Talking in Persona

One of the best ways to get in the spirit of the middle ages is to talk as your persona would. At the most simple level, this means dropping modernisms and speaking about topics from your character's time and place. It can be easy with a little practice.

First, an admission: We all realize that in the SCA, people are portraying personas from different time periods and geographical places. Vikings converse with Tudors, and Japanese people have curiously visited 12th-century Normans. Obviously this isn't realistic, but as long as we don't make an issue of it, there is no problem.

Likewise, nobody is expected to speak a foreign language or adopt an accent. If it pleases you, adding a few words from your persona's homeland or even a few archaic words into your dialog is nice. Just don't do it so much that this impedes understanding for everyone.

The idea is simply to talk about pre-1600 topics or at least disguise conversation in a pre-modern fashion. And have fun with it! Think of this as playing make-believe, a little bit of story-telling, and a pleasant form of entertainment.

Five Easy Tips for Talking in Period

1. Speak more slowly / think before you speak. Instead of blurting out a modern reply, pause thoughtfully, and give yourself time to formulate a more period-esque response.
   
   
2. Avoid contractions. "He's" should be "he is" and "isn't" should be "is not" -- this is a quick way to de-modernize your speech. This type of apostrophe use in English dates to the mid-16th century, and apostrophes were not used consistently for contractions until the 18th century.
   
   
3. Replace modern slang and jargon. If you frequently use words such as "cool," "sick," "like," "OK," etc., do a tiny bit of research in advance and memorize a more historical version. Online Etymology Dictionary is a quick tool to help find out how old many words are (if your local library has access to the Oxford English Dictionary, even better!).
   
   
4. Be courteous. Everything sounds better when you add phrases like "if it please, m'lady" or "by your leave, m'lord." Bonus points if you can remember who is "your grace" and "your excellency," but it is simple enough to call everyone "m'lord / m'lady" frequently.
   
   
5. Make stuff up! Have fun by telling stories. It is just perfectly fine if, for one day, your backstory is a little random and you mix up historical dates and facts. This is more in the spirit of our game than talking about work/school or how you found this great trim at Jo-Ann's while we're standing in a grassy field, wearing historical clothing, surrounded by medieval pavilions. Even meta-talk about historical research is not quite right -- instead of saying how you redacted a recipe for duck confit, invent a story about raising ducks! That is far more entertaining. SCA gossip isn't very period-esque either and can easily devolve into modern discussions.