dialect in novels

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:43 PM -0500 2/23/01, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>... Can you folks think of any
>>instance in which such eye-dialect flavor is not denigrating?
>
>There are borderline cases where it's sometimes not clear (at least to me)
>whether there is an intent to convey a certain pronunciation.
>
>Other borderline cases which are neutral include those where the variant
>spelling is long accepted, like the street sign saying "No Thru Traffic".
>
>The "pure" case of eye-dialect in fictional dialogue is nearly always
>denigratory (unless it's perhaps occasionally erroneous on the writer's
>part), since the only thing conveyed in the transcription is pronunciation
>and since the eye-dialect spelling adds no information about this. Thus
><<"I want likker," said Ike.>> describes exactly the same event as <<"I
>want liquor," said Ike.>>; the only difference is the misspelling (not by
>Ike, but by the author), which may be seen as equivalent to a footnote to
>the effect that the author believes Ike to be illiterate or nearly so
>(which opinion is not strictly relevant in most cases).
>
Yes, "likker" is another nice one.  Then--if Ike wants something to
wash down with it--there's "vittles" and "chitlins" for the very
misleadingly if traditionally spelled "victuals" and "chitterlings".

larry