eye dialect

[sagehen]

Herb Stahlkewrote:

>Auxiliary have brings up a variant on eye-dialect, one in which
>the spelling is conventional but the grammar not.  I come across
>"would of", "could of", etc. pretty regularly in student writing,
>and I've found it also in novels where the writer is portraying
>the speech of teenagers.  Since "third of" and "would have" end
>the same way phonetically, the substitution in our students' minds
>isn't surprising.  Using it to portray immature and perhaps less
>educated persons suggests some of the same demeaning intent that
>lies behind eye dialect.
<><><><>

I was just about to post on this very form of eye dialect, as I have done
elsewhere.  I find it very disagreeable.  I have seen it used in more than
just the context of teen-speak in fiction, and it always has the effect of
suggesting that the speaker is ignorant or careless, and  it has a nasty,
mocking snootiness about it.

Oddly, I have also seen what might be a hypercorrection of this fault in a
posted review of a book: "I think I sort've forget about him unless he's
brought to my attention. Then, I read him and go, 'Oh, yeah. I like him!'.
This book is sort've a police procedural, sort've suspense, sort've a
political mystery."
This could be a momentary mental lapse, or true confusion, of course.

I like the term "eye dialect," which I had never encountered before seeing
these recent posts.
A. Murie