I’m trying to find a very specific kind of scene in a book, and I’m having a hard time explaining it without people giving me examples that are almost what I mean, but not quite.
I’m looking for a novel where there is an explicit, recurring, and conscious back-and-forth between characters because of the way they speak. Not just “a character has an accent” or “people notice someone talks differently,” but actual dialogue where:
– one character pronounces a word or expression in their own regional way
– characters from the local region repeat it, correct it, imitate it, or contrast it with how they say it
– this difference is openly commented on inside the scene
– the interaction is playful or humorous (not just humiliation or sociolinguistic analysis)
– and, ideally, it happens more than once, becoming a small running joke or social game
The key point is that language itself becomes the subject of the interaction. The characters are aware of the difference and actively play with it. I’m not looking for something where accent is treated mainly as a problem to be fixed, or books where dialect is only there for “local color.”
I’m especially interested in situations where someone is in a region that isn’t originally theirs, and the clash of accents or pronunciations generates humor through explicit comparison (e.g., “you say it like this, we say it like that”).
If anyone knows a novel or even a very specific scene that truly matches this, I’d really appreciate it — even obscure or niche examples are welcome.
by davitinel_