dialect in novels

[Natalie Maynor]

Bob Haas wrote:

> But vittles and chitlins--chitlins especially--seem to me to be different
> words from their more traditional forebears, victuals and chitterlings.
> I've heard chitlins all my life, but nary a chitterling.

I'd say chitterlings are to chitlins as crayfish to crawfish.  I've seen
the spellings chitterlings and crayfish, but I've never heard anybody
talk about eating them.  People eat chitlins and crawfish -- at least
in the South.  (I learned on another list a few years ago that some
Yankees say "crayfish."  I told them that saying that in a restaurant
around here would result in either incomprehension or laughter.
   --Natalie Maynor (maynor at ra.msstate.edu)