Historically Speaking

Historically Speaking; 5 tips to getting started.

The most intimidating part of first person interpretation is speech. However, speaking in a historic manner does not need to be a overwhelming, uncomfortable task. There are a few small things that can be done to our regular speech patterns that will make us sound more historical to the public & will add an element of depth to our first person reenacting. Speaking historically isn't about adopting unnatural speech patterns or phrases, but about making those small alterations that are both convincing & easy! Remember that funny, false accents aren't needed to sound period correct. In fact, false accents are best left to stage actors who only have to say a few pre-planned lines, while we reenactors need to be able to speak freely while sounding historically correct.



1. Give everyone a title.

Adding Mr. or Mistress to the beginning of everyone's name is the quickest, easiest way to sound more period correct. Social lines were more formal in the Regency era and the use of proper titles helped to enforce that social division. If you don't know someone's last name, try adding a title to their first name. If you don't know their name at all, or if they are a member of the public, substitute other formal titles like Sir, Ma'am or even Friend. This applies to children as well as other adults. While it seems odd to call a young child “Young Master” it is very period appropriate, and the public children love it! The one exception to this is for those portraying servants. It is period appropriate for servants to be addressed only by their first names, by those they are serving. However, when in doubt, use a proper title. It's always safer to be more formal rather than less.

2. Formalize your greetings.

Try saying “good morning”, or greeting someone with “good day” rather than your usual “hi”. Not only is this a more period way of greeting, but it helps you keep track of what time of day it is. Formal greetings are also a good way to introduce an ethnic persona, without confusing those around you with a foreign language which they may not understand. Try greeting others with “bonjour” if you are portraying a Frenchman, or “guten tag” if your persona is German.

3. Eliminate modern slang.

No way, dude! Yes way! The first step to eliminating modern slang is to be aware of the words you use. Listen to yourself in daily life, record a phone conversation & listen for frequently used words. Once you've identified the modern words it's only a matter of hearing them in your head before you speak & changing them out for a period term. For example, I am terrible about saying “cool” when someone is showing me something. I have worked to replace that reflexive “cool” with “extraordinary”, a much more Regency word. For a while though “cool” would still come out, and I would correct myself out loud. I'm sure many thought I was a little nuts, always saying “cool...err...extraordinary”, but in the long run it has paid off. Now I hear the modern word in my head by my lips say the period one!

4. Eliminate contractions.

Speaking without contractions automatically makes you sound more formal even if it is a little uncomfortable at first. Like eliminating modern slang, eliminating contractions takes time & awareness of your own speech. It is just one a small change that leads to a big difference in the effectiveness of your first person speech and is well worth the added effort.

5. Learn a few key period phrases.

There are many Regency era term & phrases that we still use in our modern speech. It's not difficult to add these terms to our conversations since they already feel natural, yet they are also historically correct. Following are just a few terms of my favorite period terms, still in use today, to get you started.

1. babble: confused, unintelligible talk
2. To put the cart before the horse: to mention the last part of the story first.
3. To snivel: to cry
4. elbow room: sufficient space to act in.
5. go teach your granny to suck eggs: said to anyone as would instruct in a manner he knows better than themselves.
6. hell-cat: a termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman
7. rumpus: a riot, quarrel or confusion
8. to leak: to make water; to piss
9. down in the dumps: low spirited, melancholy.
10. windfall: a legacy or any accidental accession of property

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Works Cited:

Grosse, Francis. 1788. A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London: S. Hooper. Google Books Edition.

Rowlandson, Thomas. Veronica, a Breakfast Conversation, etching & engraving , 1786. (Lewis Walpole Library, New Haven, Connecticut). http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr05999

“You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, sir.”

A Guide to Proper Citations for Historic Bloggers.

It has been suggested recently that historic blogs should include proper citations of their research. The idea is to encourage good research techniques on the part of the writers, while also reassuring historic sites and museums that we writers respect their copyrighted property, be it a book, artifact or image.

While this is a great suggestion, which any of my regular readers will notice I've been practicing for several years, there is one glaring problem with the suggestion; the majority of bloggers don't have much, if any experience with proper citations! Frankly, unless you've spent years writing historic research or have been subjected to an anal retentive professor, most of us don't use citations in our daily lives. Adding to the problem are the sheer number of citation styles, from the more common Modern Language Association (MLA), American Physiological Association (APP), and Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) systems, to the specialized and obscure Bluebook style used in Law, Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) common in the United Kingdom, and the Vancouver System suggested for scientific and mathematical research. You could spend nearly as much time deciding how to cite your sources as you did finding them in the first place. It's enough to make even a dedicated researcher run for the hills!

As a way to aid my other blogging friends and encourage more writers to share references, I offer this simple citation guide specifically geared towards historic bloggers. This guide follows Chicago Manual of Style's Author-Date system, since this is both an easy system to use and remember while not overwhelming the typically shorter articles found on historic blogs. The information included within the text also encourages readers to notice the reference and increases the spreading of these important details.

There are two parts to a proper citation using Author-Date style, the shorter in text portion and the bibliography or works cited at the end of the article.

Quotations and The In Text Citation

Following any quotation within the text of your post include the author, editor or artists last name, the year of publication or creation and the page number in parenthesis. “This is the easy part” (Black, 2011) of in text citations. Quotations should be worked into the text of the sentence as much as possible rather than left free floating. The exception to this is longer quotations which comprise several sentences or even a full paragraph. While they too can be incorporated into the text, it is often easier to separate them from the main body as a block quote. Most citation styles have suggestions for how and when to use block quotations based on number of words or lines.

“a hundred words or more – or at least eight lines – are set off as a block quotation.” (Chicago Manual of Style, 2003, 447)

Whether to use block quotations in a blog entry is really a personal choice. Ultimately, it is the effect of the quotation and how the information is presented to the readers that matters more than any arbitrary rule. When in doubt, develop your own style and maintain that pattern through out all blog posts. This makes reading an article easy to follow and can even make writing them easier.

The Bibliography or Works Cited

At the end of any post include the full reference for each quotation in the appropriate format for the type of work being referenced. References should be listed in alphabetical order, however in shorter blog posts order of inclusion can also be acceptable. This is where things get a little tricky, especially considering the types of objects and information being referenced by most historic bloggers. Following are a few of the most common citations and variations specifically geared to the types of objects and media frequently used in blogs.

Book with one or more authors or editors:
Last name, First name of first author or editor, First Name, Last name of subsequent authors or editors. Year. “Chapter of the Book if used”, Book Title in italics. City of Publication: Name of Publisher. Web link if published electronically.

Article from Magazines, Newspapers or Journals:
Last name, First name of first author, First Name, Last name of subsequent authors. Year. “Title of Article”, Magazine or Journal Title in italics, date of magazine or publication for newspapers, edition number for journals or magazines if available: all pages of the article referenced. Web link if published electronically.

Website:
Last Name, First Name of websites author or Website title or Owner of website. “Title of web page,” Link to site (date accessed, optional).

Painting or image especially those found in an online source:
Last Name, First Name of artist. Title of Art Work in italics, medium, date of piece. (Name of institution where piece is housed, city where housed). Link to where the image was found.

Item in a Museum or Historic Collection especially those from online sources:
I have not been able to find any information on how to document an extant example from a museum collection. The following is a suggested format based on the method used for paintings and other artistic pieces. However, if anyone knows the proper way to cite an extant piece in Chicago style, please let me know and I will update this guide.

Last Name, First Name of artist or creator if available. Title or description of piece in italics, medium, date of piece. (Name of institution where piece is housed, city where housed). Link to where the object was found.

Paper, speech or presentation given at a conference or event:
Last Name, First Name of presenter or speaker. Year presented. “Title of presentation, speech or paper.” Paper presented at the Name of organization or event, City, state presentation was given, Month and date of presentation.

Hints:
** Dictionaries are cited like books with authors or editors.
** Online database, such as The Old Bailey, are best cited as websites, including a link to the database main page.
** Google books are cited like books, with a link to the Google books page.
** Hyperlinks are nice but do not stay with an article if it is copied into another form. To maintain the connection between information and references, it's best to use written citations with links as a bonus.

I hope this quick guide will help other historic bloggers to use proper citations in their entries and encourage the continued sharing of resources, research and references. While not exhaustive, most of the basics have been covered and of course, if anyone wants to read more on proper citations, you can always look up all the references in the works cited.

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Works cited:

"BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free." BibMe: Fast & Easy Bibliography Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago, Turabian - Free. http://www.bibme.org/

Bonnor, Thomas. Junius. Etching, 1770. (Lewis Walpole Library, New Haven, Connecticut). http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr02960

"Purdue OWL: Chicago Manual of Style 16th Edition ." Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/

"The Chicago Manual of Style Online: Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide." The Chicago Manual of Style Online. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html