writing a piece set 100 years ago

Bob Z

im writing a piece set 100 years ago but i was wondering if there was much difference in how people spoke back then? when you watch old period pieces or read literture they seemed to speak more formally and sometimes posher is this correct or a cliche?

Das Kitty

Where is it set? You could read a contemporary book written at the time in that location.

Bob Z

Das Kitty wrote: »

Where is it set? You could read a contemporary book written at the time in that location.

Good idea

Fuzzytrooper

I remember reading Shackleton's books about his south pole exploits. The words used are pretty much the same but there is a definite difference in the flow and their useage. People tended to be a bit more understated in how they described things. I'd definitely agree that the best way would be to get books from that period. Also it would very much depend on someone's social background, so if you are writing something from a working class perspective, then perhaps Shackleton's diaries may not be the best source.

Bob Z

ive read things set in the past and in victorian times people seemed to speak more poetically i noticed

Insect Overlord

Your other option is to forget trying to capture the nuances of the spoken language of the era and be deliberately anachronistic.

Ralph Fiennes' character in "The Grand Budapest Hotel", Mr Gustave H, is an example of where this is done to great effect. His twin penchants for ornate poetry and outbursts of profanity would probably have been utterly unique in the early 1930s, but they work for his character. Similarly, the dialogue with Adrien Brody's character (Dmitri) probably isn't typical of arguments in that era. It still works though.

DanMurphy

Bob Z wrote: »

im writing a piece set 100 years ago but i was wondering if there was much difference in how people spoke back then? when you watch old period pieces or read literture they seemed to speak more formally and sometimes posher is this correct or a cliche?

A lot depends upon where in Ireland your piece is set, and what 'class' of folks will populate your work.
In my youth, (the 1950s/ 60s) lots of my neighbors/relatives were from the era your work is set in. They would have been born in the 18th century and early 19th century and were mostly country folk (s/w Ireland.
In one of my books (not yet published) I drew heavily on my memory of those people, not just the way they spoke, but their mannerisms, beliefs, likes and dislikes. I found it a great advantage to have known them, and to have kept my ears open as a child and listened...and of course, importantly, remember all I learned from them.
Writers today have no such advantage, as all those people have passed on.

Good luck with your work.

Insect Overlord

DanMurphy wrote: »

A lot depends upon where in Ireland your piece is set, and what 'class' of folks will populate your work.
In my youth, (the 1950s/ 60s) lots of my neighbors/relatives were from the era your work is set in. They would have been born in the 18th century and early 19th century and were mostly country folk (s/w Ireland.

I assume you mean late 1800s/early 1900s rather than late 18th/early 19th century.

DanMurphy

Of course..

Mr.Nice Guy

Bob Z wrote: »

im writing a piece set 100 years ago but i was wondering if there was much difference in how people spoke back then? when you watch old period pieces or read literture they seemed to speak more formally and sometimes posher is this correct or a cliche?

A lot depends on the class position of the people. A lot of the literature would have been written by those with a formal education and the period pieces tend to focus on the middle or upper classes.

I like the idea of reading books from the period. James Joyce's books have a fair bit of Dublin slang in them. Also there's a novel by Liam O'Flaherty called The Informer, published in 1925 but based on 1920's Dublin after the Civil War, and as I recall there's a good bit of working class lingo in that. The main character in that book, Gypo Nolan, goes all over the city and speaks to a working girl, police, his friends etc.

Another option would be to check out the Dail debates which are all listed on the government websites and date back to 1919. The Treaty debates are up there and got pretty heated and might give you a sense of the way people used language.