Daniel Friedrich <s0152586@fhtw-berlin.de> wrote:

How do I best write a German accent?

Being german myself dosn't help any (it simply sounds too normal).

Vell, zhere is ze classic transleeterated Che'man ackzent... but as you
can see, this tends to give you something rather exaggerated and cheesy
unless you're extremely careful to do it in moderation.

There's also the comic book method (used with Nightcrawler of the X-men,
for example). In this, the character speaks normally except for
inserting German phrases here and there that the reader is likely to
know (or be able to figure out) the meaning of. "Professor, what's that
machine? Mein Gott! It's a thermonuclear bomb!" This gets the point
across, though it's a little unbelievable that a character would forget
how to say "My God!" in English, but remember "thermonuclear". :)

A realistic German accent would indeed sound pretty normal. If you want
to go this route, you might just have the character(s) speak normally,
but describe the accent as people listen. "It's a pleasure to meet you,"
he said, his voice betraying a trace of German accent. (Or better yet,
describe some of the differences in sounds specifically.)


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics