Was it just me or did this dialect seem harder than dialects we have read before? Perhaps it’s because these works were longer than ones we’ve read before with thick African American dialect, perhaps I’m crazy, or perhaps it’s because the thick dialects we read before I think were all written by Mark Twain; as phenomenal as he is with all the dialects maybe having been written by someone who was part African American. Though most assuredly he didn’t speak that way, it seem like based on what we learned about him that he spent a lot of time around African Americans. As I said, this time it seemed more difficult to read and require a fair amount of focus to not get lost in all the apostrophes and different vowels, but I made it through and it was most assuredly easier to read than Middle-English.
Reading this much heavy dialect made me interested in a quick trial of my own accord to see if my version could even come near the perfection of those who actually lived among those with this dialect. Here goes nothing but a few lines (try not to laugh):
Ma sista saw ma ma’ tod’y, but mi ma’ neva’ cal’d mi, so th’n I sad, but lata she cal me to’, so then I ain’t got nothin’ to ‘plain ‘bout, since she wuz thinkin’ o’ me.
OMG that was so hard, the hardest part was trying to find ways to miss spell words that you can still sound out! I’m so impressed—seriously even if you’re around the dialect, Twain how did you know how to spell everything?!
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| In case you were wondering here is a breakdown of the current dialects of the States |
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| And another less specific |
The two stories today were definitely some of the hardest reading I've done so far for this class because of the dialect. I would be so focused on just figuring out WHAT the words were and what the characters were actually saying that I would lose track of the plot and have to go back. Now that I think about it (and thanks to your example), I think it would be just as difficult to write in dialect. You would have to be extremely conscious of the sounds of words and how to represent them. It definitely makes for interesting reading.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, the sheer amount of punctuation makes the reading difficult, too, so you were not alone in finding the reading difficult.
ReplyDeleteGood attempt at writing in dialect! Now I want to try it sometime!
ReplyDelete-Stefanie Eggers