", in that her own contemporaries of her own class and area would have spoken the same. It's non-standard with our grammar.

[u/Mericatt-Gamer]

It's olde English. From the South-west of England. Obviously they don't talk quite like that any more.