dialect in novels

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 06:34 PM 2/22/01 -0500, you wrote:
>For current(ish) novels, "L.A. Confidential" by James Ellroy uses AAVEish
>stuff alot and a major plot line concerns racial politics, so it's
>interesting to see how the author constructed dialect.
>Some others that I don't remember very well include:
>Also, "A Man in Full" by Tom Wolfe
>"Cotton Comes to Harlem" by Chester Himes
>"Devil in a Blue Dress" by Walter Mosley
>"Nigger Heaven" by Carl Van Vecten
>
>Also, although not current, two MAJOR works should be kept in consideration:
>"Pudd'nhead Wilson" by Mark Twian
>"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
>These two are great for dialect.
>
>-dsb

But if the original writer wanted BAD examples of AAVE, works by both black
and white authors can be found.  I'm thinking of Zora Neale Hurston's
_Their Eyes Were Watching God_, which uses a very annoying "uh" for
"a"--like "wuz," totally unnecessary.

On Ebonics, I increasingly hear young African Americans use it as the label
of choice, for the dialect, not the controversy.

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm