Whether or not or no

[Brendan Carroll]

I write dialog for a bunch of guys who are well over 800 years old.  It would stand to reason that some of their dialog, phrases, by-words, word usage and such would be archaic.  One of the things that my beta readers have a great deal of trouble with is understanding when I put in archaic words or word usages, I am not making an error or a typo.
For example, people used to say "I like the haggis whether or no you do!"
My beta readers want me to say "I like the haggis whether or not you do!"

My question is to all the authors who have characters that use archaic terminology:  Do you get complaints from readers or beta readers about the use of archaic terminology or words?

[kookoo88]

A touch of it is fine.  Too much makes a story difficult and uncomfortable to read.  I would add maybe three to five touches of the archaic termanology for flavor.  You just need to give the average reader a feeling for how they are.  Be consistant with it too. 

I would also say if that's the only instance of the speech, leave it out.  If there's three or more instances of the character talking that way then you have the ability to create a pattern.

[Brendan Carroll]

You're right about frequency and consistency.  I usually assign a few archaic-isms to each of my characters and then try to use them from time to time to remind people of their age and where they came from.  It's another way of building character depth and color.  Most people don't want to look up words on every page, that's certainly true.

[scarlet]

If you're talking about haggis, I'd use "nae" instead of "no".  Your readers might take dialect better than "archaic". 

Actually, I don't understand what you mean by archaic.  Your characters talk however your characters talk, so as long as a character ALWAYS uses a certain phrasing, then it's fine.  But if it's inconsistent, you'll have problems.

As for your posted example, it's a common typo, so don't be put out by your beta readers pointing it out.  You might want to tell them that you're doing it intentionally before they start reading.

[KerylR]

I write dialog for a bunch of guys who are well over 800 years old.  It would stand to reason that some of their dialog, phrases, by-words, word usage and such would be archaic.  One of the things that my beta readers have a great deal of trouble with is understanding when I put in archaic words or word usages, I am not making an error or a typo.
For example, people used to say "I like the haggis whether or no you do!"
My beta readers want me to say "I like the haggis whether or not you do!"

My question is to all the authors who have characters that use archaic terminology:  Do you get complaints from readers or beta readers about the use of archaic terminology or words?

I haven't researched this, so if I'm off, I'm sorry.  But my understanding is when ye olde scot says "I like the haggis weather or no you do!"  He's actually saying weather or not you do, but his pronunciation drops the t.  Otherwise it would be weather or nae...

"I have nae care if ye like the haggis!  I dae, ye ken!"